[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:
| Product Release Matrix | Creative Suite 4 | Creative Suite 5 |
|---|---|---|
| * Our estimate † Updated 4/23 to reflect latest intelligence | ||
| Preannounce Date | September 6, 2008 | March 23, 2010 |
| Official Launch Date and Event (with Pricing Out and Preorder Open) |
September 23, 2008 | April 12, 2010 |
| First Product Shipping Date (Full Release Date in English) |
October 15, 2008 | |
| Ship Date for Other Languages (e.g., French, German, Japanese) |
November 3, 2008 | |
| Downloadable Free Trials Available | November 10, 2008 | |
| New Student Editions Available | November 17, 2008 | |
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.]
son of a……
i JUST… not 5 minutes ago… purchased cs4 design premium. i cannot believe my luck. ive held out for months waiting for some news, and after checking this weekend, couldnt find anything. now, today, as i am actually installing… i run into this. just my luck.
Well such timing is always imperfect, but you’re not the only one – and CS4 is still a great release! (we use Web Premium here every day)
We’re putting together an article about the grace period, which Adobe has previously offered to those who purchased after the announcement of a major new product release, but before it shipped… But I don’t believe such a period has started yet for CS5 though, as it won’t officially be launched until next week.
If you like and if it helps, you can sign up for a chance to win a free copy of Photoshop CS5, a giveaway we just opened today!
Earlier than I thought, thanks for the explanation.
I too have been holding out and waiting for news, for the launch of cs5 – thank you.
Just chatted with adobe sales support. They confirmed that users who buy CS4 now will be entitled to free upgrade to CS5 when it ships. They also said this only applies to those who purchase through adobe.com but I don’t necessarily believe them… could have just been trying to make the sale.
Thank you Mike for your comment and confirmation. We just put up a new article on Adobe’s free upgrade grace period, which as you discovered is now in effect… From our conversation with Adobe, it’s valid for anybody who buys CS4 now or purchased it since April 12th, CS5’s official launch date. Our rep also says it works for purchases from authorized resellers as well as directly from the Adobe Store.
For some reason, I have a feeling Adobe will wait until after Labor Day for the student editions to ship
LOL, well I suppose anything is possible but we are going to stick with early-June at the latest. Functionally speaking, Adobe’s Student and Teacher Editions are identical to the Commercial versions – they just have different licensing/activation, packaging, and of course a significantly lower price. So it shouldn’t be a huge effort to issue them, and if Adobe waited too long after releasing the regular CS5 editions they could risk frustrating and losing customers.
@Tom, an update:
Per the latest story out this morning, the CS5 Academic Editions and Commercial versions (plus the trial downloads) will all be out the same day.
@parker
See if you qualify for the free update. You might fall in the timeframe.