Kasper JadeExclusive: Adobe Systems plans to introduce its much-anticipated Creative Suite 3.0 software bundle towards the end of the first quarter of 2007, AppleInsider has learned.
The rumblings are contrary to comments from Adobe chief executive Bruce Chizen, who in a March 2006 interview with Forbes magazine said the San Jose-based company would not launch the next generation suite until the second quarter of 2007.
Mixing the best of both worlds
Code-named Banana Split, Creative Suite 3.0 will offer the first versions of popular applications like Photoshop and Illustrator that will run natively on both PowerPC- and Intel-based Macintosh systems from Apple Computer.
It will also mark the first formal integration of products Adobe acquired from rival Macromedia in its $3.4 billion acquisition of the company last year.
Image Ready booted for Fireworks
According to those people familiar with Adobe's plans, Macromedia's Dreamweaver will replace Adobe's GoLive as the suite's primary web development tool.
Similarly, those same people say that Adobe ImageReady, which has been packaged side-by-side with Photoshop since version 2.0, will get the boot in favor of Macromedia's Fireworks bitmap and vector image editor.
Multiple package bundles on tap
Company documents shown to AppleInsider also suggest that Adobe will market several different Creative Suite 3.0 bundles, each of which will include a different assortment of creative applications.
The current version of Adobe Creative Suite, version 2.3, is available in just two bundles: Standard and Premium.
CS3 adoption rate looks promising
In a recent poll conducted during the September Photoshop World conference, 87 percent of graphics professionals said there is a greater than 50 percent likelihood they will purchase Creative Suite 3.0 within 12 months of release.
The 2006 conference, which attracted approximately 3,000 attendees, was the largest yet in its history.
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32 Comments
Hopefully one of those bundles will be a simple Photoshop+Dreamweaver package. I guess I'll start saving now.
While Fireworks does contain some rudimentary bitmap tools, it is far from a "bitmap graphics editor". The entire thing is based on vector editing, and that's the reason it is the best tool for designing web graphics. Hopefully they don't castrate Fireworks into some kind of bolt-on Photoshop tool and instead leave it as a stand-alone product.
I'm glad to see Adobe isn't just axing the competing MM products but is instead looking to keep the best of breed from both sides of the fence. While the loss of competition is alarming, at least it's not a total screwjob.
Flash and Director are also getting new versions (though maybe not in CS3).
A bundle of Photoshop, Illustrator/Freehand, Flash, Dreamweaver and Director would be very welcome With a big discount for those who already own old versions.
And don't force people to own a really recent version: some of us have been waiting for Universal and have kept apps 1-or-2 versions old at the time of the Intel announcement.
Let me dream
Man, i've missed Fireworks. Glad to see it getting the credit it deserves. Like ImageReady, I'm sure it will be treated as a seperate program.
They are trying to pull an apple...
Tell everyone they won't be releasing till 2nd quarter than surprising everyone in the 1st quarter... much like apple did with intel comps. We'll see. They are definitely welcome to release it earlier than expected!