This sort of thing is not new. I remember way
back in the 1990's when a colleague of mine was
buying Authorware 4.0 and realised that the US
version was over $1000 cheaper than the UK one.
He complained to the mailing list and got several
replies offlist. Most were from US based software
suppliers saying "call me on this number with
your credit card and we'll ship a copy to you
directly". One was from Macromedia UK which said
"Please don't buy from the US - we won't support
you if you do". Given that he wasn't aware that
they were providing support anyway you can guess what he did.
My feeling is that the price difference comes
down to the dollar exchange rate. Adobe are a US
based company and need to get paid in dollars. As
far as I can see the dollar is currently at
pretty much an all time low compared to the Euro
and Pound. Adobes accountants have set the Euro
price so that the dollar can rise to its previous
level without Adobe losing out. For the
accountants this makes sense as their job is to
maximise revenue - not to worry about customer
relations. It also assumes that the dollar will
bounce back - which may or may not happen.
So why doesn't Adobe just change the Euro prices
as the dollar exchange rate changes? Well
historically, distributors and customers really
hate it if the price keeps changing - they have
to reprint catalogues or put "phone for a price"
which is unpopular. However those same
distributors and customers are noticing that they
hate it more being overcharged by hundreds of
dollars and the customers are considering buying
from abroad which isn't good for the distributors
either. The other big change is that these days
I'm willing to bet that most software is bought
over the web anyway which makes updating the
price much simpler. So my suggestion is that
Adobe should abandon fixed prices for non-dollar
customers and instead say "we will recalculate
prices based on the exchange rate every 6 months
and will tell you the dates when we do this".
That way customers don't feel that they're being
ripped off, the process may be more complex than
they're like but at least its transparent and open.
Macromedia and Adobe have really pushed the whole
"open and honest" approach over the last few
years with things like the beta preview
programme, blogs and people like John D. Its a
shame that the price people haven't caught up. By
the way has anyone noticed that Microsoft's
pricing of Vista in the UK is roughly double the
US price - of course the difference is that I
would like to use the new version of Flash...
Well that's my 2 cents or £4.50 for those in the UK...
Joe
Joe Cutting
Computer exhibits and installations
www.joecutting.com
The Fishergate Centre, 4 Fishergate, York, YO10 4FB
01904 624681
As of 30th October 2006 I have a new office so
please note my new address and phone number
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