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Question

Why Is Adobe discriminating their buyers?

Forum|Forum|14 years ago
December 12, 2011
8 replies
10920 views

Hello!

I'm in process of opening a small video production studio. Wanting to make everything legal, I went to check prices of Adobe software.

Here in Croatia, where I'm located, Adobe Production Premium 5.5 is priced at 15.000 Kuna, which is cca. $3.000.

Then I checked Adobe online store and found same package at price of $1.700. But when I wanted to buy it, it was available only to US.

So, can anyone explain me why I have to pay almost double the price for same piece of software? And why isn't it available online for me to buy at $1.700?

As I found out by little research, average salary in US in 2010/2011. is around $70.000 which comes out around $5.800 a month.

Do you know what is average monthly salary in Croatia? Aprox. 5.500 Kn which is $1.000.

So, while someone in US can buy three Adobe packages in one month, I have to work three months to buy one.

Also, when I contacted our BSA and asked if I could buy software in US, import it and pay taxes for it, they said "No!".

And that "No!" is because Adobe decided to put “Only for distribution in North America” on bottom of their US boxes so that software is not legal in Croatia.

Same piece of code, same DVD, same box. But because of that sign on bottom of the box, I have to pay double the price.

I find that unfair. And I find hard to start any bussines with expenses I meet before I even start my own bussines.

This topic has been closed for replies.

PECourtejoie

Community Expert

The price of Apple products also varies per country, and Horace Dediu from Asymco is building a big Mac index: http://www.asymco.com/2011/12/20/the-big-mac/

Also, keep in mind that most corporations in the US don't pay taxes, but receive some from the state, it is not often the case in Europe.

But I never understood why software is so cheap in the US compared to the rest of the world, when the average income is so high...

PECourtejoie

Community Expert

And about that stock price comparison, one should maybe just take what Apple makes in software it creates to compare to Adobe...

Apple is in so many markets, creates so many of them that few corporations could be compared fairly. But still, it stock is very undervaluated compared to Amazon or other companies.

Tai_Lao

Inspiring

I don't claim to be good at that, I've got some maybe distorted point of views on the topic...

I meant that to compare Adobe to Apple, we should look only at a subset of Apple.

I'd rather say that it is a reflection of the speculation over the possible speculation of speculators as to the possible quick change it might have and the immediate revenue it might bring to them. If Apple was valuated correctly, wouldn't its P/E ratio be higher?
I don't think that it is correct to speak about investements in regards to the stock market, but rather, say speculation. I don't think that many people invest nowadays over a long term period. (How many companies still give dividends? Retirement funds want quick money. Former workers putting their replacement out of the company for quick Gains. Hello, Kodak that started the trend? (and Adobe, recently, the beancounters got that right, stock went up in last quarter ))

Most of the stock exchange, erm exchanges are done by computers in miliseconds (and it costs billions when they go haywire); Ratings companies give bad notes to countries or banks that followed their AAA+++ ratings on rotten placements... Who rates S&P & co that did not forecast the Subprimes Scandal?

The bottom line is that Adobe executives are pushing the value of their company down through sheer incompetence. The comparison to Apple just shows that well run companies are capable of thriving during the same time period so it's not the whole economy suffering during those five years. I could have easily cited many, many other examples. Apple was simply convenient and the most humiliating for Adobe to be compared against.

____________

Wo Tai Lao Le

我太老了

Jacob Bugge

Community Expert

Ah, Tai.

I thought they had switched to downloads only.

Claudio González

Legend

No, Jacob, they haven't:

But if they had, it would be even harder to understand the minimum 50% overcharge for purchases from outside the USA.

Tai_Lao

Inspiring

Claudio González wrote:
No, Jacob, they haven't:
But if they had, it would be even harder to understand the minimum 50% overcharge for purchases from outside the USA.

Precisely.

Jacob Bugge

Community Expert

But are they still themselves, then?

Tai_Lao

Inspiring

Of course they are, Jacob.

They open their own account with Adobe and they register the software in their own, real name. Adobe is never aware of the relative or friend who walks into a store to buy the application.

Note that I am talking about having a relative or friend buying the software at a USA store, the actual original DVD, NOT a "download" but an actual box with the software in it.

Instead of shipping the whole package to the actual buyer, the friend or relative just mails him or her the legitimately purchased serial number.

It has actually been done, it is not speculation or hypothesis.

Claudio González

Legend

I would say that Tai's workaround is about the only new thing that has been aded in this thread to this old discussion.

Fortunately, I have always at hand a friend or relative who travels to the USA, so they can bring me back the whole package at no cost, and therefore I had never thought of this alternative, but it is a very good one. I hate been charged an 50% just because I do not live in the USA.

The only drawback, for those who don't know any English, is that this way it is not possible to buy localized versions of programs. At least, as far as I know.

Tai_Lao

Inspiring

There is another solution other folks have found:

They find a relative or friend who resides in the USA buy their software for them here in the USA and then have them just email the serial number to them, only the serial number. They then download the trial version from the Adobe site and input their legitimately purchased serial number. Since the actual media (DVDs) are not sent, there are no import duties or taxes to pay, no shipping charges to cover. One email is all it takes.

The only thing needed is to transfer the necessary funds to the relative or friend in the USA to buy the software.

I know for a fact some folks in Europe and in Australia have saved themselves quite a bit of money that way.

pwillener

Legend

What if you buy the Software from Amazon.co.uk where the price is £1,675 ($2,600)?

Or Amazon.de : €2,034 ($2,650)?

Well, at the end it's not much cheaper than if you buy it in your own country.

A

Anonymous

>The only explanation I've heard which makes any sense is that it's due to the higher cost of operation in non-US countries.

hmm... so every other american company in the country goes overseas, taking jobs out of the hands of americans, to save money, because it's orders of magnitude cheaper for them to operate overseas, but adobe loses money? i think they need better MBAs if that's the case. (so i doubt that it is. )

Claudio González

Legend

dave milbut wrote:
>The only explanation I've heard which makes any sense is that it's due to the higher cost of operation in non-US countries.
hmm... so every other american company in the country goes overseas, taking jobs out of the hands of americans, to save money, because it's orders of magnitude cheaper for them to operate overseas, but adobe loses money? i think they need better MBAs if that's the case. (so i doubt that it is. )

Frankly, I find it hard to believe that those higher costs (in turn, hard to believe in countries where labor and other costs are lower than in the USA) could account for price increases of the order of 50%...

A

Anonymous

Claudio González wrote:
dave milbut wrote:
>The only explanation I've heard which makes any sense is that it's due to the higher cost of operation in non-US countries.
hmm... so every other american company in the country goes overseas, taking jobs out of the hands of americans, to save money, because it's orders of magnitude cheaper for them to operate overseas, but adobe loses money? i think they need better MBAs if that's the case. (so i doubt that it is. )
Frankly, I find it hard to believe that those higher costs (in turn, hard to believe in countries where labor and other costs are lower than in the USA) could account for price increases of the order of 50%...

yes sir. i agree 100%!

mytaxsite

Inspiring

Sometimes it works out cheaper to make a trip to the USA to buy the necessary software and hardware! We do it every year (from United Kingdom) to get the books, computers and certain software.

hth

Claudio González

Legend

The matter has been discussed at great length many times. No satisfactory answer has ever been given (higher prices are not related with taxes, with local average incomes, with piracy, with costs, or with any other more or less reasonable factor). And Adobe's pricing policies have never been explained, or modified in any way which favours the clients.

So the real answeer seems to be: that's the way things are, and Adobe couldn't care less about what non USA clents think.

Just one example to show that this is not a new or unknown issue:

http://forums.adobe.com/message/1642848#1642848

Harbs.

Legend

The only explanation I've heard which makes any sense is that it's due to the higher cost of operation in non-US countries. Basically, the cost of have an Adobe presence in country x (or geographic region) gets figured into the cost of goods which drives up the price in that region.

This point is further driven home by the fact that Adobe is comprised of two (or more) sub entities. Adobe US and Adobe Europe are separate entities, and don't even always have the same EULAS...

If Adobe would figure their global cost into the cost of the goods, it'll probably drive the foreign prices down, but it will also drive the US prices up. Can Adobe afford to raise the US prices? Should their US customers suffer because Adobe is operating in other countries? Good questions, which don't have easy answers...

Harbs

John Hawkinson

Inspiring

Harbs wrote:

The only explanation I've heard which makes any sense is that it's due to the higher cost of operation in non-US countries. Basically, the cost of have an Adobe presence in country x (or geographic region) gets figured into the cost of goods which drives up the price in that region.

Well, the other answer I have heard is that "it is what the market will bear."

Unfortunately that appears to make sense, too. [Unless I'm missing something...]

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