Adobe has just released Creative Suite 5.5, a paid upgrade that brings mobile authoring tools to the company’s powerful design tools. Let me stress that last point. A PAID upgrade for a .5 version release. You with me so far? Good. Let’s move on.

The upgrade starts at $399 for the package of tools the company released less than a year ago. That alone is going to be enough to get some people like me fairly upset, especially if Adobe doesn’t make bug fixes available for the 5.0 version without upgrading to 5.5. So, it would be possible that if you’re using Photoshop 5.0 and some critical bug is fixed you’ll need to upgrade to 5.5 before you can apply it. Which frankly, in my opinion is almost enough to make me rant endlessly agaisnt Adobe and how wrong that is.

But now on to the interesting news: Adobe also announced a subscription program for their apps in the US, which allows users to pay month-to-month or annually.

Creative Suite 5.5 Web Premium is $135.00 per month on a month-to-month basis and $89 per month if paid for an annual plan. That works itself out to be $1620 and $1068 respectively. The full version of Creative Suite 5.5 Web Premium is $1799, so you could save around $700 to use CS5.5 before Adobe likely releases a 6.0. Most likely at that time you would re-up for an annual package.

But, if you really think about it, you would be paying for software that you don’t get to keep even when you have paid for it for a full year. This makes the annual plan seem like a pretty weird idea if you think about it. And since this upgrade came so soon on the heels of 5.0, then it will be less than a year before 6.0 comes out. So do the math kids. You would  have already paid for a year and be locked into that bill by the time the new version with new features comes out.

I can see some benefit in renting though. I could totally see myself using the apps I use all the time in a purchase plan (like Photoshop and Dreamweaver) but I literally use GoLive once or twice a year. I could easily see myself renting for that and then cancel at the end of the month when I was done using it. Of course, you could argue if you only use an app once or twice a year, by the time a new upgrade comes out, you could spend the entire month trying to learn the new features.

But it is an interesting idea and I’ll tell you why. Adobe knows two things. They are the monopoly on the block right now. I admit it, I can’t live/work without Photoshop. I could get by without Dreamweaver because I can hand code, but still. So Adobe knows they can charge whatever they want and you can’t do much about it. So, the ability to use some other good apps on a rental basis is something that interests me, in a grading I have to rent it because I can’t afford to own it any more kind of way.

But, my patience will only go so far, and that leads to the second interesting point. With the upgrade today that stresses mobile and all the implications in the Apple/Adobe fight that conjures up, I bet the big boy is trying to rake in as much as possible in case it sees the writing on the wall. I love your products Adobe, I really do. But if I have to choose between gas to get to work and going out in search of new software that I can use that I can afford to do said work, I think you are going to lose. I mean, $2599 for the Master Collection and I don’t get a free .5 upgrade? Wow. That is bold, stupid, but bold.

I think Adobe needs to think hard about its marketing and pricing structure. They have a great product that is produced by talented people, and used by talented people, but you will reach the point when you look like greedy little buggers. Even art houses that use this every day will find this hard to fork out for a license fee year after year. Hopefully, Adobe can see the bigger picture and reverse its course. Cause I have news for you big guys, you will create competition this way for sure, and I would not hesitate to try them out.