151–160 of 173 posts
This reminds me of a story[1] around 8 years ago of the eye-watering costs of ADSL in South Africa. Whereby it was cheaper to fly to Hong Kong and download 100GB of data in an internet cafe than it was from home using the incumbent telco provider, Telkom. [1] http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/cheaper-to-fly-than-u...
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Exploiting human irrationality and stupidity is one of the most venerable, time-proven ways of making money. If you feel your intelligence insulted, then don't buy it...? (aka, vote with your wallet, and let others do the same)
Or you could pirate it. Not saying that you should...
This is a bug with the copyright system. The software is copyrighted and only Adobe can sell it. So they can sell what they want. One copyright reform I'd make, would be removing copyright protection from works like this where are sold as massively different rates between markets. You'd need to look at average wage in the country and compare (rather than a simple metric of 'can you fly to $OTHERCOUNTRY and buy it for…
One copyright reform I'd make, would be removing copyright protection from works like this where are sold as massively different rates between markets. You'd need to look at average wage in the country and compare Just thought I'd try and run such numbers. The median Australian household income in 2007-2008 was US $69,085. [1] The median US household income in the Northeast in 2010 was $53,283. [2] So a 31% differenc…
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My friends in São Paulo just did that with an iMac - bought it in Arizona during their Christmas trip to the US, declared it at Guarulhos airport, paid the import imposts and still came in with a huge discount to the local retail price.
Cost of flight to AZ + Cost of iMac + Cost of Imposts was a huge discount or just the Cost of iMac + Cost of Imposts?
Voila, monopoly in action. I have both a grudging respect and an intense dislike of Adobe for their complete ownership of the creative software space. It's kind of amazing, and it's the clearest example of a monopoly that I experience in my everyday life. Well done, I guess?
So isn't that a perfect opportunity for FOSS and Gimp?
I'm surprised no one mentioned the exorbitant prices of electronics in Brazil compared to the US. For example, the top of the line Macbook 15" retina in the Brazilian Apple store costs R$12599 which is around $6395USD, while the same in the US is $2799. A Brazil/Miami return flight is also around $1000 depending on the time of year. So theoretically it's cheaper for Brazilians to go to Miami, have a nice weeklong vac…
And that's not Apple's fault. Brazil has insanely high import tariffs to protect local industries.
I'm surprised no one mentioned the exorbitant prices of electronics in Brazil compared to the US. For example, the top of the line Macbook 15" retina in the Brazilian Apple store costs R$12599 which is around $6395USD, while the same in the US is $2799. A Brazil/Miami return flight is also around $1000 depending on the time of year. So theoretically it's cheaper for Brazilians to go to Miami, have a nice weeklong vac…
And South Americans are actually doing just that. Travel to Florida and shop for prices 50% lower than in Brazil: "The Sawgrass Mills mall has enough retail space to fill more than 40 football fields. Most notably, Sawgrass attracts destination shoppers from South America." http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/next-america/sawg...
I'm surprised no one mentioned the exorbitant prices of electronics in Brazil compared to the US. For example, the top of the line Macbook 15" retina in the Brazilian Apple store costs R$12599 which is around $6395USD, while the same in the US is $2799. A Brazil/Miami return flight is also around $1000 depending on the time of year. So theoretically it's cheaper for Brazilians to go to Miami, have a nice weeklong vac…
> The problem is the government/customs knows that and thus catches and taxes a lot of people who try to bring over $500USD worth of products. Does this mean the difference in the price of the Macbook is entirely taxes? Or, after paying an import duty at the airport, would the overall cost still be lower than buying the hardware domestically?
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One obvious solution would be for Australia to start or join a free trade zone. In the European Union you are not allowed to prevent people from trading across borders or discriminating them on their country of residence, so price differences between countries are relatively small. I realize most free trade zones are between neighbouring countries but I don't see why they couldn't do a free trade zone with the USA, f…
Australia and the US already have a free trade agreement: http://www.austrade.gov.au/AUSFTA/default.aspx
As an Australian (now an NYC resident), I am no stranger to the price gouging that Australians have had to suffer although I must say that how it is now is much, much better than it was 10-20 years ago. First, it's worth noting that US prices don't include sales tax. Australian prices include a 10% GST. Second, international companies will end up doing their accounting in one currency. For tech companies unsurprising…