In my November 18th, 2011 blog post, titled, “Adobe’s New Upgrade Policy,” I highlighted the fact that many Photoshop users would be forced to upgrade to each new version of Photoshop in order to get the “discounted” upgrade price on the new version. Not owning the most recent version would have necessitated paying full price for the new version, a difference of a minimum of $500. Many avid Photoshop users were understandably very upset, and the new policy probably motivated many CS3 and CS4 users to upgrade to CS5, so that when CS6 arrived, they could get CS6 at an upgrade price. Now those users are probably upset, because Adobe just changed the upgrade policy once again, and those users didn’t need to upgrade to CS5!

CS6 is expected to be released in the first half of 2012. Adobe’s “new” “new” upgrade policy will enable CS3 and CS4 users (NOT CS2 or earlier) to upgrade to CS6 (presumably at an attractive upgrade price) until 12/31/12. CS5 and CS5.5 weren’t mentioned, but it is understood that ownership of those versions automatically qualifies for upgrade pricing to CS6.