>You bring up an interesting point though, that some software prices are >different in different countries.
They are indeed, and that's true for nearly all vendors. But it's hardly surprising, because nearly every other product has different prices in different countries, so why should software be any different? There are myriad reasons in the case of software, including differing: - support costs - language translation - local marketing and sales expenses - currency rates (prices are not adjusted every day!) - compliance - legal and regulatory regimes - tariffs and taxes - warranty terms - market size ...and a lot more factors. My observation, FWIW, is that at least IBM software prices have trended toward less worldwide deviation over the past few years as IBM has figured out ways to reduce cost discrepancies. I don't think prices ever can be (or should be) equal, though, given the above factors. If you do see a product that has *exactly* the same retail price worldwide it tends to be a product that suffers "price fixing" to at least some extent, with severe penalties to dealers and distributors that deviate from the manufacturer set price. Many luxury and strongly branded products are in this category. There's at least one electronics product (which shall remain nameless) that fits into this category in contrast to other such products, as a quick personal visit to a Chinese electronics store verified. The price for this product is the same in Beijing as it is in Boston. [Writing my own opinion myself. My employer may or may not agree, even if I say "the sky is blue." It isn't always. On the moon it looks black.] - - - - - Timothy F. Sipples Consulting Enterprise Software Architect, z9/zSeries IBM Japan, Ltd. E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
