Did they ever consider CS4 does not offer value for the price?

how many users really need to get cs4 after just purchasing cs3? the upgrade to cs4 is just too expensive.

Agreed - all of their CS products are overpriced (and often bloated). If they want to improve sales. halve the prices. Even the academic versions cost too much.

At over $800 for the Canadian web premium upgrade, it strikes me as overpriced, and I know of many designers here who are more experienced and profitable than me who feel the same way. Too soon after CS3's release, and not enough new features to justify the price.

Okay, I strongly disagree. DW, Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator are wonderful programs and worth every penny.

The problem is the executives who decide to limit innovation on each release so they can spread it out, or the executives who squash innovative approaches to art. There is so much they could do to integrate Flash with Illustrator, making them seemless, but they won't.

I would love to animate my illustrator artwork from within illustrator, and not go through a clunky export process that flattens my layers and forces me to lose detail.

Or after I "export it" if I want to refine it, I won't be stuck using Flash's obtuse and inaccurate drawing tools.

Same thing with using Photoshop and Dreamweaver. Let me edit web photos fully within dreamweaver, even allowing me to direclty access photoshop cammands.

BUT NO....

That being said, the suite is still the best of the best. Nothing compares.

Spry is a good AJAX framework, and I have tried Illustrator wannabe's, and they are all miserable.

I think CS4 is most definitely overpriced, and their arrogant pricing (plus Quark's dismal behavior as a worthy competitor) has made this company the Microsoft of the design world. Perhaps they will decide to increase revenues and start offering some reasonable sales for their upgrades.That said, I will be upgrading to 4 at some point, as even though 3 just came out it seems yesterday, this IS a worthy upgrade for the features that i use (may not be the ones important to everyone, understood). But when I saw the price of the upgrade, I held off. And Adobe, you should be listening. I don't think I'm alone in holding off on something you've made a very big purchase.I have to say I have little sympathy for Adobe the company, but the 600 people don't deserve suffer just before the holidays.

I think CS4 is most definitely overpriced, and their arrogant pricing (plus Quark's dismal behavior as a worthy competitor) has made this company the Microsoft of the design world.

Perhaps they will decide to increase revenues and start offering some reasonable sales for their upgrades.

That said, I will be upgrading to 4 very soon, as even though 3 just came out it seems yesterday, this IS a worthy upgrade for the features that i use (may not be the ones important to everyone, understood). But when I saw the price of the upgrade, I held off. And Adobe, you should be listening. I don't think I'm alone in holding off on something you've made a very big purchase.

I have to say I have little sympathy for Adobe the company, but the 600 people don't deserve suffer just before the holidays.

I think CS4 is most definitely overpriced, and their arrogant pricing (plus Quark's dismal behavior as a worthy competitor) has made this company the Microsoft of the design world.

Perhaps they will decide to increase revenues and start offering some reasonable sales for their upgrades.

That said, I will be upgrading to 4 at some point, as even though 3 just came out it seems yesterday, this IS a worthy upgrade for the features that i use (may not be the ones important to everyone, understood). But when I saw the price of the upgrade, I held off. And Adobe, you should be listening. I don't think I'm alone in holding off on something you've made a very big purchase.

I have to say I have little sympathy for Adobe the company, but the 600 people don't deserve suffer just before the holidays.

oops.

Adobe CS4 is (i'm sure) value delivered for the upgrade price from CS3. The problem is not the price or the value. The problem is that CS3 is already so good that it meets most people's needs.

Another slight detail -- many people don't have the money at the moment, and sad to say I am one of them. I didn't even LOOK at the upgrade pricing from CS3 because I knew it had to be roughly $600 US.

I definitely plan to upgrade to CS4. I just don't know exactly when, but the way things are going, probably around next September.