MARCH 2007

Creative Suite 3: Adobe's largest rollout

by Kurt Foss, Editor, AcrobatUsers.com

During the March 20 Q1 Earnings conference call with industry analysts and select media, Adobe Systems executives plugged the upcoming "largest product release in the company's 25-year history" numerous times.

Pressed for a few details, Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen said the unveiling--which features a special online celebratory event--will showcase the introduction of "13 new applications, 19 different product configurations, seven technologies that cut across all of those applications, and two new services."

Want to know more about the rollout of Creative Suite 3? Good news: The wait is over. Today (March 27) is CS3 day, including the webcast of the official launch from New York at 3:30 EDT.

Here's a quick look at the highlights, configurations and expected releases:

Six all-new CS3 editions, including:

• Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium (US$1799) will begin shipping in April 2007
• Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Standard - will begin shipping in April 2007
• Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium (US$1599) - will begin shipping in April 2007
• Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Standard - will begin shipping in April 2007
• Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium (US$1699) - will begin shipping worldwide in the third quarter of 2007
• Adobe Creative Suite Master Collection (US$2499) - will begin shipping worldwide in the third quarter of 2007

Full-version, stand-alone upgrades of thirteen Adobe applications, including:

• Adobe Photoshop CS3
• Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended
• Adobe InDesign CS3
• Adobe Illustrator CS3
• Adobe Flash CS3 Professional
• Adobe Dreamweaver CS3
• Adobe Adobe Premiere Pro CS3
• Adobe After Effects CS3

Acrobat 8 is included in CS3 Design Premium, Design Standard, Web Premium and Master Collection editions. Chizen noted that it's quite possible that some potential customers put off purchases of Acrobat 8, which began shipping last fall, in anticipation of the new CS3 upgrades and bundles.

"Keep in mind that for any creative professionals that stalled or deferred their purchases of the Creative Suite until the new version is available," he said, "they would more than likely also stall their purchase of any product associated with the suite, including Acrobat. So it is possible that many of our Creative Professional customers have not yet upgraded to Acrobat 8 and are waiting for the releases of the CS3 skues."

Count Apple Macintosh enthusiasts as among those who've been eagerly awaiting the next incarnation of Creative Suite, which will include Universal Binary versions of key Adobe applications such as Photoshop and InDesign that have lagged in being updated to run natively on the new Intel-based Macintoshes. CS3 will include two versions of Photoshop.

While Acrobat had its second-best-ever quarter in Q1, Shantanu Narayen, president and COO, told analysts that another possible cause of delayed Q1 purchases was in part due to issues related to a new electronic licensing management solution--called Adobe License Manager--that was introduced for the enterprise in Acrobat 8. Adobe recently decided to disable the licensing manager.

For full details on the CS3 products and releases, browse the multitude of new documents on Adobe.com and visit the online Adobe store.

Some analysts inquired whether such a complex release would create logistical and marketing challenges for Adobe. Chizen nixed the concerns.

"Regarding CS3, we've had about a year and a half to get this right," he said. "I can assure you that we have gotten it right--it's well-planned and well-thought-out."

Reason to celebrate (www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/launchevent/)!

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