Mac Forum / Applications / Mac Applications / October 2006

There is no indication at the Adobe web site that a Mac version of
Elements 5 is in the offing. Similarly, there are no rumors at the
usual sites of a beta version of a Mac release existing.

From those two (negative) data points, I would assume that the Elements
5 release is Windows-only. That wouldn't be surprising since the vast
majority of features added in the past couple versions have been
"Organizer"-related and the Mac version doesn't include Organizer.

In past versions, the pattern has been for Elements to come out later
on the Mac than on Windows. And, it tends to be a subset of the
previous release of Mac Photoshop code. I think this tells us
everything we need to know. The last Mac Photoshop code is CS2 which is
not Universal Binary because it predates Intel Macs. Adobe have already
announced that CS3 is coming out in spring 2007. Putting that together
with what history tells us, we can reasonably guess that Photoshop
Elements 5 for Mac will come out as a Universal as soon as there is
Universal Photoshop code base to draw from, or sometime in 2007.

The only way I can see Elements shipping first is if they don't wait
for Photoshop CS(3?) to go Universal. That could only happen if they
released Elements 5 as non-Universal or they fork the code base so that
it no longer depends on the larger Photoshop code base. But I don't see
what they would gain from forking it, seems like it would be a
duplication of effort. I stick to a prediction of mid-2007 for Elements
5 as a Universal.

Anyone who thinks Elements might have been dropped because it didn't
ship with Windows doesn't know the history, or are one of those
ultra-paranoid Mac users who always thinks the world is out to get the
Mac.