A new version of Adobe Systems‘ Creative Suite software will go on sale this month, a launch that executives have billed as the most significant in the company’s 25-year history.
The software suite — which includes well-known programs such as Photoshop for photo editing and Dreamweaver for web design — is popular with videographers, graphic designers and artists in print, web, mobile and film media.
Creative Suite 3 includes features to integrate further multimedia into websites and cellphones — a key strategy as Adobe tries to expand from its core base of artists and designers.
Already, its Flash player software is used to display videos on Google’s YouTube, News Corporation’s MySpace and other sites.
Adobe will offer six versions of the full suite, with suggested retail prices from $1 599 to $2 499 (about R11 600 to R18 100). Customers will also be able to buy individual upgrades on 13 standalone applications, including Photoshop CS3, Illustrator CS3, Flash CS3 Professional, Dreamweaver CS3, Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 and After Effects CS3.
Most of the Creative Suite 3 editions will be available for computers running Microsoft’s Windows XP and Vista operating systems, and Apple computers.
CS3’s prices may seem steep compared with other shrink-wrapped software. But Adobe customers — particularly graphic and video artists with deep-pocketed corporate clients — spend money relatively liberally compared with average software buyers, chief executive Bruce Chizen said.
”Our customer is not typically price sensitive,” Chizen said last week. ”The cost of the tool isn’t what’s critical — it’s the productivity and what their output can be. They want to pay for value as long as we deliver innovative features that allow them to be more productive and creative.”
San Jose-based Adobe, which was founded in 1982 and acquired Macromedia in 2005, is in the midst of launching several major products. Last week, it began online distribution of the first public alpha version of Apollo, corporate software for web developers that is already in use at eBay and elsewhere. — Sapa-AP