Adobe Looks to the BritishFor Boosting Its Revenues

I posted a blog entry about Adobe's premium Creative Suite package costing nearly as much as AutoCAD. Later I pulled the item, when it the actual pricing was significantly less. The confusion came from the difference in pricing Adobe charges in different countries: Britain pays amongst the highest prices in the world, and when the British price for CS3 is converted to US$, it does come within a couple hundred of AutoCAD's US$3,995 price tag.

So, why does Adobe overcharge its British customers? The Register asked, and got these excuses:

* We set pricing in each market based on --
-- customer research
-- local market conditions
-- the cost of doing business

* Adobe's customers set high expectations in terms of --
-- seminars
-- training
-- events
-- value added reseller channels.

Adobe's most disturbing reason is this one: "We have a long history of serving our customers in local markets the way they want to do business." In other words, the British want to pay high prices. That myth was used for decades here in Canada, until Wal-Mart came along and proved that Canadians didn't want to pay 50% more than Americans for the same products, after all. Surprised competitors lost business.

The Register suggests that part of the high cost of doing business in Europe is due to software costing twice as much.

Comments

[Mike]

So, when is Wal-Mart selling Adobe?