Adobe (ADBE) shares are trading lower this morning after RBC Capital analyst Robert Breza trimmed his estimates and price target on the stock, noting that the upgrade cycle for the recently released Creative Suite 4 has been slowed by the weak economy.

“Our current checks indicate that Adobe’s end markets of enterprises, knowledge workers, designers, OEM partners and developers remain under pressure worldwide,” he writes. “Customers remain reluctant to part with cash and engage in education programs to upgrade to the newly released CS4.” He adds that checks with distribution partners find “a tough business climate” in the company’s fiscal first quarter ending this month. He says that it looks like more customers will skip the new version of Creative Suite and wait for version 5, due in a year or so.

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Adobe (ADBE) this morning officially launched the latest version of its flagship software package, Creative Suite 4. The announcements included a variety of versions and slices of the new software: There are Design, Web and Production versions, a “Master Collection” with all versions of the new software, 13 standalone products, including new versions of Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator and Dreamweaver, among others, along with “14 integrated technologies and seven services.” Whatever that means.

Adobe said street prices are expected to be $1,799 for CS4 Design Premium edition, $1,699 for the CS4 Web Premium and Production Premium, and $2,499 for CS4 Master Collection.

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Adobe (ADBE) shares are losing ground today after Cowen’s Walter Pritchard cut his rating on the stock to Neutral from Outperform.

Pritchard is concerned about the company’s transition from the current version of its flagship software package–Creative Suite 3–to the coming update, Creative Suite 4. He says that with the May quarter, “the company will reach a peak in financial momentum.” But Pritchard contends that “many of the drivers of growth in CS3 are not in place and in some cases work against CS4 given the significant upgrade activity and price uplift that came with CS3.” He notes that in the case of CS3, there were 24 months between versions, rather than the usual 18. The current version, he adds, benefited from additional demand associated with Apple’s (AAPL) adoption of Intel processors for the Mac.

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