Adobe To Australians: Fly To US For Cheaper Software 255
angry tapir writes "It's been a long-running joke that it's cheaper for Australians to get a plane ticket to the U.S. if they want to buy Adobe's Creative Suite instead of paying local prices. But appearing before a parliamentary inquiry into the disparity between IT prices in Australia and elsewhere, Adobe's local chief appeared to suggest just that."
Other companies gave their responses to the inquiry as well. Microsoft said they'll simply charge what the market will bear. Apple tossed out a host of reasons for the price difference; its retail partners, digital content owners, exchange rates, taxes, import duties, and an apparent inability to alter the price set by its U.S. parent company.
Regional licensing agreements? (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know if this applies to software, but I know that music and movies have been seriously hindered by archaic regional licensing agreements going back to the days when physical media was the only means of distribution. It's why a certain DVD may be available in a certain region at price x, while completely unavailable or at a different price in region y (with a different distributor or even with a completely different edition of the movie/song). This old system has become a HUGE annoyance in the modern streaming era, particularly if you're trying to watch Netflix outside the U.S. (since those movie licensing agreements are still such a goddamned mess, even in an era when streaming crosses every old national and regional border). It's also why I have to import my blu-ray of "More American Graffiti" from the UK instead of being able to buy it here in the U.S.
This may also explain why these weird prices apply specifically to the standard physical boxed sets of Adobe products, and not the newer cloud versions or student editions (as per the article). It may also explain why Adobe is so reticent to talk about it. If they have some long-standing regional licensing/distribution agreement in Australia, they may be reluctant to bad-mouth their local licensees/distributors (who have jacked up the retail prices for whatever reasons).
Re:Regional licensing agreements? (Score:5, Insightful)
Saying that, I'm pretty certain that stating "Buy from the US" can be viewed as a blessing on the Grey Import business. Thanks, Adobe!
Re:Regional licensing agreements? (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm pretty certain that stating "Buy from the US" can be viewed as a blessing on the Grey Import business.
Actually no. Adobe's Paul Robson made that clear. "If you purchase your Adobe product in the US, we’re not obligated to provide you a warranty. We want you to buy from us."
This is not new to us, it's been going on for years. The gougers have variously blamed retailers, market size, freight costs, warranty differences, rents, taxes, wages, penalty rates and importation and transport costs for their extortionate prices. None of it comes close to explaining their huge markups.
There are no valid excuses.
They're overcharging because they can. Because they're being allowed to use geo-blocking to stop Australians from buying from their websites. Because local retail channels are heavily controlled to block competition. Because their customers are no longer being given the options of competing products.
The market has clearly failed to self-regulate and as a result, deserves government intervention.
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There are no valid excuses.
Since when is a company not allowed to charge whatever it likes for its products...?
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When they're manipulating the market to prevent competition.
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Er, Adobe cant "manipulate the market to prevent competition". Theyre a software company; its the industry with perhaps the lowest conceivable barriers to entry.
If you mean "competitors in the market consisting of Adobe products" then yea, I suppose there are no competitors to Adobe that make Adobe products.
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Setting your prices sky-high is NOT "manipulating the market to prevent competition".
Actually, setting your prices sky-high tends to ENCOURAGE competition.
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None of it comes close to explaining their huge markups.
If you want an explanation, its that people are still (excepting those who buy from the US) willing to pay the inflated prices.
If Im selling bread, and I know people will pay $50 /loaf, why would I charge less than that?
Re:Regional licensing agreements? (Score:5, Insightful)
I have no problem with you charging $50 for that loaf of bread. I do however have a problem if you get laws passed that stop me from going to your store in the next town to buy the same loaf of bread for $1.
And that's what this boils down to. Large multi-national companies get the best of both worlds. they shop around for the cheapest source of parts, labour, and raw materials from any country in the world. meanwhile they lobby for laws and restrictions that prevent their customers from doing the same. (DVD Region coding combined with DMCA style laws, import tariffs, bogus safety laws that are really industry protectionism in disguise, etc)
If you want to make your device in China instead of locally to save on money, don't get upset with me when I buy it from the USA instead of locally for the same reason.
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In regards to the UPS, some do active filtering, some don't. The filtering ones are more expensive generally though.
Another possibility could be that he is somehow covering the exhaust fans and putting it under some nasty thermal stress
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Correct me if I'm wrong but I was always told a UPS has the PC run off the battery so that any surges or sags wouldn't affect the PC.
Most UPSs do not work like that.
Rather, common UPSs work by feeding through normal mains power with certain filters (e.g. EMI filtering, surge protection, etc.). When mains power is interrupted the inverter starts running from the battery and a high-speed switch transfers power from the now-dead mains input to the inverter. When mains power is restored to the UPSs satisfaction it switches back and starts charging the battery.
"Online" UPSs continuously run from batteries that are constantly being charged. Wh
Re:Regional licensing agreements? (Score:4, Informative)
Because the 'charging' circuit in an online UPS has to be able to supply 100% of the load power and any charging power 100% of the time. Similarly, the inverter has to handle 100% duty cycle. Most UPSs are designed to charge slowly and rely on the inverter duty cycle to be limited by the Ah rating of the battery. (In other words, the inverter won't overheat after 10 minutes because the battery will only last for 5 minutes). That's why they warn you to NOT add batteries externally in parallel to the internal one - you may end up with a UPS fire from an under-rated, under-cooled inverter.
Re:Regional licensing agreements? (Score:5, Informative)
Also most online UPSes produce a sine wave, where cheap standby ones generate a square like wave. Sine wave inverters are of course more expensive.
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got a customer, mid 50s, plays flight sims and surfs, that's it, but somehow he keeps blowing up computers. for some reason he doesn't blow up laptops JUST desktops, and I can't for the life of me figure out HOW he is doing it. Tried putting it on a UPS in case the power was bad? No good, still blew. I have replaced damned near every part in that machine with new parts, new parts that would still be going if it were anybody else, new CPU, new board, new RAM, the only parts I haven't replaced yet is the case and the GPU but I know the GPU is good as it was mine and I baby my gear and never had a single glitch and the case belonged to my oldest boy who gamed on it for ages without a single hiccup.
So I don't get it, how in the fuck can one old guy keep blowing fucking boards like that? Is it possible to have something wrong with a line that can get past a UPS? Correct me if I'm wrong but I was always told a UPS has the PC run off the battery so that any surges or sags wouldn't affect the PC. And the real stumper is the laptop...why isn't it frying? Its an old Atom netbook so its not like this thing is quality but whatever is causing this has affected it not at all, its ONLY the desktops that blow up. I just can't seem to figure this one out as it doesn't seem to matter where the parts come from, whether they are new or used, it always ends with the system just shutting smooth off and never firing up again. Real head scratcher. I have taken his CPUs and slapped them in another board and had them fire right up so I'm pretty sure he is somehow frying out the boards (although I can't find any obvious damage like blown caps) but I just can't figure out HOW, how can one old guy playing 7 year old flight sims blow up a motherboard protected by a UPS?
- What is connected to the computer? Printer etc? Are they on the UPS?
- I assume that it is connected to the network via a network cable. Is it going through the UPS or a surge protector? Have you tested/replaced the network cables? How about the internet router? Is it on UPS?
- Does he leave the computer on in a hot environment?
- What size power supply does it have? I usually use this when I am building a new computer: http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp [outervision.com]
- Does he do any other wor
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Any possibility the customer is opening up the machine and fooling around inside somehow, either out of stupidity or mal-intent? Would there be a good reason for him to sabotage the equipment (like to get newer replacements for free, or some weird pleasure out of wasting your time and money)?
Are there any parts of his system which haven't gone bad? This includes parts you've replaced out of suspicion, but found they hadn't failed and work fine elsewhere. It'd probably be good to rule some parts of the sy
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Nowadays only the shittiest PSUs have voltage selector switches. AIUI once they are doing active power factor correction it becomes just as easy to design a universal input as a switchable input.
Plus i'd expect a votlage switchable PSU set to 120V to blow up almost immediately if connected to a 240V supply.
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Sounds like a three year old male infestation.
They can be a real problem sometimes.
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This may also explain why these weird prices apply specifically to the standard physical boxed sets of Adobe products,
It doesn't.
We don't get physical copies. This is pure price-gouging, no excuses.
1 advantage of Free/Libre Opensource Software (Score:2)
This old system has become a HUGE annoyance in the modern streaming era, particularly if you're trying to watch Netflix outside the U.S. (since those movie licensing agreements are still such a goddamned mess, even in an era when streaming crosses every old national and regional border).
That's one of the things I like with Free/Libre OpenSource Software:
If I want to download a copy from internet, I can do it from everywhere. I can pretty much get my favourite Linux distro without any licensing / regional distributor / retail chains madness.
Only very few restriction apply.
- Some digital copyright law, might require acquire DRM-decoding libraries from elsewhere (decss not available in the US or some EU countries).
- Some patent law, might require acquiring codecs from elsewhere (no mp3 nor h2
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- Some patent law, might require acquiring codecs from elsewhere (no mp3 nor h264 are available wherever software patent apply).
Fluendo has licensed the MP3 codec for individual use and you can download and use it free of cost [fluendo.com]. It's often a package in various distros.
- Some import/export law might require acquiring encryption from elsewhere (do still the USA consider large bits key encryption as "munition" and ban its export ?)
Sort of. For the most part, developers in the US wishing to export cryptographic software need to notify the government but no review of the code is required. In essence, the government gave up on regulating nearly all crypto available to the general public, with the exception of exports to certain restricted countries like North Korea, Iran, etc. Export of certain thin
You dirty rotten criminal! (Score:2)
Re:You dirty rotten criminal! (Score:5, Funny)
Fortunately, this particularly blu-ray was region 0, so there was no need for me to become an evil criminal to view it. I have, however, ripped many a tag off a mattress and jaywalked more than once in my life. So I do have a bad-boy side.
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Ripping a tag off a mattress is only illegal if you then try to sell the mattress afterwards.
Oh, I did more than *try*. But that's just how we roll where I came up.
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It does. Here in Germany it is a major pain in the ass with copyrights and such. Actually, most modern games cannot be sold in Germany without removing the blood and stuff. Germany always needs special versions.
But, amazingly, it doesn't cost more than I would pay any other place in the EU.
Then again, Germans, being rather frugal folks would just not buy it.
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Its ridiculous that I am still (even now) unable to buy either of the Aussie Cult Classic Yahoo Serious Films, Young Einstein or Reckless Kelly on DVD here in Australia.
I imported Young Einstein from the USA many years ago and still dont own Reckless Kelly. I did watch Reckless Kelly a while back on an online video site (where it was doubtless uploaded without the permission of Warner Brothers) but I would gladly walk into JB Hi-Fi or some other store and buy a DVD for my collection if it was possible to do
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Oh and good luck finding many documentaries from networks like History, National Geographic and Discovery... (Modern Marvels, Tales of the Gun and others)
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Ah, no.
"Jersey Shore" is a cultural travesty of the highest order.
Everything else is just above the noise floor.
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It's also why I have to import my blu-ray of "More American Graffiti" from the UK instead of being able to buy it here in the U.S.
I did the same thing with a Harry Potter bluray box set. It was roughly half price to buy it and have it shipped from England via royal mail than to purchase it here in the U.S.
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Which is exactly why Grey Market Importing was legalized in Australia back in the mid 1990's. I haven't been keeping up, did the US finally get that overturned as part of one of their "Free Trade" agreements, and the current problem with software pricing is a result of that?
Mail it'? (Score:3, Insightful)
If this was so easy, couldn't you call a 'friend' in the U.S. and make them mail you a copy?
There has got to be more to this than that.
Re:Mail it'? (Score:5, Insightful)
These companies have agreements with online merchants like Amazon to block sales of US-priced products to Australia. Trying will get you a "This product is not available in your region" message.
A few people sending packages to friends doesn't make a dent in the gouging.
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These companies have agreements with online merchants like Amazon to block sales of US-priced products to Australia.
And there is a whole industry of re-shippers in the US who will receive goods and then forward it on to another (foreign) address.
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My credit card company offers reshipping, and temporary credit card numbers that appear to be US ones (or UK) as a service to get around geoblocking to its customers. Never used it, as their fees are ridiculous, and I have friends I can call on if I really need something, but it struck me as ironic that a major US based international bank would flout geographic restrictions so blatantly when I was offered it.
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What's next?! Amazon honoring religious restrictions? Try to order some condoms on-line and get the message: "We've detected that you're catholic. This product is not available in your religion".
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Sounds like it's simply a coordination problem. I know a bunch of people who would buy a copy of CS (from Amazon, say) and then mail it to a reseller if they could make $100 for their time. Then the reseller could mark it up another $100 and mail it to a customer in Australia.
Re:Mail it'? (Score:5, Informative)
Initially, yes. But it was overturned by the supreme court. [slashdot.org]
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Yeah, but that wasn't software, and we all know that as soon as you add "on a computer" all sense flies out the window and it's completely different somehow...
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If this was so easy, couldn't you call a 'friend' in the U.S. and make them mail you a copy?
Customs / import duty.
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ISTR the original suggestion of "fly to the US and buy it there" accounted for paying any applicable duties on return.
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That doesn't stop you. You just pay 10% extra, which is way less than the 50% markup you are avoiding.
Shopping trips are cheaper (Score:5, Informative)
Seriously. There are organized trips now to the US. Not just for TVs and games and stuff like that.
People will fly to US and buy their entire kitchen set. (Most can work both 110v and 220v now).
Even after paying the shipping container and the VAT, it is still significantly cheaper than buying in Australia.
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Christ. And I thought Alaskans were weird for flying to Seattle and buying big ticket items.
At least we all drive on the same side of the road. (Well, mostly. Seattle traffic is pretty random these days.)
Re:Business Opportunity (Score:4, Informative)
There is. There's a myriad of grey market importers based overseas like e-Global Digital Cameras [eglobaldig...ras.com.au], there's plenty of locally based (i.e. forced to comply with local warranty and tax laws) companies which offer drop shipping likw Kogan [kogan.com.au] who you may have heard of since they've been featured on Slashdot [slashdot.org] a few times.
Then for everything else there's reshipping companies in the USA like Re-ship [usreship.com] or Meimei [meimeiexpress.com] who will provide you with a USA address to drop the product to and then forward ship your parcel onto you for a small fee.
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Or your credit card to be issued by a bank situated in the USA.
They don't get it (Score:5, Funny)
Not the problem anymore (Score:2)
Those days are over, thanks to Google.
Maybe you have heard of Google's book scanning program? They can rent these machines which take screen shots with the monitor upside down very quickly.
The real problem is that the copy of Adobe acrobat pro needed to perform the OCR is so expensive there, the cost does not come down.
And the Boomerangification costs (Score:2)
Boomerangification means you have to do things like make the Delete key be temporary--content returns. And the "Enter" key must say "Return" like the old days.
How many people are buying this needlessly? (Score:2, Interesting)
Corel (Score:2)
AT LOT of people could get by with Corel products are 1/20 the price.
Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)
Sound business practice. Almost. (Score:2)
You'd almost say that it is normal, sound business practice to get the most out of your products. For my car tyres it actually is sound and clean business practice as anyone could import those tyres and offer them to me at a lower price. But nobody
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You could buy Adobe products at retail price in the US to export to Australia and still have plenty of headroom to make a very decent margin.
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Globalization for corps, feudalism to consumers.
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And that's the issue. so many artificial limitations. To go with the tire example above, I could buy tires from overseas, but then the tires wouldn't have my government's safety stamp on them (they'd be identical tires otherwise, and just as safe, but without the safety stamp they'd be illegal)
I could buy my DVDs overseas, but they'd have the wrong region coding, and even though that is trivial to get around, doing so violates federal law.
Many other products are hit with exorbitant import duties to protect
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Actually only the very stupid call "government regulations" and "laws" the Free Market in Action.
The rest of us call it "government interference in the Free Market".
Note that this sort of thing is a side-effect of a government that can do everything for you - if they can do everything for you, they can also do anything TO you....
What a load of crap (Score:5, Insightful)
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Adobe is just being greedy.. that's all.
It could be a racket created by a mid-to-upper level manager. I worked for a a division of a Japanese company in the USA. Parts were made in the US and sold to our Australian counterparts (USA had lower labor costs than Japan). There was an agreement between the US and Australian divisions that we would keep our markup to the Australian division low. Then they could add their own markup and be at basically the same price as the US. Splitting the margin between divisions basically.
Then a new VP came
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Of course the government could fix the problem pretty easily too... just change the laws such that Adobe can't refuse support for grey market imports, remove all laws against breaking digital locks, remove the import tariffs, and make re-selling grey market imports explicitly legal. Then let the market truly decide.
If Adobe can't compete with itself on a level playing field, maybe they'll re-think their practices.
This is NOT the free market in action, there are too many rules and regulations on the busines
Steam pricing could use some looking at as well (Score:2)
I still don't understand why a game that costs $50 in the US should cost 50 euros in Europe.
UK customer don't seem to be affected by these strange currency conversions.
Re:Steam pricing could use some looking at as well (Score:5, Insightful)
Except the UK has VAT too, so there's your argument blown out of the water.
What is it that the US has against VAT? You have sales taxes etc. instead that perform the same purpose. Do you even understand how VAT works (i.e. it only really affects the end-consumer and not the manufacturer or any of the businesses involved in supplying the product)?
I think it's a blanket hatred of something that you don't understand and that you think you have no equivalent of. Clue: Almost all developed countries in the world have the same amount of taxation on the average person. The exceptions are those with blanket-taxation rates and simplified taxation systems that actually tend to lower overall taxation.
You can whine about the TV Licence "tax", road "tax", VAT, and everything else that you like, the fact is that pretty much everyone pays the same amount of tax in all countries.
And hence, the question of why the UK software prices differ from Europe's (literally 30 miles south of us) so vastly is just as important as why Australian prices differ from the US (in fact, more so). And none of it can be attributed to any one tax that's not present in the other country. In fact, almost all of it can be attributed to just one thing - the people buying it don't complain enough.
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You clearly don't have a clue about how european VAT works. Generally (there are a handful of exceptions) companies claim back VAT on what they buy and charge VAT on what they sell. The price they "intended" to sell it at makes no difference, only the price they actually sell it at.
Re:Steam pricing could use some looking at as well (Score:4, Informative)
My thoughts exactly, that's part of why I suspected from the start that a lot of people just don't get it.
VAT. The VA stands for Value Added. A company pays tax on the value it has added to a product, nothing more.
So if a company buys in parts from China, puts them into a device, and sells the device (onto another company, consumer, whoever), then it pays VAT on the things it bought and CHARGES VAT on the things it sold. The difference in VAT is the only thing it has to actually *PAY* to the government.
So if it changes prices, and the things that cost it £50 to build it then has to sell for £40, it actually GETS MONEY BACK from the government in the form of a VAT rebate. If it sells them for £50, it pays no VAT (effectively). If it sells them for £60 it pays the VAT on the £10 only (it pays VAT on £50 but it credited VAT on £60).
That's basically all there is to it. Every company in the EU knows how to deal with it and if they aren't "adding value", they don't pay VAT. It's basically a profit-based tax. No profit, no tax.
In terms of the end consumer, the only person who doesn't ever "add value", they pay a 20% sales tax, in effect. But because the company that produces it isn't subjected to lots of complicated and high taxes, and it isn't charged every time it goes through another company's hands, the price ends up about the same as anywhere else.
There is *nothing* stopping a company selling things cheaper with VAT. In fact, it positively encourages them to!
Competition Yadda (Score:4, Interesting)
Inexplicable pricing. (Score:4)
In my experience Adobe software is more expensive outside the United States in general. It's understandable in Europe where they've got 20% VAT, in addition to a ton of other tariffs. But in Australia their VAT is 10%, considered one of the lowest in the world; I suppose, except for the US which has none. There may be import duties that are not being mentioned here, but it still wouldn't explain why the software is $1000 more expensive than in the US.
However, I've noticed the trend elsewhere, including where I worked in Taiwan. Where Adobe software was considerably more expensive. It was ironic considering how rampant piracy was there. In our case we went through grey market channels, where someone purchased a bunch of copies in the US and resold them there. That or we'd get someone in the States to buy us a copy. Either way, we definitely weren't rushing out to buy the latest versions. So if anything, Adobe was discouraging sales.
There was a lot of weirdness. Some software was cheaper than in the US. But then electronics were barely on par, and in some cases even Taiwanese-made laptops, for example, were actually cheaper than you'd find in the US. I do know that companies were levied various taxes and tariffs so that may have accounted for some of it.
As far as I know, Australia's median income isn't higher than the US. So it seems that for whatever reason Adobe is gouging them. That said, good luck finding a plane ticket for anywhere near $1000.
No warranty? Not an issue (Score:5, Insightful)
FTFA: "Adobe’s US software can be used in Australia but not covered by warranty, he said."
Really? Since when do they have a real warranty on software anyhow?
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No tech support.
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(1) I've never seen useful Adobe tech support and
(2) Gmail much?
Oh wow. (Score:4)
I was expecting all of these companies to give bullshit reasons, and Microsoft just straight up said "Oh, lol, cause we can
Bit** please (Score:5, Interesting)
Australia Adobe store - Creative Suite 6 Master Collection - US$ 4,530.00
Brazil Adobe store - Creative Suite 6 Master Collection - US$ 5,055.00
Brazil, where a car made here is sold for R$ 56.210, and the same car, but with more optionals, is exported to Mexico (over 7000 Km away) and is sold there for R$ 25.800. Take that Australia!
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Brazil, where a car made here is sold for R$ 56.210, and the same car, but with more optionals, is exported to Mexico (over 7000 Km away) and is sold there for R$ 25.800. Take that Australia!
It's not just Brazil. Cars made in Canada are shipped to America and sold for less than you'd pay in Canada at a dealership just down the road from the factory they were made in (and that's before you add taxes on top).
ftfy (Score:2)
Robson said the cloud-delivered software is cheaper because it doesn’t have to go through traditional distribution and retail channels. He added that Adobe would prefer selling products over the cloud.
cloud deliverrd software is cheaper because we will make more money over time with a subscription model that reaches into your pocket for a seemingly small amount, than a large upfront fee that causes everyone to pirate.
Third World Currency (Score:2)
Last time I was in Kauai and Maui, it seemed like a huge chunk of the tourists were now from Australia. I talked to some of them, and they said it's actually cheaper for them to vacation in Hawaii than Bali which is closer (and more third world). And of course they said all this while doing the hand motion for throwing dollar bills out in front of them while ordering a free round for everyone around them.
time to go Free/Open Source (Score:2)
Re:time to go Free/Open Source (Score:5, Funny)
Actually, I've heard that nearly all open source sells in Australia for double what I pay for it in the US. It's everywhere, it tell you.
BS from Adobe? (Score:2)
When I worked at a very well known international humanitarian aid organization, we tried asking Adobe a few years back if we could buy their products directly from them, instead of via third parties here in Norway.
We were told that, no, we had to buy it Norway at full price, and it would be a breach of license to buy it from anywhere in the US.
At that time it cost about 17000NOK in the US, while it costed 38000NOK here in Norway (about $2800 vs. $6300). With a few licenses that adds up. And seeing where tha
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It's GST not VAT, and it doesn't come close to explaining the gouging these companies have been getting away with.
Re:what about the inport taxes? and the VAT tax? (Score:4, Insightful)
In case of Adobe and Microsoft it certainly does not. And they both admitted as much.
With regards of Apple it isn't as simple. Their hardware isn't much more expensive as in the US and the difference can be explain fairly easy by taxes and increased costs of doing business.
The iTunes store is a while different matter. Apple has to license the content from local copyright holders and prices are set by those local companies.
For example take a song created by an American artists. The American record company holds all rights to the song, but exclusively sub-licenses it to a local Australian company for distribution in their local market. If Apple wants to sell that song, it has to deal with the American record company for distribution in the U.S. and deal with the Australian company if they want to sell it in Australia. And the Australian company wants more money from Apple which leads to higher prices.
Most likely the Australian company is owned by the American record company, so guess where all the profits go to...
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This article has a nice graphic: http://www.macrumors.com/2013/03/21/apple-blames-high-australian-markups-for-digital-content-on-media-rights-holders/ [macrumors.com]
"Earlier today, MacStories noted that markups in Australia average as much as 61.4% for music, 33.5% for movies and 25.9% for TV shows when a subset of content offerings is compared to prices in the United States once Australia's Goods and Services Tax (GST) has been accounted for. Markups for Apple's hardware products are more reasonable, with Mac, iPad and i
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The most obvious explanation: until a few years ago ("few" ~= 10), 1 Australian dollar had been roughly equal to ~50 US cents since as long as anybody could remember. My guess is that the original prices were set based on that logic (double the US nominal price, then add some more), and as the Australian Dollar achieved nominal parity with the US Dollar, the prices just stayed with the same multiplier and markup because companies like Adobe realized they could get away with it.
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aferarge
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Even with the GST and import taxes, if you're working for an Australian business who needs 2 (or more) copies of Adobe CS6, you're still well ahead by flying over to the US and buying them and paying the GST and import tax. At $3879 for the CS6 master collection, your $1600 flight and $1200 software purchase, plus say $300 salary and $100 hotel room for one night still comes out ahead - and for multiple copies, you're laughing.
Actually salary would be more like $1200. 2 x 16 hour flights (in Oz, every hour flying is counted as an hour working) plus the time there and back. Also you'll need to get them to spend at least one night in LA (closest city to Oz, although you can also fly to SF, Dallas and Fort Worth for the same amount of money and time). The trip would take the better part of a week, would you work 4 days for only $300? It's less than min wage here in Oz (30 hours = $10 an hour, min wage is $15 is p/h).
It would be e
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what about the inport taxes? and the VAT tax?
On digital media,
Import taxes = 0%
GST (Goods and Services Tax, our version of the VAT) 10%.
So if a software package costs US$1200 in the States, it should cost about $1320 in Oz. I'll allow up to $1500 to account for a smaller market and physical isolation.
I dont know how Adobe figures it can charge $1600 more for CS6 in Oz than it does in the US.
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Because people are willing to pay it. If Adobe charged half of what customers were willing to pay, would that make them A) business savvy, or B) incredibly bad at market analysis?
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And you think the company wouldn't pass that cost along to the customers?
Re:what about the inport taxes? and the VAT tax? (Score:4, Informative)
Longer warranties, import taxes and sales taxes are just costs of doing business. And costs of doing business are passed along to the customer. Did you really expect a commercial company to let higher costs eat into their profit margin? If taxes are being raised, prices go up. If legislation is passed that makes it more expensive for companies to operate, prices go up.
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Except of course GST is 10% which is actually less than sales tax in some US states, import taxes on software are, to the best of my knowledge, virtually non existent, and for all the consumer protection laws here, our software warranties are absolutely identical to those of the US. In some instances(Steam for instance) the company doesn't even have a physical presence here.
Even if all those things actually added dramatically to the cost, some of these products are in excess of double the US prices while ou
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So, on your planet where market forces of supply and demand don't work, does gravity make things fall upward or what exactly do we have going on here?
" If legislation is passed that makes it more expensive for companies to operate, prices go up."
If prices go up and users still pay equally, then any economist will tell you either...
- prices were too low before and/or
- the companies have excessive market power
in either case, the items we're talking about here are expensive enough that it isnt the case of adob
Re:enjoy your socialist wonderland, suckers (Score:5, Funny)
If my knowledge of Australia is any indication, they're not socialist. They're either a vast wasteland where people in dune buggies fight over gasoline, or the place where young Einstein learned to party. One of those. Either way, I know they all carry VERY large knives.
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If my knowledge of Australia is any indication, they're not socialist. They're either a vast wasteland where people in dune buggies fight over gasoline, or the place where young Einstein learned to party. One of those. Either way, I know they all carry VERY large knives.
You must be Adobe's overseas marketing director.
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Our mascot is a Koala.
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I think you've got a narrow view of Australians. Not all of them [imdb.com] can fit a large knife in their purse.
What are you on about? (Score:3)
Seriously, what the hell are you talking about? Have you ever been to Australia?
It is not "consumer friendly" at all. Granted it is not as hard core as the "stab your neighbor in the face and take his money" capitalism in the US, but it is close. Corporations have massive power over consumers in Australia. Most Australians would attribute this to American corporate and government manipulation. Though I say, BS. It is ones own job to keep his house in order.
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Interesting, possibly the first time I didn't regret reading an InfoWorld article.