Back when this video was made (and the Australian dollar was at parity with the American one) it was cheaper to buy a plane ticket to America and purchase Creative Suite than to buy it in store locally.<p><a href="http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2013/02/dont-believe-the-adobe-price-cut-hype-its-still-gauging-you-silly/" rel="nofollow">http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2013/02/dont-believe-the-adobe-pri...</a>
It's for reasons like this and the ongoing quality and security issues Adobe has faced around flash player that I'm now actively avoiding all of their products. I've 'replaced' Photoshop with Pixelmator which is lacking in some areas, but for most of what I do is sufficient - it certainly is a lot faster than Photoshop.
This Q&A is hilarious. The CEO is just giving the same PR-approved answer to a politically sensitive question. The real and politically-incorrect reason for the higher prices is that the cost of doing business is higher in Australia. For example, the minimum wage is very high and consumer protection laws require the company to provide a 2-year warranty at no additional cost. It sounds like some people want to have their cake and eat it too. They want Australia's high minimum wage and strong consumer protection laws, but they don't want to pay for it. There's no free lunch in this world.<p>As for the demand side of things, Australians must be sufficiently willing to pay the higher price.<p>The Australian dollar has gotten weaker since this video was taken, so now Adobe's prices are almost at parity with the US. I'm sure the risk of foreign exchange fluctuations is part of Adobe's pricing strategy.
Yeah... Creative Cloud... every time I see some of my company's assets being put into a proprietary Adobe format, I wince.<p>I guess they'll just have to learn the hard way when one day Adobe won't let them open their own files. It's another one of these things that boggles my mind over what people will accept these days. Having to pay a subscription just to keep being able to use your own (really important) files. And doing all this relying on a company that will very unambiguously pursue goals that put its own interests over those of their customers.
I'm Australian and have no problem with Adobe's pricing strategy. Clearly they have decided that the demand curve for their software in Australia is significantly different to the US and are pricing their software accordingly.