Photoshop CS4 Ships (and a VERY cool double-upgrade deal for NAPP members)
By now you’ve probably heard that Photoshop CS4 (and the Creative Suite) started shipping yesterday (I would have mentioned it yesterday, but it was “Special Guest Blog” Wednesday, where Laurie Excell did an absolutely wonderful, inspiring post—thank you Laurie!), but beyond that, I wanted to point out something very cool for NAPP members, that Matt Kloskowski pointed out a few weeks back on his LightroomKillerTips blog.
If you’re a NAPP member, you can get the upgrade to Photoshop CS4, AND the upgrade to Lightroom 2, together as a bundle, for just $238. (Adobe is offering a 30% discount on Lightroom 2 if you upgrade it with Photoshop CS4, then as a NAPP member you get. Throw another 15% off, so the total upgrade is only $238). Not too shabby!
You’ll find the details and discount code for bundle deal on the NAPP member Web site; click the “Discounts for Members” link. NOTE: Matt pointed out that you have to add the items to your shopping cart first, to see the properly discounted price.
Dear Scott,
This is a great offer but unfortunately the US Adobe site says that the discount code is invalid or already used. I have gone ahead and bought CS4 so it looks like I have missed out on the discount; but could you let us know if there is a new code coming.
Huge thanks,
Ian
Ian-
If you are an NAPP member and watched NAPP News OR read this month’s Newswire newsletter (from Tuesday) OR logged onto the NAPP member forums OR called customer service, you would have learned that the discount code was being changed yesterday. [Seems like just about the only thing we didn't do was call each NAPP member
]
Adobe occasionally has a problem for a day or so when they implement a new code, but not only are we on top of it with constant contacts with our friends at the Adobe store, we are posting to the member forums so our members can stay up to the minute and know the instant the new code bugs are worked out.
I had the same problem as Ian–it would not allow me to apply the discount code. I decided not to buy without the discount. Maybe another one is coming. If not, I’ll make do with CS3.
I wish I had known about this offer before I upgraded to Lightroom 2. I had already made up my mind to skip CS4 and wait for CS5 since I have CS3 and am happy with it, but I would have picked up both with this offer. I’m okay though waiting until CS5.
it does feel like the early adopters, those that upgrade with pre-orders, have gotten a bad deal on this one… had I known the potential for saving THAT much I likely would have waited on upgrading to LR2 as well.
Didn’t Apple face something similar not too long ago and gave all the early buyers of the iPhone hefty gift certificates? Maybe Adobe could consider something similar… free two months to KelbyTraining would be a sweet “sorry” gift
Grrrr…..
upgraded LR2 for $99 as soon as it was available for pre-order….
upgraded CS4 for ~$300 (with the original NAPP discount) as soon as it was available for pre-order….
I wished adobe would treated us loyal ‘pre-order’ customers as well as the ’should I upgrade’ fence sitters….
(I could of used the ~$160 I would have saved for my NAPP membership or KelbyTraining)
I am upset with Adobe and i kow this has nothign to do with Scott. but i will use his forum as an outlet of my frustration.
I Paid to upgrade form cs to cs3 extended and paid the extra amount to go extneded.
I now see it is the same $349 upgrade price for anyone to upgrade form cs2, cs3, cs3 extended to upgraded to cs4 extended. There is no differentiating discount for current cs3 extended to upgrade over a non extended version owner!
Is this offer available to Australian members? Shipped from within Australia or only from USA? Thank you.
I upgraded LightRoom to 2.0 as soon as it became available. I, also, upgraded to PhotoShop CS3 Extended. Over the years, Corey Barker and Dave Cross have always gone beyond what a particular feature in PhotoShop was originally designed to do. Corey and Dave never worry about “staying within the lines”. And to be honest, I thought that I would be limiting my creative possibilities if I didn’t get PhotoShop CS3 Extended. I definitely will upgrade to PhotoShop CS4 Extended especially considering that the 3D seems to have a lot more horse power.
But, Adobe should have knocked at least $50 off the upgrade to PhotoShop CS4 Extended if the customer had previous purchased
PhotoShop CS3 Extended.
Thanks for all the great tips and insight.
NAPP folks: Will this discount also apply to the upgrades of whole suites? This could totally be the justification I need to get the buy in from my wife
Thanks! Gerhard
P.S Sorry for abusing your Blog, Scott – love our work!
Scott,
Just installed the Crative Suite Design Premium! One question if you can answer it, can PS CS4 open in Rosetta? I have Lucis Art 2 and need to run it or do I need to keep CS3 installed for this functionality?
Thanks for all your info and help
Tim
I’ve been grumbling and harping on this for the last several weeks on several blogs but now that CS4 is out I think some of my points are worth repeating.
Richard in his post above hit’s the nail on the head when he say’s “I wished adobe would treated us loyal ‘pre-order’ customers as well as the ’should I upgrade’ fence sitters….”
Not only is Adobe punishing its early adopters but they should also be taken to task for using LR2 users (who effectively payed to be) as Beta testers for their ACR5 development. Many early adopters suffered through LR version 2.0 that was clearly not ready for primetime while waiting for some relief with LR2.1. Many of the early LR2 adopters are NAPP members who act on the advise and recommendation of Scott, Matt and other key NAPP professionals.
Adobe has shown that they are very inconsistent with their pricing in several areas including: a) no real upgrade pricing for “extended” users, b) no discount to current LR2 users, c) inflated pricing to non-US customers. While we all would rather focus on the new features and potential of CS4 the reality of today’s tough economic times forces us to look at pricing very closely. Inconsistencies in pricing by Adobe are greatly magnified because they are not adequately explained thus leaving consumers feeling unimportant and victims of corporate greed.
What many of us have learned from this is don’t buy any LR or Photoshop product until both program’s upgrades are available so that features can be fully assessed and the best pricing is made availible.
Adobe’s failure to provide current LR2 users with a discount on CS4 has caused me to spend the last week closely studying the Photoshop User Magazine CS4 special issue to see if I should update. In light of the bitter taste that Adobe’s treatment of LR2 users has left me with and the lack of any “must have” feature for me in CS4 I’ve decided that unless a discount for LR2 users is made available I’ll just hold out until CS5 and LR3.
Great assessment Robbie. Pretty much my gripe put more eliquintly. I have moved my whole ediitng workflow over to Apeture and have ebayed my Adobe products. I am no longer supporting them….
Maybe Scott, Matt & the rest of the NAPP/Kelby Training teams can take this Adobe pricing/discount concern to Adobe as ‘input’ from thier customer base.
ps. I’m a _happy_ NAPP & Kelby Training customer, but I’m a little ticked at Adobe. Has anyone tried to apply a better discount deal after the fact? I wounder how Adobe would handle this?
Adobe isn’t in the software business, they are in the annuity business. Every 18 months you will make a contribution to some engineers’ retirement funds
CS doesn’t stand for Creative Suite, it stands for Cash Siphon….. This one is an overpriced yawner. Selling the sizzle is not that same as selling the steak.
Jut my $.02
I also upgraded to LR2 as soon as it came out and will upgrade to CS4 as soon as the discount is available. Total cost will come to $253.30 after the discounts so, for not waiting, I’m paying an additional $15.30, which is well worth having had my mitts on LR2 for the last couple of months. Thanks folks at NAPP and Adobe!
As of 4:45 pm EDT, the discount code is still not working.
This is not true. You can only use ONE of the offers. Either the 15% off of both products or the 30% off of lightroom. You can’t use two coupons anywhere.
Aaron Adobe Sales Rep.
If that is the case then it appears it would be better to get 15% off of both products ($253.30) as opposed to $268.30 for just 30% off of LR2, but still back to the fact that the code still does not work as of 2:42 PST
I was the NAPP member that was talking with Aaron and he advised that one could only use the 15% off NAPP discount on either Lightroom version 2 OR CS4 upgrade but not both. The lightroom upgrade alone is $238 with the NAPP discount. Is there wrong info on the blog?
scott
not to change the subject and this is probably a stupid question. If you have cs2 would you get the upgrade to cs4? is cs4 that much better than cs3,? since i have all your books and dvds on cs3. Ialso tried the adobe site with the promo code and it doesn’t work either. I thought i wait for the photoplus expo to purchase the new cs4. maybe they’ll throw in some goodies like everyone else does at photoplus.
The LR2 upgrade price without any discounts is $99 so obviously $238 for just the LR2 upgrade is wrong. Heck, full price is $299. The information on the blog states the upgrade for LR2 and CS4 is $238 when purchased together.
The NAPP promo code doesn’t seem to be working with anything on the Adobe site. Not CS4, not CS4 + LR2 and not CS4 Extended alone. Hopefully this will be ironed out.
Ooh, the ugly Lightroom backlash rears its head again. As one of the first to post my negative comments, I definitely feel people’s frustration. After getting psyched up by the Photoshop Guys and spending $299 to buy LR2 and only later realizing that I probably don’t need it (or the annual $99 upgrade fee on top of upgrade costs for PS), I opted to return it. I will have to say that Adobe made the process painless (I was still in the 30-day period). Only my pride was hurt as I had to come clean to my wife after convincing her that I “needed” LR.
Speaking from experience, I would tell folks to avail themselves of Adobe’s 30-day free trial on their products. Download and play with it and then decide if it’s going to work for you (or be worth the price).
I think Adobe and Scott sometimes lose track of the fact that more and more Photoshop users are just hobbyists or family photographers without expense accounts or clients to pass our costs onto. We got PS because we wanted to do more than PS Elements allowed us to do, but simply don’t have the same needs or “workflow” as a working professional photographer. A $300 dollar product (LR2) or $200 upgrade (CS4) that pays for itself by saving a professional tons of time doesn’t mean that much to a hobbyist.
“As of 4:45 pm EDT, the discount code is still not working.”
Norman- You’re absolutely right. However, it’s not because Adobe and NAPP are ignoring the situation. Far from it. We have exchanged more emails than I can count, both yesterday and into today.
Seems we have a perfect storm of their code errors and the actual shipping date and the announcement on Scott’s blog. If ANYONE knew the codes would be a problem, we would have avoided a big announcement about the discount.
The GREAT news is that we have a completely new solution and codes will be posted during the day Friday. All of the pieces are back in place and our web team will post the new live code(s) in the discounts section tomorrow (Friday).
It has been a frustrating day for us as we’ve worked through various issues with Adobe, but the frustrations seem to be subsiding and this will all be a memory during the business day Friday.
Thanks for your patience. – Larry The NAPP Director Guy
Scott
A real pain outside the US is the cost of CS4 and LR2. CS4 costs £570 eau. to US$985 and LR2 costs £233 US$400 comapred with $700 and $300 in the US before any disounts/offers.
The NAPP discounts don’t work outside the US and we can’t order from the US Adobe store.
This price differential is really depressing for many people in the UK and I am sure the rest of thge world. I slight premium is acceptable buy almost a 50% mark up seems a rip off and results in people obtaining the software by alternative means.
Whilst I’m not sure if I will have any problems in the future my intention is to buy from a US store and get it shipped to me here in the UK – a really pain!
Love your blog, books and NAPP just wish Adobe wasn’t ripping people off !
Ordered CS4 and Elements. Promo code did not work. Ordered just the same. Any chance the code will be applied to old orders? Thanks –
Ian, you´re not alone, we got the same problem here in Sweden. I’m off to Adobes CS4 suite launch seminar on thursday and I’m going to press them why we have to pay twice the price of the software compared to our American brothers in arms. It’s the identical software we download, it is not translated to the Queens english(I understand it but it is not English ;^) ). They can’t say it’s because of different translations
NAPP, you should always point out that NAPP members discount only applies to people living in the US so that your international members don’t gets false impressions of their membership
Well today, I was able to take advantage of this offer. I was able to download my CS4 and Lightroom upgrades. I was unable to download to home but was able to download to work and I am in the process of transferring the files from work to home.
Interesting side note…..I was VERY worried about this international NAPP membership NOT working for this but I am in Canada and all seems fine?
I thought it only fair after all the negative press that I acknowledge my success. Why is it that these Adobe offers are only good in North America? Seems unfair to the rest of the world, from my perspective.
Yippee! The promo code works!
There was some pain and confusion, but in the end I am still glad for my NAPP membership and the amount of money it saves me. Membership more than pays for itself each year. I need to take better advantage of all the other services, for the moment I’m still only in the “buyer’s club” for the most part
Unfortuantly, upgrades are not available if you have purchased photoshop in a bundle. Adobe is unfair with their upgrades policy. I do not use illustrator or indesign and can’t afford to upgrade them. Why does Adobe penalize the people who legitimately purchase their product and have paid top dollar?
What a pity this doesn’t apply to non US members. I wish you could negotiate international deals for all of us.
However, I suppose that’s why it’s the NAPP and not the IAPP.
code works, plus free shipping until Dec 1st. I don’t care for downloads, I want to SEE the box and CD..
arrrrrrgggggghhhhhhhhh!!! yeah, like others, I paid the $99 to upgrade to LR2 NOT KNOWING that i could get both products for $238. Now i’m stuck paying $199 to upgrade to CS4 if I want it (upgrade), effectively paying $298 instead of $238.
Why didn’t Adobe tell us???
Started the thread thinking of upgrading to CS4 but ended by deciding a) not to contribute to Adobe’s cash flow, especially as I live in the UK currrently and b) not to join NAPP as the discounts do not apply to me.
Irrespective of the merits or demerits of CS4, the cost of my upgrading my copy of CS3 extended is prohibitive! DOI – one of the many ’serious’ amateurs who do not have the expense accounts or suckers (sorry, read ustomers) to pass the bills onto.
I continue to look for an alternative to Adobe (that does not involve ditching my PC for an over-priced Mac). I would change in a flash, having been serially fleeced by Adobe over the years.
Great information thanks for sharing this with us.In fact in all posts of this blog their is something to learn.I wish I had found it sooner. Keep up the good work.
My friend and I were recently discussing about technology, and how integrated it has become to our daily lives. Reading this post makes me think back to that debate we had, and just how inseparable from electronics we have all become.
I don’t mean this in a bad way, of course! Societal concerns aside… I just hope that as memory becomes less expensive, the possibility of uploading our brains onto a digital medium becomes a true reality. It’s a fantasy that I daydream about all the time.
(Posted on Nintendo DS running R4i DS OperaV2)