I reckon try downloading the demo from the ableton site and having a play round before you outlay the cash as it's pretty damn expensive.

___________________
Meh

I'd agree with Ghostface, you don't want to fork out cash for a product you may regret buying.

And to answer your question, no; no real production experience is needed to use ableton.

It's interface is pretty user friendly and you can go as far as you want to. There are some tutorials included with the program that should help you aswell.

It has some producing capabilities but no real experience is needed for the DJing side of it.