We Australians pay high prices for a simple reason - our market can bear the prices. The strong Australian dollar coincides with higher wages and costs of living, and any professional who needs photoshop will buy it, albeit begrudgingly. Adobe provides discounts for students and other groups, but the prices are still quite high.

This is basic economics: charge as much as possible to each customer, also known as price discrimination [wikipedia.org].

The same goes for "luxury" cars. Let me give an example. Here in Australia a new BMW M3's recommended retail price is $154,000 AUD. In the US, it is around $60,000 USD. Government taxes, extras, shipping costs, etc only account for a very small percentage of this difference. How does BMW sell any cars in Australia? Enough people are willing and able to pay the price.

Excellent. I'm sick of the exploitation of software pricing in Australia. Price ratios haven't shifted at all since the 90s when the AUD was worth 0.6 USD. Now 1 AUD > 1 USD.

jesus. no matter how stupid the topic is, you can find an apologist for it. Here're the rebuttal points:

1) USA is the most lawsuit happy country in the world. If the company can do business in USA, and the price covers the cost of lawsuits, then the same price will cover the price of lawsuits in Australia.

2) WTF are you smoking on development taxes? *NOBODY* pays fucking taxes on writing software, only on selling it. If you are talking about salaries of developers and so on, then shouldn't there be a *DISCOUNT* since it's so much cheaper to develop it elsewhere?!

3) I guarantee you Adobe has already figured out the taxing regulations previously, and it's fucking sunk cost. The cost of figuring out the tax regulations (as a delta against US tax regulations) do not recur yearly. If there are changes, it's the same kind of changes that happen in USA, and obviously Adobe USA can handle it, so why can't Adobe Australia?

You're full of shit.

Figuring out whether you are liable for GST takes about 5 minutes. Registering for GST would take a few hours. Nearly every company in Australia registers for GST, so the government made it extremely simple. These things are such a marginal cost that it is ridiculous to use them as a reason for significant price differences.

As for the strength of the Australian dollar, that is purely a rubbish argument, because US companies typically price their software in US dollars, and let the exchange rate take care of itself.

They clearly don't. 10 years ago the AUD was worth US$0.50, now it's worth US$1. Software prices in Australia are not 50% less than they were (relative to US prices).

For example Office Professional Edition 2003 was announced at US$499 [pcworld.com] in 2003 in the US, but at AUD$899 [microsoft.com] in Australia. The AUD was worth USD$0.65 at the time. So the Australian version was USD$584 and USD$53 of that is GST giving a $32 or 6% premium over the US price which no one complained about since that's reasonable.

Now Microsoft Office Professional 2010 (2 PC/1 user version) is AUD$849 [microsoft.com] in Australia. It is USD$499.95 [microsoft.com] in the US. The AUD is currently worth USD$1.05. So the Australian version is USD$891 of which USD$81 is GST giving a USD$310 or 62% premium.

Notice even though the AUD has increased in value by about 60% in that time frame the relative USD/AUD prices have essentially remained unchanged (wooho a $50 reduction in Oz).

Australians wish they priced in USD, since then prices would have fallen by almost half over that time frame.

So how do you explain a 6% premium turning into a 60% premium? What massive changes product liability and taxation systems do you think happen in Australia?

Australia has a GST tax. Just figuring out if you are liable for this will cost you a bundle. Collecting it and dealing with it from Chicago will cost you more in terms of staff time, and hiring work done in Australia.

Oh sure. It's real hard. If you are you selling it in Australia then you add 10% to the price and send that in to the government. If you are selling it outside of Australia then you do nothing. Wow, that's so complicated! All software qualifies for the GST making it even simpler to work out.

It's not just the tariffs or the taxes. How do you explain that even cars made locally in Australia cost more than the same model in New Zealand? They have shipping costs, taxes, and tariffs too, yet a locally made car somehow costs more here!

I just found an informative page [customs.gov.au] for importing a car into Australia. It has a worked example for importing a car worth $56K into Australia. The total payable tax plus tariffs is $11.5K. Doesn't exactly account for a BMW going from $60K to over $130K, does it? Where the hell did the other $60K increase in the price come from?

I once worked as an IT contractor for a car importer that had an exclusive deal with a manufacturer to import cars into Australia. I asked one of their senior staffers why cars were more expensive in Australia. He basically admitted that all of the importers jack up the price because they have an effective monopoly position (for their brands), and can get away with it. There's a sort of gentleman's agreement between them to maintain this status quo and not compete on price. This works because importers often import several brands, so there's only a few of them catering for the entire market. It's not the taxes, the shipping, the retailers, or the manufacturer. Nameless middle-men obtain exclusive rights to import, and then milk the market for everything that they can.

It's blatantly obvious if you know what to look for. For example, I wanted to get a nice sporty car, like the Nissan GT-R. Here in Australia, it's over double the cost of what it is in Japan or in the US. I worked out all the taxes, and it still didn't explain most of the difference. I looked into importing one direct from Japan -- I'd still have to pay all of the Australian taxes and tariffs and pay an additinal overhead for organising the whole thing, but the end result would still about 30-40% cheaper. However, it turns out that I wouldn't be be able to get my imported car serviced! The "official" importer also controls all of the parts and servicing, and they'll refuse to do business with you if you own a "grey" import. You can have it serviced elsewhere, but with a small-volume model like the GT-R, it's a risk. Compare that to, say, buying an iPad in America. Apple will repair it for you in Australia happily.

There's no way to do the equivalent in America because the market is too big, there's too many importers, and hence there's enough competition to prevent a successful collusion from forming.

This is why I don't buy anything except food and clothes from local retailers any more. I get all my gadgets and software online. Lots of other Australians shop online from overseas too. It's probably harming our local businesses, but fuck them and their greedy price gouging.

It's about time the ACCC started investigating this. First software, then I hope they look into cars next...

We don't want your soldiers. Take them home.

- Regards, The World.

You're arguing that the costs for Adobe/Microsoft's Australian operations effctively double to price of the product they sell. Well, as an Australian business customer I fail to see any value-add from Adobe or Microsoft having an Australian presence -

Software distribution is handled by, shockingly, software distribution companies like Tech Pacific or Ingram Micro.
Distributors onsell products to retailers or resellers etc.
The resellers provide local sales support (eg sell the phyiscal media, preinstall it on PC's etc)
Any technical support is handled by the Asia Pacific regional callcentre for the relevant company - generally not in Australia.
Any licencing issues are handled by Microsoft / Adobe America directly, generally or automated systems.
Vey little of this distribution and support chain requires the interaction of Microsoft Australia employees.

Since I manage software for a reasonable sized company we get our licences via a reseller, and download the media, so we don't use their software distribution chain, anyway.

The only time Microsoft or Adobe have any direct interaction with their customers is at trade shows, or advertising etc; eg this is just the cost of doing business in any country. They're certainly not adding much value-add compared to purchasing the software dierctly from the US. I can't see how they could justify doubling the price on their products due to the cost of maintaining a local Australian presence.

If the cost of an Australian presence really was an issue, they could shut the australian offices and just run from singapore or something, Most customers wouldn't notice any difference.

You and AC both have it wrong. They aren't subsidizing us, nor are we subsidizing them. We're both being anally raped by the corporations. Goods and services simply do not cost what we are being charged, even allowing for reasonable profits. Companies that have billions in liquid assets which they don't even have a use for are proof of that.

Oh - those drugs? Most of them are shit anyway. Where is the cure for cancer? Alzhiemers? Diabetes? I read an article just a few days ago, about the number of Americans who are on life-time regimens of various drugs. The pharmaceutical companies don't want to cure any thing - they just want consumers to become dependent on their drugs. Psychologically dependent, or physically dependent - it doesn't matter. It's the revenue that matters. Lives mean shit to them.