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Apple, Microsoft and Adobe Required to Explain High Pricing in Australia
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Amen. In the case of Adobe if you buy a physical copy in the US and try to activate abroad you can expect to be contacted by Adobe for using a 'pirate' copy. Adobe is deliberately trying to prevent a free market.
Understand this, all you Ayn Rand devotees, governments are also expected to pitch in when markets are deliberately distorted. Did your founding fathers launch a war of independence because they believed in a government of the people for the corporations and by the corporations?
lol... i didn't know this .... we learn something every day on here..
Its cheaper, i grant you that...... but top-notch ? wouldn't count on it... Its ok, but not the best.
Ya,, we get used to that
25% VAT on everything you buy here in Norway...
Along with 30% ++ (depending on what you earn) income tax there really isn't much left to spend, sadly
Not to stir up a big discussion; but that's absolute bullcrap. Most Norwegians can afford luxurious lives *after* paying the tax. The pay is high enough to compensate for the tax: Average income after removing tax is still high.
The best bit about Apple at the moment is design and I think you have an Englishman to thank for that.
Bloody Americans
America is full of brilliant Englshman working for American companies. Now, why is that?
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Which is why the British dominated the computer industry, of course.
Thank you, Britain, for routinely creating a small number of the most brilliant inventors in the world, and generously shipping them to us!
All this MATH crap is just that, crap. Does not matter about taxes, percentages, cost, margin, profit.
A company can sell something for whatever price it wants. Nobody has to buy it. Nobody.
This is about the dumbest thing I ever read.
Companies like Apple that are being brought up this foolishness should just ask the government if they want them to LEAVE the country. Then see how much it will cost to buy these products.
Stupid.
Insane.
A company can sell something for whatever price it wants. Nobody has to buy it. Nobody.
This is about the dumbest thing I ever read.
Companies like Apple that are being brought up this foolishness should just ask the government if they want them to LEAVE the country. Then see how much it will cost to buy these products.
Stupid.
Insane.
Not from USA, but live and work here.
Sorry, don't share your opinion that companies have to explain their prices or consumers need to be protected when there are other choices by other vendors.
The consumer can protect him/herself by not buying something they think is too expensive. An Apple computer is not a MUST have to live!
Your drug example is not related to this and it is well known that pharmacy companies charge different prices for different countries. A whole other story.
No government in a free country will be able to dictate profit margins or prices
for consumer goods.
Whatever they regulate usually is a mess.
I wonder why they don't go after Chanel, Dior etc. asking why they have $ 5000
purses or pocket books made in China for little money.
Free enterprise is not a lame excuse, it's capitalism at work.
You are doing a good job of disproving the Australian stereotyps of good nature and good humor, but unfortunately reinforcing the stereotype of ignorance.
English spelling was completely unstandardized prior to the 18th century, and the first real de facto standard was Dr. Johnson' dictionary, published in 1755. By this time, America was well along to going its own way in many things. Dr. Johnson preferred spellings that mirrored the orIginal Norman (French) source words, rather than contemporary English pronunciations. However, in both America and Britain, there were reformers who preferred authentic English spellings. In America, the reformers won and in Britain, they lost.
So in reality, American spellings are more authentically English; while English spellings are actually Anglo-French hybrids.
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Apple does not have sole control over iTunes pricing. Movies and song pricing is negotiated with the media companies. Unfortunately, the negotiations focus on pricing in major markets, so small peripheral economies may not get a lot of attention.
BTW, you should recalculate the mark-up on iPads.
America is full of brilliant Englshman working for American companies. Now, why is that?
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Which is why the British dominated the computer industry, of course.
Thank you, Britain, for routinely creating a small number of the most brilliant inventors in the world, and generously shipping them to us!
Your welcome, your also welcome for the jet engine, VTOL fighter jets, supersonic air travel to name a few, oh and the entire World Wide Web.
As many have said, pricing is to a large extent controlled by the publishers. But can you provide some comparisons of Australian online music sources, such as iTunes vs. Amazon?
Not forgetting other minor inventions like the telephone or television or unimportant drugs like penicillin
Not forgetting other minor inventions like the telephone or television or unimportant drugs like penicillin
Yeap, I like the Harrier as it's only now that it has been bettered, so many years later.. and even then it's been an aglo-european effort to do so! The price you pay to ditch simplistic for computerised and stealth?
Yeah agreed, but they wanted supersonic, still the Tornado GR1 was clever as it could automatically follow terrain. But the Harrier is one of the all time greats. I suppose we should be grateful they didn't replace the Typhoon's canon with concrete and that we will have one aircraft carrier with the new VTOL F35... in several years time.
Outback Restaurant is HQ'd in Tampa. No affiliation with Australia other than the theme.
Eurofighter is supersonic and now has some ground attack capability. It seems we're still fighting the cold war instead of an insurgent one where ground following supersonic aircraft are not really needed
Entitlement mentality. People feel as though they deserve things. "We deserve to get these items at the same price as they are sold in country x." "We however reserve the right to ignore the fact that our government places taxes on these products before they are sold to us."
Nope. Our currency is called kuna. But I really doubt any1 here knows thats or the value of kuna. But every1 knows value of USD, so I roughly exchanged 19 000 kunas to USD
Actually, I did know that (we were thinking of a trip to Croatia this year so I did some research).
But the point is, you spend the currency you earn in your own country, not some other currency of some other random country. If you want to spend another country's currency, you need to exchange your currency for that one, and travel to that country. The ability to see what the people of other nations are spending on products causes many to have false ideas about what products should cost in their country. If your country has a relatively strong currency then products are going to look cheap in countries with weak currencies -- though the actual prices in both countries have not changed. Only the exchange rates make it look like they have.
Travel. Enjoy your strong currency. Travel abroad used to be a lot more fun for Americans, since our currency gave us great buying power. Americans are kind of trapped by our weak currency, which makes travel outside the U.S. to most places really expensive now. It's kind of strange to hear citizens of countries with strong currencies complain about it.
It looks like Adobe cut only their subscription prices, full versions of Photoshop etc. are still the same as before.
Right, it won't -- but people living in countries with strong currencies will go online, look at your prices, make a conversion to their currency, and conclude that they are getting screwed and that you are getting a bargain.
Let's take the example of Germany.
iMac, low end 27" model
US Apple Store: 1,800 US-D (without tax)
would be in Euros at current exchange rate: 1,337 Euros (without tax)
German Apple Store: 1,580* Euros (without tax)
asking price: 1,880 Euros (with tax)
* approx. 300 Euros in tax according to Apple
Prices for Apple products in Germany have been insane since I can remember. In this case, it's a 220 Euros price difference. For what exactly?
This goes down into history. I still remember when the iMac came out in 1998 it was supposed to be a product competing with home PCs. That's why in this case pricing was an issue and the German Apple executive of the time was pressed by interviewers about it.
iMac, low end 27" model
US Apple Store: 1,800 US-D (without tax)
would be in Euros at current exchange rate: 1,337 Euros (without tax)
German Apple Store: 1,580* Euros (without tax)
asking price: 1,880 Euros (with tax)
* approx. 300 Euros in tax according to Apple
Prices for Apple products in Germany have been insane since I can remember. In this case, it's a 220 Euros price difference. For what exactly?
This goes down into history. I still remember when the iMac came out in 1998 it was supposed to be a product competing with home PCs. That's why in this case pricing was an issue and the German Apple executive of the time was pressed by interviewers about it.
Our (now ex) prime minister is in jail atm. He sold almost entire country values in a heartbeat. For as low as he could sell. Of course, he made a lot of cash for himself.
I envy Brazil, even Mexico... How the hell can I not envy you guys? All politicians are lousy. In every country. But some are worse then others.
Fosters is owned by SABMiller, which I think you'll find is South African.
Further, would you, a proud American, pay $2.19 for a song? Reasonably priced you think?