Adobe CS 5.5 : New Pricing and Updates

Adobe has released an interim upgrade to its various Creative Suites; but more importantly changed its update policy and pricing schedule. The driver according to Adobe is the fast rate of development in the mobile space – and so as can be seen below the major changes are in Web and mobile targetting products:
Updated products from the Master Collection:
Indesign5.5 – adds Folio, Articles, and HTML/EPub conversions plus Adobe Cloud Publishing
Flash Pro 5.5 – more+multiple device targets, better control of image sizing and layers.
Flash Builder 4.5 – many new features: new Widgeting for data display/presentation, tighter sync with Flash Catalyst, PHP tooling, more Android, iOS, and Blackberry device support, etc.
Flash Catalyst 5.5 – big upgrade: tighter FC to/fro FB sync, resizable apps+components, enhanced timelines, improved library panels, roster of user requested upgrades.
Dreamweaver 5.5 – full of goodies: HTML5/CSS3 support, multiple mobile screen preview/development, jQuery mobile, PhoneGap for HTML to native iOS+ Android apps, Abobe BrowserLab integration.
Premiere Pro 5.5 – chock full of goodies: RED + Canon XF support, improved video editing, tighter integration with Adobe Audition+ Story, direct edit collaboration, Mercury performance enhanced, easier clip merging, multiple device+codec outputs.
After Effects 5.5 – light falloff, 3D workflow, warp stabilizer, camera lens effects
Audition 5.5 – Native 5.1 Multichannel, sync with Premiere Pro, runs natively in Mac OS/X
Device Central 5.5 – numerous new tie-ins with CS5.5 products .
Media Encoder 5.5 – improved encoding for a variety of video and media formats.
The Products Not Updated in CS 5.5
Photoshop 5, Illustrator 5, Fireworks 5, Encore 5, Bridge 5, Contribute 5, On Location 5

As you can see from the above listing, most of the update action has taken place  in the media and web facing products while the least has taken for the graphics design tools – notably no update to Photoshop nor Illustrator. And the biggest improvements are concentrated around Flash and its suport tools. There is a reason for this. Steve Jobs unjustified  trashing of Flash has had effect – there has been a  3-4% drop in use of  Flash  on the top 17,000 websites [again depending on how you read the figures].  Adobe management will want to reverse this trend ASAP lest Flash take the same downward spiral that IE browser has suffered.

Biggest News Monthly Rates and Yearly Updates

Adobe is pledging a new update cycle of 24 months for the complete product line and selected , high technical change products subject to 12 moth interim refreshes as in the CS5.5 update cycle. This is a realization that agile development is required in a fast moving software market.

Even more intresting is the the availability of individual and Suite tools on a monthly rental basis – Abobe calls it Pay As You Go. For example, Dreamweaver 5.5  can be had for $29/month  on a month to month rent or $19/month for a  full year rental. Design Premium 5.5 comes in at $139 month to month or $95/month on a yearly rental. See here for all the details. Adobe has been hinting at monthly rents with its CSLive Service which is currently free to April of 2012, but after that BrowserLab,  Adobe Story and other Cloud Services will be also be charged on a monthly and yearly rental basis.

As more development and services move to the cloud, expect software vendors to be watching Adobe’s success or otherwise very closely on the mix of software pricing model. Some vendors like SAS in statistics are already on this model and just every major software vendor for  is on it for support. But the gradual extinguishing of the ability to pay a one time fee for a product is the Apple of all software vendors eyes.