Why are Adobe Suite CS2 so expensive?

Question

There's got to be more than just the amount of software in that one package. What other reasons could contribute to this price?

Answer 1

Rearch and Development, programming, labor, licensing, usage rights, and various other things they never tell you about.

Answer 2

I'm not sure if you're being serious here, but to answer your question with a question: What is the value of high-quality software to you? What value does software have that improves the output, quality, and efficiency of the work you perform? Most users would say software that does that is worth far more than what most Off-the-Shelf vendors like Adobe and Microsoft typically charge.

Many many thousands of man-hours of development are rolled up in that $900-$1000 for the CS suite. Certainly hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars (no, I'm not kidding) have been spent to develop the software over the years. Packages like Photoshop and Illustrator have few peers in their respective market categories and of course PS is virtually the de facto photo editing software out there and has been for over a decade. The thousands of books written about how to use it attest to that.

The reality is that few serious businesses--even the smallest 1 or 2 person shops--quibble over the cost of OTS software that they regularly use and drives their business. It is simply amortized into the cost of doing business. It would never enter into their way of thinking to wonder if purchasing that software is "worth it."

If it enters into your way of thinking I would simply forget about purchasing it as you are not quite ready to need or want that kind of software. Paint .NET or Paint Shop Pro or Corel Photo-PAINT may suffice for you.