You might swap Adobe CS2 for the version 3 sooner than you think. In fact, speculations point out to March for the release date of CS3. As of yet, Adobe Systems has failed to either confirm or deny the March release of CS3 but the company has announced since 2006 that the product will be made available in the spring of 2007.

Adobe has offered just a taste of what will be Creative Suite 3, when it has made available a beta version of Photoshop CS3. The beta was available beyond a two-day grace period only to owners of a valid CS2 product key. Adobe has underlined the fact that the beta was designed to enable customer migration to the latest hardware available with an emphasis put on Intel based Macs. In this context, analysts have begun to speculate that the concomitant release of CS3 and Mac OS X Leopard will help drive up Apple's sales.

Photoshop CS3, from what we have seen from the beta, will make for a must have upgrade. The first Adobe public beta introduced non-destructive smart filters, an enhanced selection tool, the refine edge feature. Photoshop CS3 will additionally feature automatic layer alignment and blending capabilities, multiple and customizable angle perspective planes for Vanishing Point, advanced black and white conversion, and Camera RAW 4.0.

Merrill Lynch analyst Jay Vleeschhouwer revealed March 27 as the potential release date for Adobe CS3. The Adobe Creative Suite 3 will contain a number of core products, among which Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Premier, but the offerings will not be limited to these.