March 27, 2007 Adobe Announces Creative Suite 3
Today Adobe announced Creative Suite 3. The accompanying product matrix makes even Microsoft’s Windows Vista version grid look simple. It’s a mess to sort out, even for a veteran Adobe user.
Visiting the product page I thought to myself, “it would be nice if they offered some sort of ‘select the products you use/need and we’ll show you which package to buy’ feature.” Further exploration revealed a handy Product Selector applet (Flash, of course) that seemed to fit the bill perfectly. Unfortunately, as soon as it was done pre-loading I realized it fell short; offering areas of design, rather than specific products for use.
I think, Adobe, it’s safe to assume the majority of your consumers know which products they need already.
Needless to say, I attempted to fill out the “questionnaire” anyway — curious what product package would be recommended for my somewhat unique requirements. Here’s what I checked:
- “Graphic design” — since I design graphics
- “Print publishing” — since sometimes I design graphics for print
- “Illustration” — since this probably collates to Illustrator, and I need that for certain projects (including logo design, grey-box layouts, etc.)
- “Web/interactive design” — since that’s what I do
- Not “Web development” — since I don’t need an Adobe product to write code
- “User interface design” — since that, too, is what I do
- “Mobile development” — since Mobile is the new New
- “Photography” — since I take photos
- “Image editing and compositing” — since that’s what, uh, Photoshop is for
- “Motion graphics / visual effects” — since on occasion I create motion graphic menus and intros for various video projects
- “Interactive / multimedia” — since, as I said, sometimes I delve into video graphics
What was suggested? Of course! The mamma-jamma Master Collection, retailing for $2,500, with an upgrade cost for me (with my CS2 Standard license) of $1,999.
Let’s look at what I’d get with the Master Collection … no, better yet, let’s look at what I don’t need, but would still get with it:
- Adobe InDesign CS3
- Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional
- Adobe Dreamweaver CS3
- Adobe Fireworks CS3
- Adobe Contribute CS3
- Adobe Premier Pro CS3
- Adobe Soundbooth CS3
- Adobe Encore CS3
… not to mention the various “shared features” I don’t use or need, such as Version Cue, Device Central, Acrobat Connect, Dynamic Link, etc.
Maybe I’ll just upgrade Photoshop.