I have CS5.5 Web Design Premium . I don't use half of it. One program I use heavily, others a lot some hardly at all.

The program I use heavily has no equivalent, the others do.

I don't religiously upgrade the Adobe software. I started with one program and then I really need two and so inevitably one you use two Adobe products one of the suites becomes more cost effective.

My upgrade path has rarely been because of killer features, it has been because of my clients. My clients often use Adobe software. They give me assets created in Adobe software and expect back assets for use in Adobe software. When one of my clients engaged me on a project for $7,000 and they bought CS5 I was forced to upgrade from CS3 to CS5. The CS5.5 release included mobile development features and that was a required upgrade on my part.

For me, the value for money aspect of the software is less relevant. The cost of using Adobe software is, for me, the cost of doing business with many of my clients.

If a client was using product X and I was going to work with them and the money was right, I would buy product X.

I mention this because generally the circles in which Adobe software legitimately moves, isn't buying it purely on a feature basis, or value for money basis - Adobe software has become the common language of interchange between companies involved in Media. Besides being the common language of asset interchange, it is also the common language of skillsets amongst people - there's an expectation that you know how to use Adobe software.

If I was an Artist/Graphic designer working on commissions to produce pure artwork rather than work in a pipeline, then I would be interested in price and probably giving non-Adobe products serious consideration. We all know that for artwork Xara is capable of anything illustrator can do - when the right artist is using it.

At one time I used Xara Xtreme heavily and indeed made good use of XWD for projects where the Adobe pipeline came into play. Lately that isn't the case.