For months, Adobe has been leaking CS6 information, released Photoshop in Beta last month, and then now has unveiled everything about the new Creative Suite.
CS6 and the new Creative Cloud
It's really interesting at the price points. They did away with some applications and simplified the suites. There's still a Design Standard, but now there's no Design Premium and a separate Web Premium. They just wrapped it into the new Design & Web Premium. For video/mograph people there's Production Premium and the all inclusive Master Collection.
The most interesting part of all of this is the Creative Cloud and the interaction with all the apps. There have been some DropBox competitors, but none have matched its simplicity. Can't want to see how the cloud works on a daily basis with our work at Igniter and Graceway. (don't know what DropBox is? Take a look at this: http://db.tt/yyWKriwB )
Adobe has had a subscription model for over a year now. Master Collection was $129/month. Now, with the Creative Cloud, they have slashed the price to $49/month, giving you everything Adobe makes and also a 20GB cloud storage space for file syncing, sharing and Business Catalyst website creation. That's crazy!
You can also get CS6 and the Creative Cloud for $29/month for the first year if you've purchased ANYTHING before from Adobe all the way back to CS3. Here's the link for that discount: https://creativecloud-specialoffer.adobe.com/special-offer/?loc=en_US
That introductory price point I tweeted about last year. $29 is the point that can really get the hard copy people switched to a monthly plan. For the first year, it's cheaper than any upgrade to a suite (5 to 5.5 today with a free CS6 upgrade is $379). It's a price point that can lure you in, especially if there are components of another package that you don't own.
What am I doing?
Well I have Design Premium and After Effects CS5. I don't want to pay $379+$179 in the next week to upgrade to 5.5 just to make sure I get CS6. Although, if I wait, those upgrades will soon be $749 and $349 to move from 5.0 to 6. So that leaves me with the $29 intro pricing for the first year and then moving to either $39 (if they have some loyalty pricing then) or $49 a month forever. I won't want to go back to CS5 and Adobe will now have me. It sounds like a conspiracy, but on paper its actually cheaper and easier on your wallet.
What do you guys think?
Current customer pricing:
$29 x 12 months = $348 (everything Adobe and 20GB storage)
New customer pricing:
$49 x 12months = $588
I'm also in a different situation though, because I do max 5 hours a week freelancing right now, and at work I'm not the one deciding if I get upgraded. Sounds like it might happen, which would be nice. And I might even get the second license for my home computer :D So what IM going to do is wait. lol!
There do seem to be some fun new features though!
Also, I have read that the Creative Cloud Membership gives you the ability to still have CS6 on your desktop and laptop like the boxed license reads.
The only thing is to get the $29 monthly price (which you qualify for too), you have to sign up before August 31, 2012.
I'm going to do a 30 day Cloud trial, then convert after the trial expires.
Originally, only current CS5 customers had an upgrade path to 6. It was relaxed to allow users back to CS3 to upgrade. In the future, it seems like Adobe will continue ahead with this "upgrade every time" plan.
That is, you won't be able to work with CS6 for 3 years and then upgrade to 8. You'll have to buy 8 all over again. Only current version customers will have an upgrade path. In the long run, that's the only way they can make the subscription service a better value than intermittent upgrades.
I'm only guessing of course, but it seems to make a lot of sense given Adobe's history and their user-foiled plans to block upgrades to 6.
Not knowing what will happen in the future, I'd say you would be really smart to get upgraded to 6 now, and plan to upgrade every version, or go with the subscription service and hope for loyalty pricing like Chap mentioned.