Life may have no meaning. Or even worse, it may have a meaning of which I disapprove - Ashleigh Brilliant
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Adobe's CS4 pricing is completely bananas
IF YOU WERE THINKING about popping along to your local computer superstore to pick up a copy of Adobe's Creative Suite 4 Master Collection on its release date of November 14th, you might just want to reconsider.
Because Adobe's insane pricing policy means that it would be cheaper to fly from London to New York, grab a copy of the software, spend the night in a hotel, and fly back to London the next day!
Yes you read that right. At today's exchange rate, the full suite of design programmes is a full £1,358 more expensive to purchase in the UK than it is for our colonial cousins in the USA.
And we found flights from Gatwick to JFK in New York for £318 each way, so you could skip the hotel and save yourself a small fortune.
We expect flights out of London to the Big Apple to be fully booked around the November 14th release date, and packed expensively-coiffed Hoxtonians trying to save a bob or two.
Or they could just order it on Amazon.com... which should also work. µ
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I've made my purchase at Uktechstore.com also for Web Premium CS4, best price I could find. Got it in 2 days and it installed and activated perfectly fine, saved me at least £200. Did not pay any duties or anything, just signed for it on delivery.
Bottomline, I would not have been able to afford it any other way as Adobe UK is NUTS!!!
Let us Know how you get on with that Sarah, I suspect your software is going to arrive from the US and HM Customs are going to sting you with Import tax and VAT making it not such value.
I've just completed my purchase with Uktechstore.com for an Adobe CS4 Design Premium, it cost me £1040, about 200 gbp cheaper than everyone else. My colleague has referred me here after buying from them and receiving a full version genuine working copy. Reviews look good also. Hope this helps everyone!
If you enrol in any qualifying course at your local college, graphic design degree or something like this which requires two or more years of study, you can get the Educational licensed version of CS4 Master Suite for approx. £940.00 inc vat

The educational licensing allows you to use the software for commercial work and qualifies you for future upgrade pricing. It can also be installed on two machines unlike the student edition.

This is what i am doing - course - £300 which is what I wanted to do anyway and then CS4 Master Suite £940.00.

Sounds like good math to me :)

Yep you got the title right, only the stupid British people will pay this kind of rip off over pricing for this kind of software.
I wont deny that it's a great product, but hey I'ts only software, not a car I'm after.
Looks like piratebay.org to the rescue and STUFF you Adobe.
Adobe products have always been outrageously expensive - much more expensive than any other product - but no better. Certainly no better. Yet since they bought out the Macromedia list of products (which include Flash, Dreamweaver, Fireworks) they think they can increase the cost of these products too. 

So now ALL of the Adobe CS4 product line are so out of anyone's price range greedy demise.

I have always purchased the upgrades. But I won't anymore. I have brought my last Adobe product.

And like Rome, let Adobe fall...

And now I'd like to play you a tune on my lute...
I had been considering getting a friend in the US to buy the CS4 Design Premium Upgrade for $599 + 7.5% tax (£407) and ship it to me (cost unknown), but this morning I found a deal on the ecostsoftware.com site for £425 + vat (delivery £2.98), which for me (as I am VAT registered) will probably work out cheaper.
I can't affort that kind of price. So i get another cheaper solution from abroad! lol. Got my Photoshop CS4 copy yesterday for £79!isn't it great?? 

As an Adobe fanatic, I would go out on a limb and say that CS4 Master Collection will be worth every penny, even if you end up paying more in the UK. Best of all, if you are sufficiently skilled in using the software programmes - as well as in marketing your talents - you would make that money back in no time. This is a professional level software in every respects. I am currently saving towards getting my copy, and I have no doubts that it would be money well spent.
And ask yourself this - do you need CS4 sooo badly that you will line Adobe's pockets again. I am using CS1 with After Effects 6 and Flash MX04 (which, by the way all work fine on my new imac) and I am not struggling one bit to produce my best work ever. No, my needle didn't get stuck 5 years ago, I just refuse to pay those prices for a couple of extra features, but they will continue to get away with this for as long as the whole of the creative world wets themselves whenever Adobe pull a 'new' version out of there ****. Who makes your work look good, you or your apps?
You can't legally work on the student edition on a comercial project. I know people who have and got away with it, but if your willing to take that kind of risk anyway and you dont already have it, then you might as well download it for free.
1. Go to www.open.ac.uk
2. Look up their courses, find the cheapest one.
3. Register.
4. Buy CS4 student edition

For instance, there are some courses on the OU that cost about £200. You can then buy the student edition of CS4 master collection for £433.99 (amazon.co.uk) instead of £2,276.99.

Alternatively try GIMP and Inkscape. Yes, the branding's not as good as Adobe's, but at least you won't pay for it. 
Hey Bill...

"Or...
For a 10% fee, you can just send me your money, I'll buy Photoshop for you and ship it back to you overseas(shipping included in the 10%.)

Ahhh America"

Will you do that for other merchandise too?
I could use a supplier in the US who charges 10 shipping included... :)
The record companies did the same for years, and now expect us to feel sorry cuz ppl r downloaning of 't 'tinterweb, they got their double dip when impetuous fools we are we bought the same ablums we had already on vynil when they came out on CD, now they are sobbing cuz it's not fair and we are al v v naughty. Same goes to Adobe and their ilk don't they know two weeks after it comes out it'll be available 2 DL 4 3. I have a theory about Adobe, there products seem to be consisantly well cracked, and it is my opinion that they sorta want Joe public to be able to get their hands on their software so as we can learn it so as we can use it for work. If you think about it the more ppl who can use their software the more corperate users will splash out on it, and lets face it the prices they charge are steep for personal users but they are but a mere drop in't th'ocean for business, that's my theory anyhoo.
Like the old verse says : "suckers don't die, they are simply overtaken by new ones " who are willing to pay these unbelievable prices. People with more common sense simply shop elsewhere or find more "creative" solutions to Adobe's madness...
Last time around I just voted with my feet and bought a copy of CS3 in the US (Apple Store, Orlando): it installed just fine on my UK Mac and saved me a fortune. Looks like I'll be doing the same for CS4 - if the upgrade features look worthwhile, which is doubtful.

Current check on Amazon.co.uk: Design Premium OS X upgrade is £675 inc. VAT (currently exchanging to $1242). At Amazon.com it's listed at $595, so even with a likely sales tax of 5% if I buy at a US store AND removing the VAT from the UK price (as I can claim it back because I'm VAT registered), that still equates to $625 in the US compared to $1056 in the UK.

That $431 difference probably spoils your headline of getting a free round-trip flight for the price difference, but it certainly works out if you (or a friend) are going to the US anyway.
Under European law geographical pricing disparity is not allowed.

This is why the forced regionalisation of dvd players silently slipped in history.

Who gives a stuff what the license says anyway, if you paid for it, trying to enforce that kind of nonsense legally will be virtually impossible.

Furthermore, the "click yes" to agree to this license has no legal standing in the UK, you have to put your agreement in writing for it to be deemed agreed.

So basically, adobe can "dream on" if they think they can make it stick.


My fiancée is a teacher at a local University, so we got the Teacher Edition of CS3.3 Master Collection a couple of weeks ago. It's the same thing as the full-priced version, just a lot cheaper: A snip at under €1,200 for the lot, including German sales tax. Best of all, since we bought it after CS4 was announced (but not released), we get a free upgrade...
I always use downloaded software and use them as a 'try before you buy' solution. If i end up using the program for financial gain i will buy the product and support the company for future upgrades. As i have with ableton live and previously cubase.

I'm just learning and getting my head around adobe at present and think its amazing but i have noticed that the updates are vastly over-priced for what they are. If i ever do buy this product, i expect that i wont be updating it very often!!!

But i also buy everything from outside the UK. Mainly USA/Germany/China. I have no problems what so ever and find that if i do have a problem, People are more helpful and supporting than if i got it from my own country!!! 

UK's just a shit hole going down the pan fast. Get out of rip=off britain while you still can!!! Police state! Be like 1984 soon!!!
Step-1:Free some harddisk space

S2:DL ;utorrent

s3:visit mininova.org
See, price differences like this are going to make pirating all the more prevalent. If you are in the UK and you "have to" have this software for work or just your professional life, and you shell out the big bucks, the angry "I've been screwed" feeling is going to lead to those people saying to themselves "Well, eff Adobe. I'm going to torrent this out because I got screwed, so I'm going to make sure they get screwed too"

Just a thought
Do what I like to do when the wieners at Adobe ask too much money...don't upgrade. Wait until they come to their senses, then still not upgrade. Adobe makes the most expensive bloatware, then "upgrades" it ever so slightly. This makes all the creative types wet themselves and decide they "need" it despite the fact they still can't use the features they already have. Teach Adobe AND yourself a lesson.
You can't ship from Amazon in the states because Amazon will put a stop on it right before you go to pay. I tried it with CS3. When I spoke to them, Adobe actively told them they shouldn't ship products to Europe.
For a 10% fee, you can just send me your money, I'll buy Photoshop for you and ship it back to you overseas(shipping included in the 10%.)

Ahhh America, land of the "Quick Ways to Make a Buck."
@TheDon

Yet you don't mention the fact that Microsoft UK overcharge for Vista. Yet you compare Adobe charging £1,000 extra to Apple charging around £90 extra for it's low end MacBook. 

Oh! Let's not forget that Japanese company that wanted to charge us £425 for it's Console, when it cost the equivalent of £250 in the US.
Whilst I don't condone piracy or theft software copying is in fact neither. Most of us are not at sea and therefore cannot be guilty of piracy. Also as you are not denying Adobe access (ie, removing CS4) from their property you are not guilty of theft.

Piracy and theft are very hard words to legitemately use for software. To steal CS4 you would need to take all the source from Adobe.

However as they are commiting some really nasty price rigging by not allowing you to freely purchase CS4 whereever you please they should in fact be in court for price rigging.
In my previous post I meant to say Photoshop CS4 NOT Lightroom 2.

My other brain cell isn't very well either.
Adobe UK pricing is a complete rip-off across the board.

I was thinking about upgrading to Lightroom 2... until I saw the price:
Adobe US - 199$, Amazon UK £207 WTF?
United Kingdom (Prices from Adobe):
- CS4 Master Collection (Upgrade - £939.12)
- CS4 Master Collection (FULL - £2,313.58)
- CS4 Design Premium (Upgrade - £605.12)
- CS4 Design Premium (FULL - £1,467.58)

United States (Prices from Adobe), using xe.com to convert the pricing:

- CS4 Master Collection (FULL - $2,499 = £1,386.31)
- DIFFERENCE UK minus USA (£927.27)
- CS4 Design Premium (Upgrade - $499 = £276.95)
- DIFFERENCE UK minus USA (£328.17)
- CS4 Design Premium (FULL - $1,399 = £776.45)
- DIFFERENCE UK minus USA (£691.13)

Seriously overpriced. I learned and used the products in uni, so I don't have my own copy - so for me, one would have to go for the full version...1.4K - 2.3K is unacceptable to be honest. It looks like Adobe and Apple now have something in common :\
So how come small companies can sell graphics software on the web for a flat worldwide rate? And still provide decent support?
Yup - the price difference makes it worth the risk of whatever lame punishment to download an illegal version. Fluff Adobe, why? cos they just Fluffed me!
...Or people could simply download it all from a Torrent site for FREE. 

Hmmm, pay thousands and get ripped off even more than usual by Adobe, or get it free... thats a tough one!
http://blog.borud.no/2008/09/photoshop-and-how-price-tag-encourages.html
You could also use some of the money on a holiday to Thailand, pick up a copy of CS4 at Pantip Plaza for 600 Baht (13 euros), spend copiuos amounts in bars in Patpong and come home with money in your pocket.
whoa, that's cool for me, although unfair for others : \.......... owell, more useless copies for me!
the same with autocad 2009

in €land ~4800 (before tax)
in $land ~4000 = 2750€
they're expecting the dollar to strengthen a lot over the lifetime of cs4, or the pound to collapse.
Is Adobe trying to put together the bailout package for the failing US economy all by itself? How else could you justify a price hike by more than 100% in regard to the US pricing. Oh, and you're even allowed to download a whopping 18GB of data for the same price as getting this Fabergé egg delivered on media. What's not to like?
As the owner of Photoshop CS3 Extended I thought I'd check the updgrade price to Photoshop CS4 Extended. According to Adobe's site the upgrade from CS3E to CS4E is $349, as is the upgrade price from CS3, CS2 or CS. So having paid more to buy CS3 Extended in the first place I'm expected to pay the same for the upgrade as people without the extended version. I've not actually checked the UK price for this upgrade to see how much the exchange rate rip-off is as I am too disgusted to bother.
No it won't. I tried doing that when CS3 came out and just got a rude message saying Amazon won't ship this product outside the US
Its very common to whine about piracy and its financial damages, but somehow same companies forget about not ************ its potential buyers in the first place
... flawlessly, mwuahahahaha!

We, the colonies, will not subject ourselves to the tyranny of The Crown any longer!

Take that!

P.S. Please do not dump your copies of CS4 in the ocean or else our genius plan will fail, thank you, and good day to you Sir.

Yours truly,
Adobe.
...
I'm not sure where you got your pricing info from, but using Adobe's online prices (direct from them), its works out at only a £600 difference (excl VAT), which is still far too expensive, but not the £1300 you make it out to be.
I may be wrong, but I am pretty sure that the licences are restricted geographically, so you would not technically be allowed to use your US copy in the UK. This gives them the legal protection to rip us off here in the UK. I am pretty sure they wouldn't make a fuss unless everyone started doing it.