91–100 of 173 posts
It wouldn't be equal to USA prices, since VAT and some markup would apply, but if there is any competition whatsoever, there won't be a markup of $1000 for a single box.
I still don't own Photoshop and Lightroom and Adobe is out 800 USD.
What I never get about this and the differences in pricing in movies, music, books, branded clothes, etc. is that this is all tacitly approved by all the governments. That Nike or Adobe or whomever can stop people from buying it cheaper in one country and then selling it at a profit in another country is frankly bizarre. But then they'll throw a fit at each other if one country says 'no, you can't sell you're cheap b…
The government doesn't have much to do with it, it's all contract law. Adobe makes a deal with a local distributor -- we won't sell directly into your territory, we will label our goods so you can discriminate (e.g. not provide service or upgrades for "grey market" products). The real scandal is that the sftware (or hardware) company sells its products at a wholesale price to the local distributor that prices in supp…
So yes - local prices may be higher. But not that much higher.
The gray market doesn't depend on contract law, since an unauthorized distributor should be free to buy up inventory however it can (eg. pose as a customer). But this doesn't work with software, and that's the problem.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've heard that setting up shop is quite expensive in Australia due to a number of factors, and that the online prices is matched up to the retail price to avoid hurting profits.
Starting a business in Australia is ridiculously expensive. In the UK it's £20 ( last time I looked ). In Australia it was $900 or so when I looked. Lots of regulations on this and that. My pet theory is that it started out militaristically and has stayed that way ever since.
I paid about $560 to set up my company (a company has an ACN[2] from the ASIC[3] and an ABN and TFN[4] from the ATO[5]) but if you do the paperwork yourself it's cheaper.
1. Australian Business Number 2. Australian Company Number 3. Australian Securities and Investment Commission 4. Tax File Number 5. Australian Tax Office
Same with cars, only the workaround is expensive or impossible. For example take a brand new Subaru wrx: US starts at $25,795 Australia starts at $44,377 In both cases the car needs to be imported and also falls under Australia's luxury car tax so the comparison is reasonably fair. The more expensive a car is the worse it gets (a Nissan gtr will set you back 170k+). Sure a little bit of this is first world problems,…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apple stuff is still about 10-20% more expensive and the refurbs are about 10% and older versions.
Really? Because price difference was always effectively a rounding error when I calculated US price + Australian GST vs Australian price. I haven't looked for a while though, having moved back to the UK last year.
The same thing happens in the UK. Napster for example charges more than 50% more for a download service in the UK, than in the USA. Completely ridiculous for an internet based download service. I was going to subscribe until I learned this. Can't support business's gouging their clients.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Two main reasons. 1. Australia is a small market, so for a lot of things there are poor economies of scale and/or cozy oligopolies. 2. Exchange rates. Then along came: 3. Artificial market segmentation. Region encoding, per-country versions and so on. There's no technical reason for this, it's done simply because (thanks AUSFTA) it can be done. The artificial segmentation didn't used to be a big problem until the AUD…
You've got to wonder why they haven't tried artificial market segmentation between US States yet.
It's all the fault of Aussies themselves - if they want to fix this, they simply need to ensure (through their lawmakers) that the first sale doctrine applies fairly as intended, and within a week there will be redistributors selling legal boxed Adobe software (imported from US) for decent prices. It wouldn't be equal to USA prices, since VAT and some markup would apply, but if there is any competition whatsoever, th…
http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-65167117-CS6-Master-Collection/d...
In fact you can get the software locally for as low as $3550 if you shop around - http://www.softwaresite.com.au/adobe-software-/69-adobe-cs6-...
The main issue is the RRP (recommended retail price) put out by the developer (Adobe) which is totally ludicrous. My favourite is Microsoft AU's official RRP for the Windows 8 Pro Upgrade at AU$399. In the US its $199.
In my opinion, home users tend to shop around more and will be able to spot a bargain, but business users will probably be the ones being ripped off.