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It is cheaper to fly to US than buy Adobe software in Australia

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Re: It is cheaper to fly to US than buy Adobe software in Australia

#161

Post by csense »

WhaleBiologist wrote: post #40
relix wrote: post #6

These articles take the wrong perspective - it's not that Australia is much more expensive in tech matters, it's that the US is much more cheap. I don't know where the recent Australia-specific articles are coming from, but it's been like this since as long as I can remember - that the US is much more cheap than any other country I'm familiar with for tech stuff, including Australia, but also almost every other count…

Once upon a time, the Australian dollar was worth about 50 US cents, so things in Australia cost about double what it cost in the US. Then the Australian economy started booming, and now the AUD is stronger than the USD. But everyone who sells stuff in Australia thought "wait a minute, these guys are used to paying double, so what incentive do we have to change?". So now you have retarded pricing, like some places ex…

It can't cost more than $10 to ship a video game from the US to Australia, if you ship in bulk.

So make a startup that buys video games at retail, in bulk, in the US, ships them to Australia, and retails them there.

Everybody'll buy from you because you're so much cheaper, but you'll still have enough margin to make a good profit.

Re: It is cheaper to fly to US than buy Adobe software in Australia

#162

Post by daemin »

stephen_g wrote: post #94
gregsq wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You can get an ABN[1] and set up as a sole trader/partnership online completely free if you're an Australian citizen (I'm not sure whether you can if you're foreign). 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 Securitie…

Yes, setting up as a sole trade is completely free, just need to fill in some paperwork. Setting up a Pty Ltd is a $399AU ASIC fee last I checked, and filling in some more paperwork.

I used a service for this, which produced all of the necessary documentation for me, which cost only $200 extra.

It then costs about $200-$300 a year to maintain through the annual ASIC renewal fee.

Re: It is cheaper to fly to US than buy Adobe software in Australia

#163

Post by Dylanlacey »

icebraining wrote: post #37
Wingman4l7 wrote: post #5

There is no excuse why downloadable content should cost more -- economies of scale, shipping costs, and differences in taxes and exchange rates are all irrelevant. Even in the case of physical goods, the disparity is often drastically more than can be accounted for by the above reasons. This comment sums it up quite well: http://news.cnet.com/8618-1001_3-57568633.html?assetTypeId=1... There is a parliamentary committ…

Why would they need an "excuse"? Pricing is only indirectly related to costs; doubly so with software, where gross profit margins are often higher than 90%. Why is this particular arbitrary price bad, while other arbitrary prices aren't? Sure they'd still make money if they charged the same, but so what?

So there are often strategies put in place to ensure that an Australian customer can't purchase at the US price, on the basis that... well... fuck you we want your money that's why.

I would agree with your point if digital content producers didn't use geocoding to prevent me from accessing their US store o block non-US credit cards. The problem is not that this price is arbitrary, but that it's not. It's a deliberate, nasty piece of geographical discrimination.

Re: It is cheaper to fly to US than buy Adobe software in Australia

#164

Post by yuushi »

bbromhead wrote: post #83

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,…

Actually, a WRX won't have the luxury car tax applied to it; from Wiki: The LCT threshold is currently $59,133.00AUD. Car pricing in Australia is pretty horrific, which is probably due to both taxation and the government trying to protect local manufacturers.

Re: It is cheaper to fly to US than buy Adobe software in Australia

#165

Post by Dylanlacey »

Radim wrote: post #142
crosvenir wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not saying it's without merit, but my blood pressure raises a little every time I hear this argument. It comes across as, "STFU and don't buy if you don't want it!" When in reality, the original consumer considered this but would rather pursue a more active response than to sulkily and more important silently use something else. Yes "voting with one's wallet" is certainly an option. But it should not be the sole…

That's fine, there are indeed more options! Nobody mentioned silence :) You can start a newsletter, informing fellow inflicted customers. Tell your friends and family. Launch a slandering campaign on facebook/internet (within the bounds of law, preferably!). Support a competitor. Promote fewer business regulations, so there are more competitors. Post on Hacker News. Etc &c, depending on one's disposition. But my bloo…

I, personally, don't want global legislation. I want either companies to not act like total dicks (Pricing in Ethiopia should be lower, pricing in Australia shouldn't be twice as much) OR for the AUS and US governments to make a joint agreement to, at the least, issue a large, nasty "Please Explain" from a body of authority.

But I am also coming from a background where the governmental consumer watchdog is very powerful, so that colours my opinions on what can/should usefully be done.

Re: It is cheaper to fly to US than buy Adobe software in Australia

#166

Post by jahmed »

wtvanhest wrote: post #108
damian2000 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's nothing stopping anyone from ordering from the US (eg. on amazon), apart from the extra GST (10%) added on top by aussie customs. On Amazon its only $2166 + 10% GST 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 (recommende…

"Ripped off" is really the wrong term for the pricing discrepancy created by having different places to buy the software within one market. The better term is "price discrimination". Business users of everything are less price sensitive so intelligent sellers of services, software, hardware etc. attempt to capitalize on them through price discrimination. In this case, Adobe (or distributors) are aware that businesses…

I've always thought first-sale doctrine is an interesting and important check on price discrimination. People usually get angry with the concept of price discrimination, it seems to grate at the idea of fairness. Poorly or improperly implemented price discrimination coupled with a strong first-sale doctrine will lead to interesting new arbitrage opportunities.

The pending case of Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc is a good example of arbitrageur vs price discriminator. The result of witch will be really important.

Re: It is cheaper to fly to US than buy Adobe software in Australia

#167

Post by bbromhead »

yuushi wrote: post #164
bbromhead wrote: post #83

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,…

Actually, a WRX won't have the luxury car tax applied to it; from Wiki: The LCT threshold is currently $59,133.00AUD. Car pricing in Australia is pretty horrific, which is probably due to both taxation and the government trying to protect local manufacturers.

You are quite right. I meant to say underneath the lct threshold. Thanks for clearing that up

Re: It is cheaper to fly to US than buy Adobe software in Australia

#168

Post by punkbit »

spikels wrote: post #137
punkbit wrote: post #27

Looking for a Photoshop alternative ? Please take a look into Gimp, I'm using it for a long time now. If the money you pay for licensing Photoshop was put in new creative ideas in Gimp, I'm pretty sure it would look as awesome, as Photoshop! Take a look please :)

This is the real solution to the "Adobe problem". They are still living in the old world of high priced software and are able to charge these ridiculous prices because they don't face any real competition. Gimp is pretty good but still needs lots of work and/or a killer feature or two to convince people to abandon Adobe. Contribute to Gimp if you can!

That's so true! What I see is, there's so many creative people using Photoshop, putting so much money into Adobe. They could contribute with their own views, ideas, needs, etc. Gimp would become ridiculous good just because of that!

Re: It is cheaper to fly to US than buy Adobe software in Australia

#169

Post by DutchessPDX »

You want to know the real reason prices are so much higher in other countries? It has to do with historical exchange rates and companies not adjusting prices when the exchange rate improve in their favor.

Let's look back 10 years ago. Around 10 years ago AU$1 was worth about US$0.60. So, at the time if the US version sold for US$2500 you would need to sell the Australian version for about AU$4166 (before any tax difference) to make the same US$2500.

Now, fast forward 10 years. Over this period Australians have become used to paying about AU$4k for the product but in the background the exchange rate continued to improve in favor of the AU$, to the point where today were the two currencies are worth about the same (AU$ are actually worth slightly more now). BUT because Australians are used to paying the price, there has never been any incentive for Adobe to reduce the price. The same applies for video games, or just about anything else on the market.

Now, I'm not defending Adobe, but from a business perspective I can understand how this happened. You have an exchange rate that slowly creeps up over 10 years. You don't see sales dropping, so why reduce your price, right? This is now the predicament they're in, they kept the price steady and now they have to pay the price with media attention. So, what t

Had this been the other way, and the exchange rate declined for the AU$, you can be damn sure Adobe would have taken corrective price action.

Re: It is cheaper to fly to US than buy Adobe software in Australia

#170

Post by com »

mikeryan wrote: post #135
com wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Yeah, still at least a headline discount of 20-25%. And they were going to AZ anyway, so it felt like 40-50% to them. Everyone was wearing new shoes too, prices in the US are significantly cheaper than in São Paulo
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