Late last week we received these two inquiries via our Contact page:

“Could you please provide a proposed release date for CS6 Design Premium software? I can’t see anywhere on your site where this is mentioned except for the U-turn regarding upgrade policy from earlier versions.”

“I have a budget meeting tomorrow and need to know the approximate release date and projected cost of the CS5 to CS6 Master Collection Suite upgrade.”

So, this is something people really want to know now.  And we have written about it before, giving clues in posts here as far back as March and July of last year…

But it’s clearly time for an update.

Even today, we wish we could give you exact dates and numbers for those questions, but Adobe hasn’t publicly disclosed that information – and likely won’t until CS6 is launched… However, we can make a best estimate of the possible timing for the Creative Suite 6 release window.

On Adobe’s site now there is a document referencing the new CS Release Schedule.  Here are a few of the key elements contained within this Message Summary:

Read more…

[UPDATE (Jan. 11th) – Adobe relents, says upgrade discounts to CS6 from CS4 & CS3 are back!]

Adobe has publicly confirmed what they’ve been hinting for a while now: a new annual release schedule for the Creative Suite – with milestone releases in even years, and mid-cycle releases in odd years.  The shift comes as the technology world turns faster from the previous cycles of 18-24 months historically.

Adobe didn’t actually say what future CS versions would be named or called – but for the sake of simplicity, let’s presume they continue with the established trend…

This means after CS5 in 2010, and CS5.5 in 2011, we could reasonably expect CS6 to be coming out in 2012, CS6.5 in 2013, CS7 in 2014, and so on.

They also gave guidance on “when” during each year, the expected timing for the launches… What’s more (and importantly), Adobe Photoshop will be getting a significant upgrade in CS6, after relatively minor updates for CS5.5.

Read on below for the specific details from the recent conference call and subsequent question and answer session… Or just read the full transcript.

Read more…

Three weeks after its official introduction, Adobe this morning has released Creative Suite 5.5, with major upgrades for mobile, publishing, HTML5, video, audio, and Flash. The CS5.5 configurations are similar to CS5 and the product prices are the same. The new software is available immediately for Windows and Mac via full purchase or discounted upgrade (from as far back as CS2), with delivery via boxed shipment or instant download.

Adobe has simultaneously made CS5.5 free trials available for download (with the new Adobe Download Assistant app). These trials are fully-functional for 30 days and work side-by-side with any previous version(s) of the Creative Suite, including CS5. If you decide not to buy CS5.5 when the trial period is up, you can just uninstall it and your older software will continue to run – while buyers can easily convert their trial to permanent use without reinstalling the software. For upgrades, you can install a trial and then buy an upgrade to convert your trial into a purchased version. (For more informa­tion, refer to the complete Trial FAQ.)

If you have any difficulty with that process, you can instead use the direct download links to get the Adobe CS5.5 trials without the Download Assistant.

The CS5.5 Student & Teacher Editions are also now shipping. These offer up to 80% off the regular prices for education customers including students, teachers, and academic staff. Just be sure you know the key differences between Adobe’s academic versions vs. regular.

Read more…

Yes – Adobe CS5.5 has just been announced with all the details… Pretty much on the time­frame we forecast, you can learn about and order any of the new products or suite editions, or download a free CS5.5 trial. And while the version and software have changed, the boxes look much the same as before.

For this “mid-cycle release” coming one year after CS5 first arrived, Adobe is offer­ing similar configurations and prices, but with most of the individual products receiving additional features, enhanced functionality, updated technol­ogies, or nice performance boosts.

Overall we present some highlights here, but see our two companion “what’s new” articles for: (1) an overview of the key differences between CS5 and CS5.5, including what’s been added and what’s been taken away, and (2) a detailed product-by-product review of the significant new features and enhancements in CS5.5.

Read more…

Adobe has just unveiled Creative Suite 5.5 – and one of the upgrade questions people are asking is what’s new, what’s different, what’s changed in CS5.5 as compared to previous version(s)? So our job here is to give you a quick “cheat sheet,” or guide to the updates. Adobe calls it “the most compelling release yet” and these kinds of answers can help decide about upgrading…

You may be wondering, why a Creative Suite 5.5? What happened to CS6? See what Adobe’s CEO says about it, or read our launch overview… You might also be interested to know that a CS6 release won’t be out until a long time from now.

CS5.5 updates most of the individual products, but not all… The 11 upgraded applications are: InDesign, Dreamweaver, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Flash Pro, Flash Catalyst, Flash Builder, Audition, Acrobat X Pro, Media Encoder, and Device Central.   Learn more about the new features added to these applications in detail, with our special coverage.

The CS5 tools not revisioned to CS5.5 are Photoshop (Extended), Illustrator, Fireworks, and Contribute.

While Photoshop officially remains at CS5, there is a new Photoshop Touch SDK (Software Development Kit) that allows developers to create companion apps for desktop and mobile use… Read about 3 of the coming tablet apps, or find out more and see a demo of the new Photoshop functions running on the Apple iPad and Motorola Xoom.

Read more…

Adobe today has launched Creative Suite 5.5 and we just took a high-level look at how CS5.5 is different from CS5 – and so now here we’ll step through the significant new features at an individual product level, product-by-product…

The upgraded applications and their key new functionalities are detailed below. If you’re coming from further back and would like to know the differences between older versions – like an upgrade from Adobe CS4 to CS5.5, or from CS3 to CS5.5 – the last section will also help.

Major Changes to the Creative Suite Products

• What’s New in Photoshop CS5.1?
• What’s New in InDesign CS5.5?
• What’s New in Dreamweaver CS5.5?
• What’s New in Flash Professional CS5.5?
• What’s New in Flash Catalyst CS5.5?
• What’s New in Flash Builder 4.5?
• What’s New in Premiere Pro CS5.5?
• What’s New in After Effects CS5.5?
• What’s New in Audition CS5.5?
• What’s New in Acrobat X Pro?
• And Illustrator, Fireworks, Contribute CS5?
• What’s New in the CS5.5 Suite Editions?
• Differences from Older Releases (CS3 & CS4)?

Read more…

Similar to how they did before the launch of CS5, Adobe has been quietly slipping out a bevy of “sneaks” (now numbering 16 videos) for new features that may be in a forthcoming release of the Creative Suite…

“Check out what new technologies, features and innovations the Adobe product teams are working on behind the scenes. Stay tuned to get an early glimpse of what could be next from Adobe.”

The products covered include: InDesign, Dreamweaver, After Effects, Premiere Pro, Audition, Adobe Story, Media Encoder, Flex, Flash Pro, Flash Builder and Flash Catalyst.

Given the recent news of a “mid-cycle release to CS5″ (e.g., CS5.5), and a forecast for when CS6 could be out, one question might be in which future version might we see these new capabilities?

Well, Adobe tips their hand once again – because at the end of a couple of these videos they flash the graphic, “CS5 is Evolving: April 11th, 2011″……
Which says to us, you might expect some of these features soon, in fact you might expect more about them next week!

The company has scheduled a special session with Creative Suite Evangelists on Monday, and is tweeting: “CS5 is getting even better. Stay tuned to #Adobe.com on 4/11, and join this Q&A“

Read more…

[UPDATE (Jan. 11th) – Adobe relents, says upgrade discounts to CS6 from CS4 & CS3 are back!]

It’s common for folks to want a sense for when Adobe’s new releases of Creative Suite are coming out. And we’ve covered this topic before for CS5, ahead of its launch date.

But regarding the future now…

On Tuesday much was shared, as we learned Adobe is preparing a “mid-cycle release to CS5,” which will be available later this year is out now (CS5.5).

On the same publicly-available conference call, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen also gave some guidance on the possible roadmap for the company’s CS products going forward… And the news is: the CS5 cycle still has a lot of time and runway left:

Read more…

Yes, CS5 is out! It looks like a phenomenal release, and we have full coverage – including new products, pricing, configurations, system reqs, videos, “what’s new” feature lists, and more:

• Creative Suite 5 Product Overview  
• CS5 Full Product Configuration Matrix
• CS5 Complete System Requirements
• CS5 Pricing for Commercial and Education
• What’s New in Photoshop CS5  
• What’s New in Dreamweaver CS5  
• What’s New in Illustrator CS5  
• What’s New in InDesign CS5  
• What’s New in Flash Pro CS5  
• All About New Flash Catalyst CS5  
• What’s New in Contribute CS5
• What’s New in Premiere Pro CS5  
• What’s New in After Effects CS5  

ALL CS5 products are immediately available for purchase and instant download, with free shipping on all Adobe orders over €500/£350 in Europe and the U.K. (no coupon or promo code is required)…

On Adobe’s site: If you’re considering upgrading from your current software, here’s a helpful upgrade guide. Also new is an excellent FAQ covering purchasing policies and key product changes… The online documentation for all CS5 products also just went up.

Lastly and importantly, the CS5 free trial downloads and Student and Teacher Editions
(up to 80% off) are also now available!

[UPDATE (May 13th) – Adobe CS5 is now shipping and downloadable in 16 languages: English, French, German, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Czech, Polish, Russian, and Korean.]

[UPDATE (April 30th) – CS5 is now shipping!]

As you may have heard, Creative Suite 5 will be launched on April 12 with a big rollout event that Adobe anticipates over 200,000 people to sign up and attend… So we’ll all learn about what’s coming – but we won’t be able to use or download the software yet – for that we have to wait further. But when will that happen? Well, there’s a lot of mis­information and stray guesses out there about when the shipping date(s) will be, so we thought it might be instructive to take a look at exactly how things happened last time for CS4, eighteen months ago…

So here is our analysis on what CS5′s important dates will be, if the CS4 model is followed – although please note these are our own working estimates and not from Adobe:

Confirming this analysis to some extent comes actual word from Adobe, although not widely disseminated… Buried deep inside a transcript of last week’s first-quarter earnings conference call, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen was quoted as saying in response to an analyst’s question about the availability of CS5:

I know there’s been some confusion about what we mean by “launch” versus what we mean by “ship.” On April 12th, we’ll talk a lot more about the new features and function­alities of the suites, the various product configurations, and what we’ve done with pricing. We have some new products which will factor into the pricing moving forward. And then traditionally, four weeks later or so, you tend to ship the English version followed by the major language versions a few weeks after that. The early feedback has been very positive.

So there you have it – hopefully installing in May. Now the next most commonly-asked question out there is, “if I buy CS4 now, will I get a free upgrade when CS5 ships?” Also known as the Adobe free upgrade “grace period” question… We’ll cover that in a coming article.

[UPDATE (May 6th) – Adobe CS5 French and German versions are now available / Français Maintenant Disponible / Deutsch Jetzt Verfügbar]
[UPDATE (May 10th) – CS5 is now also shipping and downloadable in Japanese, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, and Portuguese.]