Adobe offers Adobe-Macromedia software bundles

Hot on the heels of completing its acquisition of Macromedia, Adobe is offering bundles of Adobe and Macromedia software. The first two bundles, the Adobe Design Bundle and the Adobe Web Bundle, contain the latest releases of software from Adobe and Macromedia. These are just the original products, with no additional cross-product integration. The Design Bundle includes Adobe Creative Suite 2 Premium (Photoshop CS2, Illustrator CS2, InDesign CS2, GoLive CS2, Acrobat 7.0 Professional, Version Cue CS2, and Bridge) along with Macromedia Flash Professional 8. The Web Bundle also includes Adobe Creative Suite 2 Premium, along with Macromedia Studio 8 (Dreamweaver 8, Flash Professional 8, Fireworks 8, Contribute 3, and FlashPaper 2). A third software bundle, Adobe Video Bundle, is expected to be released in early 2006. There's no word yet on what it will include.

Pricing is steep. Adobe Design Bundle sells for a cool $1599, and Adobe Web Bundle for $1899 at the Adobe Store. There are upgrades from earlier versions of Adobe or Macromedia software suites. If you own Adobe Creative Suite 1 Standard or Premium, you can upgrade to Adobe Design Bundle for $949. If you own Adobe Creative Suite 1 Standard or Premium or Macromedia Studio MX or MX 2004 you can upgrade to the Adobe Web Bundle for $899. Those of us who bought the latest versions of the software may be left out of the upgrade path. Adobe suggests that if you bought Adobe Creative Suite 2 recently, you may be able to return it to the location from which you bought it and buy a bundle instead. There is no upgrade path from individual Adobe or Macromedia products to a bundle.

If you can get the education discount you're in a better position. Adobe's education price is $549 for the Design Bundle and $599 for the Web Bundle.