with their bread and butter industry shrinking, they will be losing more money. price is a big factor. they should make a home and student version of their apps, less people will steal it. Microsoft learned a lesson with doing that.

Couldn't happen any sooner...Adobe has for years enjoyed a near-monopoly status in certain segments of the software market, just adding c*** to its flagship offerings and selling them at a premium...it has also ignored Apple in its projects and upgrades, even if Cupertino is the sole responsible for Adobe's success and relevance nowadays with the desktop publishing revolution. Perhaps this will teach them some humility and make Adobe trim the bloat of its increasingly low-quality apps and technologies.

Agreed. They really need separate prices for small developers, but I've been raising that flag for a while. The counter-argument is always that "freelance jobs pay for the software in no time", but many developers work FT jobs and experiment on the side. I'd imagine most of these people end up pirating the software.

just what they need is another product tier.
Let's see, do I want CS4 design premium, design premium home, design premium student, design premium developer,
or do I want design standard, design standard home, design standard student, design standard developer,
or do I want design web premium, design web premium home, design web premium student, design web premium, developer,
or do I want,..

just what they need is another product tier.
Let's see, do I want CS4 design premium, design premium home, design premium student, design premium developer,
or do I want design standard, design standard home, design standard student, design standard developer,
or do I want design web premium, design web premium home, design web premium student, design web premium developer,
or do I want,..

damn double posts!

First, a few points of clarification:

1. Adobe is not losing money. We're making money, but like any smart business in these times we're working hard to find ways to SAVE money as well.

2. I don't think anybody in their right mind seriously things Adobe owes all of its success to Apple. These two companies have a long and intertwined history, but there were multiple players. Apple brought he Mac and the LaserWriter. Aldus brought PageMaker to the table. Adobe brought fonts and PostScript. That was 25 years ago and a lot has changed since then, but if you actually want to understand the history, read a book called "Inside the Publishing Revolution." It's a good book and you could probably learn a lot.

As for the constructive suggestions, they're all great. The interesting thing is that Adobe has already done what you're asking for:

1. We have hobbyist versions of our most popular products, it's the Elements line as well as new online services like Photoshop.com.
2. We also have student editions of our software and the average discount is about 85%. We've been doing that for at least 15 years, so nothing new there and definitely a reasonable way not to pirate software.
3. Everybody is more price-sensitive than ever, which is why we have a special offering $100US off an CS4 upgrade.
4. Yes, a lot of folks do freelance work on the side as a way to start their own business. That's part of the reason we allow you to use your Adobe software license at work (full-time gig) AND at home for no extra cost. It's up to your employer in terms of how they want to manage that, but Adobe's cool with it.

Hope that helps!

Adam Pratt
Adobe Systems

Mr. Pratt, thanks for your comments. It's unfortunate that some people who don't know much about business are always telling the rest what rip off artists business people are. If one is big, then it's obvious ripping off is going on. None of those goons have ANY idea how much money it costs to run a decent size (or even small) company. And if you make a profit, that's even worse!

I have been a PS user since the early days, currently own two copies of Design Premium CS3. The HUGE upgrade cost has led me to skip the CS4 version.

Sierra, I'm in the same boat as you. $200 isn't too bad for an upgrade, but it's more than I can justify - especially when I will need CS5 (or whatever it's called) to take advantage of 64-bit computing benefits since Adobe didn't build them into CS4. If the update isn't really substantive, it is hard to justify it.

Mr. Pratt, it's really good of you to write here. I would say the $100 discount isn't well enough known. Apple doesn't have it in the Apple Store. How do we get it? Also, you have to think about what the users want. CS4 isn't substantive to most users, especially when 64 bit was left out. So, asking us to spend anything real isn't going to happen. It may be unreasonable, but we want it all - real updates AND a fair price. I'd spend $200 for an upgrade that was really a monster performer.

Actually, come to think of it, CS3 reduced my productivity by removing ImageReady since it had a few things defaulted that PS doesn't (like image dimensions in the window instead of file size).

I do like the shut down idea to stay on top of your game. It is illegal, though, to force people to use time off unless it's in their contract (eg they work in a plant that shuts down for retooling), so I'm curious how this is all being pulled off. Sounds to me like the only savings is electricity.