Photoshop upgrade pricing policy

[KmH]

Back when Photoshop CS 5 ruled the world, and CS 6 was just a dim light on the horizon, Adobe announced a change in their upgrade pricing qualification policy.

Adobe's policy to that point had been that anyone owning a registered copy of Photoshop - 3 versions back, qualified for upgrade pricing. By that policy owners of CS 3, CS 4, and CS 5 would qualify for CS 6 upgrade pricing.

Adobe's new policy granted upgrade pricing only 1 version back, meaning only CS 5 owners would be granted upgrade pricing when CS 6 was released.
Many felt Adobe had not given sufficient notification of their policy change. Scott Kelby, a big hitter in the world of Photoshop outside of Adobe Systems, wrote a letter to Adobe expressing that very sentiment.

Adobe relented and did not implement their policy change for the release of CS 6.

However, don't be surprised to see Adobe implement the 1 version back policy with the release of CS 7, and only grant upgrade pricing to CS 6 owners. If that happens, CS 4 and CS 5 owners are well advised to upgrade to CS 6 before the release of CS 7.

Photoshop CS 6 has a retail price of $699 and the Upgrade price is $199. The Extended version of CS 6 has a retail price of $999 and an Upgrade price of $399 (the Student/Teacher version retail price for CS 6 Extended is just $249. Owners of CS 6 Extended Student/Teacher Editions would be granted upgrade pricing to either CS 6 or CS 6 Extended if they no longer have student/teacher qualifications, and assuming Adobe makes no change to it's current Student/Teacher policies.