PS Update strategy

[harry teasley]

The feature request forum often has great ideas for things like UI
improvements. Would Adobe ever consider minor alterations to PS behavior or
feature set being put out as an incremental release?

As a software developer in games, I know our audience loves these sorts of
changes being incorporated in point updates, but Adobe has always had a
strategy of apparently never changing anything about the functionality of PS
in-between paid upgrades. It makes for a long 18 months for requests that look
like easy, low-hanging fruit for improving the app. I also note that these
sorts of feature updates generally make for an overall easier QA schedule:
monolithic updates take a load of time to test, but the same amount of actual
change in the app, spread out over time, make for less overall regression
testing, because less has changed per update.

[DelmarS]

Well I believe Adobe is already doing a tremendeous job with Photoshop. Not
only do customers actually buy it for the price that it is set at right now,
people are actually back-ordering Photoshop CS3 so they can receive it right
after it comes out onto the market.
Im not saying that you have a good point there, but I just think they already
make enough interest in Photoshop/Bridge and any other applications they tend
to make.

[Ann Shelbourne]

It is not a question of Adobe "generating interest in the product" but of
taking notice of the improvements and features that their existing Customers
are asking for ? and doing their best to incorporate those features in the next
version.

Unfortunately, this time around, although we have got a bunch of NEW features
(of which some have considerable merit) others were either just pointless
window-dressing or were actually detrimental to the performance of the program.

There are a number of "Feature Requests" which relate directly to User
convenience and productivity; and for which we have regularly continued to beg
throughout the last THREE versions of Photoshop.

These should surely have been given priority before wasting time on wrecking a
perfectly good GUI and crippling the ImageReady features in an effort to foster
the Macromedia programs.

Regarding, "customers actually buy it for the price that it is set at right
now":
They may do in the USA. But in Europe, and throughout the rest of the world,
formerly loyal customers are up in arms about the excessive mark-up being
charged for so called "localized" versions of CS3.

And a (probably illegal) restraint is being placed on resellers in the USA
(like Amazon.com) which prevents them from selling CS3 to overseas customers.

[GothMeister]

But in Europe, and throughout the rest of the world, formerly loyal customers

are up in arms about the excessive mark-up being charged for so called
"localized" versions of CS3.

And a (probably illegal) restraint is being placed on resellers in the USA

(like Amazon.com) which prevents them from selling CS3 to overseas customers.

....but WHAT are we to do??

If we want CS3, we have to pay the set price....if we wait to see what
happens, we'll have to pay MORE as the pre-release "discount" disappears. Or,
maybe, the pre-release price will remain as the release price and we'll all
have been conned into to paying up front for nothing??

[Ramón G Castañeda]

Post by GothMeister
the pre-release price will remain as the release price and we'll all
have been conned into to paying up front for nothing??

I don't see anything anywhere on the Adobe site that promises a price break
for pre-ordering. The price is what it is.

[Ann Shelbourne]

Or, maybe, the pre-release price will remain as the release price and we'll

all have been conned into to paying up front for nothing?? >>

If you read between the lines of John Nack's Blog, you will see that the
uproar over the overseas price structure is certainly a point of discussion
within Adobe.
http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2007/04/handy_cs3_confi.html

[QUOTE]>wee ? 06:27 PM on April 07, 2007
Any news on European pricing? When we can expect any official statement and
clarifications? thanks.

[Nothing yet, sorry. I know it's being discussed, but I don't have an ETA for
more info. --J.] >
[/QUOTE]

If I lived abroad, I would refuse to pay those prices on principal and just
fly over and buy as many copies of the CS3 Suites that I and my colleagues
needed from the nearest Apple Store.

You might need to pay with cash if Adobe has put restraints on the use of
Credit Cards with foreign billing addresses ? although surely that would
constitute a "Constraint of Fair Trade Practices"?