So, you’ve been getting along fine for the last few years on CS4 or older but plan on upgrading to CS6 when it comes out next year? Think again…
According to this blog post by Adobe http://blogs.adobe.com/conversations/2011/11/adobe-creative-cloud-and-adobe-creative-suite-new-choices-for-customers.html?PID=2159997 you will be required to have CS5 or CS5.5 in order to upgrade to CS6. *Whoa, wait a minute!* Do they expect everyone to run out and upgrade to the CURRENT version just so they can purchase the UPGRADE in a few months? What a waste…
I see this as a little greedy on Adobes part. After all, how many people have been using the older version because they can’t afford to upgrade to the current version every year or two? (Considering the cost of the suite, it’s simply not practical for some people to keep it up-to-date every time they release an upgrade.) I can understand that they could clearly stand to profit from it because upgrading from several versions back at a discounted price is somewhat “unfair” for them as well. But why not just have a tier based discount, giving current version users the best discount and older versions a slightly reduced discount rather than forcing them to keep their versions up-to-date?
For what it’s worth, I’ve been using and supporting Adobe products since Photoshop was in it’s infancy, clear back to the early 1990′s. (Yes, Photoshop is over 20 years old now!) And I know so many other people have been doing the same. Heck, I’m currently using CS5, but not everyone is, nor can afford to keep upgrading their software every year or two. (Which often requires new hardware to keep up with the “improved” versions.) While Adobe does offer student discounts and such, I don’t see this change helping them sell more copies or upgrades. In contrast, I suspect this will only encourage more people to download hacked versions and thus costing Adobe money in the long run. (Seems counter productive to me, but I’m only a business student still so…)
Will Adobe fold like Bank of America did recently after announcing a $5 monthly service fee for “using” a debit card? Hopefully they will reconsider. More so after people like the well known Scott Kelby and others have voiced their feedback directly to Adobe about their concerns. (Adobe doesn’t listen to me yet, but I’m not a published master of Photoshop making a living essentially selling their products for them either.)
In any case, I think the more people that KNOW about this and voice their opinion to Adobe, the more likely they will reconsider and allow users to continue to upgrade from ANY version of the software without penalty.
