Adobe Hires Vista Marketing Rejects and announces CS3.

[Praxis]

Are the prices for Photoshop really that much more expensive than prior versions? I thought these products always commanded a heavy price.

Nah, I think Photoshop is only $50 more or so. Pricing is fair. After education discounts its like $10 more.

But the Premium bundles are a lot more expensive. Creative Suite 2.3 Premium was $1,199. Now Creative Suite 3 Design Premium is $1,799.

[RThurmont]

Bah, you beat me to it - but yes, these packages are actually fairly well thought out. I'm a bit surprised that Adobe has kept Fireworks, though - I thought they would've killed it since it's a competitor to the Photoshop/ImageReady duo.

Fireworks is much more n00b friendly, IMO, and given the choice of using it, or ImageReady, to create a web navigation button for a simple site, I would choose it hands down. It has some quirks, but for a quick, brutal approach you can't beat it, IMO. I was really heartened that Fireworks got saved, as I was certain as well that Adobe would kill it, fortunately, Adobe has some sense.

Adobe, in my opinion, is the only mass market proprietary applications company out there that really does a good job adding value for its customers. I wish they'd go open source, but I can still live with them given their current stance. They are generally trustworthy and I feel that Adobe's people really do actually care.