All over the blogosphere (I hate that word, but what are you going to call it?), all I can read is about how CS4 was released today.
Maybe I’m just nitpicking here, but CS4 was not released. It was announced. Release means to let go of, let into the wild. It would mean I could buy it or download it. That’s not the case.
Actually, I’m not sure what the announcement really was today. OK, CS4 is announced. Well, we knew it was CS4 already. We know what’s going to be in it. We’ve seen most of the features at various conferences and briefings over the last year and a half. I had assumed that part of the announcement would be a release date. But I can’t seem to find that anywhere on Adobe.com. (You might have some luck on Amazon though.)
I guess the one thing we did learn was the prices. Yay. This has gotten the European crowd a bit upset, understandably so:
http://www.peterelst.com/blog/2008/09/23/geographical-pricing-for-cs4/
Anyway, I guess that there has to be an official announcement, and that has to happen on a specific day. I was just hoping for an official release date at least.
All just a marketing ploy, and everyone is clearly on the bandwagon 😉
You have to love how everyone on MXNA has made a posting about CS4 today, despite seeing a whole RSS feed populated with the subject.. It’s just one of those “I acknowledge this and I want everyone to know” kind of deals.
yeah Marc, I’m trying to swim against the stream. 🙂
Well it seems that the prices between the US and Europe aren’t just a couple of hundred dollars but double. I don’t know what Adobe is trying to do here: Revive the US economy by pushing people to buy the product from the US? Ehhhhhh….! hahaha
It’s cheaper to travel from Europe to New York, stay in a 5 stars hotel, buy CS4 then get back to Europe. 😀
it’s quite silly isn’t it? I mean, first they announce that they’re going to announce it today… then they announce–surprise surprise–CS4! Wow. The price and configuration was specified but not the dates–not that I could see anyway. A “Why Vid” is brewing.
On InsideRIA.com they say they heard from someone at Adobe that Oct. 15th is the target release date.
I don’t remember there ever being a release date before from previous Adobe and Macromedia software announcements. There’s always been a pre-release announcement showing the features. Adobe/Macromedia have sometimes said that the software would be coming a couple of weeks, but seem to not want to release a specific date in case there’s last minute bugs. Even with the release date from InsideRIA, it’s a date that Adobe is “targeting” rather than a solid release date.
As for feature set, it’s no big surprise for people who read up on the blogs and attend conferences, but there’s a large part of the user base that don’t do either and before today were ignorant of the CS4 feature set. Myself, I was aware of what was coming with Flash CS4, but before today I knew about a small handful of new features in other CS4 products.
I won´t argue on the features themselves a lot now until i tried em fulltime for a while. I´ll talk about the pricing though: This is just my personal opinion:
I think it would be the best thing to do for everyone in europe to NOT BUY adobe products for the ridiculously inflated prices they try to sell em for in europe.
Each version had inflated pricing in europe but this time it goes so far its not even funny in sadening way anymore.
Again, make a statement with your wallet, DO NOT BUY adobe products at the european stores pricing scheme. Thanks.
Adobe store says last week of October.
Oops… my bad. I just got a little bit excited
European customers need to check carefullyw whether it’s wise to buy an upgrade on eBay US, as I’ve heard a US upgrade will not work with an EU license. If that’s true, I hope there will be good opportunities to find on European eBay. Price for the upgrades is reasonable, it seems, although that just might be because I’ve seen all the great new features in Flash CS5 🙂
Seems to me Keith you could have a side business on your hands here, buying software in the states, to sell to us in Europe, marked it up £100 a time and your quids in 😉
shhh….
🙂
Here’s a quote from Adobe’s official press release:
Adobe Creative Suite 4 and its associated point products are scheduled to ship in October 2008 with availability through Adobe Authorized Resellers and the Adobe Store at http://www.adobe.com/go/gn_store .
Here a Petition against the European Pricing.
http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=36819524347
Adobe’s purpose was to create excitement like any brand releasing it’s own unique product. The hype surrounding it is a marketing strategy necessary (from the company) to build up the product creating awareness. The fact we are here is testimony to this. As a consumer we should demand specific timeframes and not be reserved when we are mislead with such generalizations surrounding a products release date. As consumers and designers we also work to mandates and such hype and in-direct misleading marketing should not be allowed. There must be a limit/rule for these companies and their strategies regarding their products. Adobe has gone out on it’s on successfully and is now taking advantage of this. We need rivals in there category, competition if you will keeping them real along with their prices competitive.