Now, on March 27, Adobe has finally unleashed the announcement that their largest collection of software in their 25-year history is coming in April. It comes at a time when their software has never been more anticipated, especially by creative Mac users itching to upgrade to the ‘Universal’ versions of CS3 products such as InDesign, Photoshop and other Adobe software which will work at full speed on Intel based Macs – as well as older PowerPC models.

Intel based Mac users trying to use the older CS2 editions of Photoshop or InDesign have noticed that the performance through the Rosetta ‘translation engine’ simply wasn’t up to par, with the solution for professional users to either stick with their G5 PowerPC based Macs, or to upgrade to a quad-core Intel Mac Pro, which used the raw processing power of four cores to boost CS2’s performance to a level that is faster than CS2 running on a native PowerPC, something that was most impressive when Apple demonstrated the power of their quad-core Intel based systems – and bodes well for screamingly fast performance when the same quad-core system starts running CS3.

Normally Adobe would likely have released CS3 earlier, but this time they have had to deal with the acquisition of former competitor Macromedia and the integration of their products into the Adobe family.

Adobe say that their new products are ‘revolutionary’ and are tightly integrated, offering industry-leading design and development tools for ‘virtually every creative workflow’. This is because they have lined up ‘the best’ of Adobe’s and Macromedia’s products and cover “all facets of print, web, mobile, interactive, film, and video production”.

Interestingly, there are six ‘all-new’ configurations of Adobe Creative Suite 3, aimed at covering all aspects of the market, from the low-end to the all-inclusive top-of-the-line and top-dollar suite.

These are: Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium and Design Standard editions, Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium and Web Standard editions, Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium and the biggest suite of all, the Adobe Creative Suite Master Collection.

The 'Master Suite' combines 12 of Adobe's latest design and development applications in a single box, with Adobe saying it is “the most comprehensive creative environment ever delivered”, covering print, web, interactive, mobile, video and even film, with all packages working on either Windows XP, Windows Vista, PowerPC Macs and Intel based Macs. The 'Master Collection' now costs US $2500, up from US $1800, but offers more software in the package than was previously available, explaining somewhat the increase in price.

Naturally, the suites combine different Adobe products at a lower price than purchasing the products separately, with products such as Photoshop CS3, Photoshop CS3 Extended, InDesign CS3, Illustrator CS3, Flash CS3 Professional, Dreamweaver CS3, Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, and After Effects CS3.

Despite having purchased their biggest competitor, Macromedia, Microsoft and Apple are Adobe's two biggest competitors, aside from companies such as Corel who market a range of graphics products and have purhcased companies such as Ulead which also create competing graphics and video packages, although more at the low end than at the high-end that Adobe is renowned for. Ulead's strength in the consumer market was one of the reasons why Adobe had to release products such as Photoshop Elements, a cut-down consumer based version of Photoshop, to deal with the low-end threats.

Apple and Microsoft are competitors at a higher level, with Apple offering iPhoto, iMovie, Final Cut Pro and other packages to compete at the low and high end against Adobe. Microsoft are trying to create a PDF replacement called XPS, and also have a range of web design programs called 'Expressions' which tries to compete with Dreamweaver, although Adobe's products are still seen as the best of the bunch, and the products to beat. Adobe's new CS3 release should solidy their position as the creative software provider of choice, and should also deliver major profits to Adobe this year, especially as their software activation anti-piracy protections will be set to maximum to stop profit losses from piracy.

Bruce Chizen, the CEO of Adobe said that “Creative Suite 3 is the biggest launch in Adobe’s 25 year history and a milestone for the creative industry. This release reflects the powerful integration between Adobe and Macromedia and how our products bridge the gap between designers and developers. With new workflows that streamline collaboration and impact the development of rich content, designers and developers now have the creative license to engage audiences across virtually every medium.”

Adobe's website has more information, including a webcast of the launch event.
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