[UPDATE (May 6th) – Major news out: Adobe Unveils New “CC” Release (CS7)…]
Based on recent indications from Adobe, we expect a new release of Creative Suite and/or Creative Cloud to be unveiled at their big annual MAX Conference on May 6th, just a few weeks away…
Historically during times like these, the company has set a “grace period” or grandfather offer to provide free upgrades to the next versions for customers buying the older software around the time of new releases – and in fact, such an “Upgrade Assurance promotion” deal was announced for CS6 in March of last year.
However, no such announcement has been forthcoming this year, perhaps due to the advent of Creative Cloud – where all paid members already receive all product updates and upgrades at no additional charge as soon as they are available.
But no matter – you can actually create your own grace period now, whether one officially exists or not.
The key is in awareness of Adobe’s longstanding Software Return/Exchange Policy – whereby you can return your purchase to them within 30 days and they will grant you a full refund, no questions asked. This is possible even if you’ve already opened, installed, activated, and started using your product – and can be done quickly over live online chat with their customer service team.
(The best part is nothing ever has to be returned physically, because the product returns all happen electronically through deactivation of software license keys.)
So, if you buy something today (either CS6 or Creative Cloud, full or upgrade) – but new information or a newer version comes out within 30 days from now to change your decision – then you can easily return whatever you bought and get something else instead, no problem.
In a nutshell, this automatic protection means you can move forward with confidence and get started with your software today and not have to worry about what happens on May 6th, because you now have an “insurance policy” if you should change your mind or see something better then.
Naturally, the other options are to use the 30-day free trial downloads – or a go with month-to-month Cloud subscription to retain flexibility and see what happens, rather than make a fixed full purchase now that may soon become obsolete.
If you’ve been thinking about going with the Cloud, Adobe says:
The new version‘s release date has not been announced, but there is a great way to get yourself to the front of the line. If you join Creative Cloud now, you will immediately receive the entire stable of currently shipping CS6 applications AND you will automatically receive the new versions of all your favorite Adobe applications as soon as they are available.”
Either way you decide, you can read more on the details of Adobe’s Return Policy to assure yourself, then go for it!
Give your input before it ships – what would you like to see in CS7? Share your thoughts below or on Adobe’s official feature request “wishlist”…
See Also
- Free Adobe Stock! Download 1,000,000+ top images
- What are the differences between Adobe CC vs. CS6?
- Download free Adobe books (choose over 30 titles)
- How to join Adobe’s Creative Cloud for free
- Free Adobe CS6 Tutorials – 30 hours of video training
- The 10 most common myths about Creative Cloud
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Apparently this is false information according to your live chat site people. I am not impressed.
No free upgrade to CS7??
Hi Walter, sorry for any misunderstanding. There is no official offer from Adobe for a free upgrade to Creative Suite 7, and we don’t expect there to be one actually.
However, the article above describes how you can effectively use Adobe’s Return Policy to create your own “grace period” for whatever you buy – so that if something better or different comes along within 30 days, then you can simply exchange what you bought for the new option instead… Knowing this can provide some insurance for your purchase now.
Hope that helps, if you read the post again with this in mind.
Here’s my situation. We have some users on CS 5.0 and some on 5.5. I’m looking for the correct time to upgrade to CS6.5 that will also give me a copy of 6.0.
Assuming I decide to stay with the non-cloud products, if that’s still possible, if I wait for the announcement on May 6th, will that be too late to actually purchase the 6.0 upgrade (will that announcement be the 6.5 shipping date)?
Or will there be some time between May 6th and the actual ship date where I can upgrade to 6.0 and get a free upgrade to 6.5 when it ships? Or would it be better upgrade just before May 6th, and hope I’m inside the grace period.
Your suggestion of upgrading and returning it doesn’t apply to me because we would want to keep 6.0.
Thanks
That’s a terrific question Jamie, and a common one about upgrading this time of year. In the past, people have taken advantage of an official grace period to get both the current version and the new release at the same time – to wind up with both for one price, effectively. That’s what happened with CS5.5 going to CS6, actually – and we advised about it here.
However, you’ll notice that Adobe has made no such announcement this spring. No indication as to why, but our sense is that the Creative Cloud may have changed the equation.
In other words, someone who wants both CS6 and CS7 can just get the Cloud now – because as we discussed elsewhere, current CC members will wind up with both releases.
So our best advice to you would be to pretend like a grace period doesn’t exist this year, because so far one doesn’t. It may be that Adobe puts one in place on May 6th, but that’s pure speculation and there’s no way to know what will happen.
That’s why the message of this article is to use Adobe’s longtime Return Policy in your favor. So go with a decision now to be safe and cover your bases – and then you can always change your mind later if you want, depending on what is announced within the next 30 days.
Hope this helps!
@ Walter Nussbaumer
Ok, Adobe stated that there were “new” tools for CS6 when one subscribed to Creative Cloud that are not available to regular CS6 users. My question is which tools are they referring to, and now that I am a Cloud user, where do I find them?
Hello again Walter, this should help:
What Are Differences Between Free vs. Paid Versions of Creative Cloud?
I realize the differences, I have paid for the Cloud, but do not see any diiferences in my CS6 version from what I already had
Walter, now that you’ve joined, try running the Adobe Application Manager on your system – or just go to Help > Updates on one of your CS6 applications to pull the Cloud updates.