Are Adobe ripping us "off"
 

Do Adobe consider the Europeans to be rich?

UK CS3 £569.88 or $1127

USA CS3 $649

iTunes are to be sued for the same practice.

Apple sued over UK iTunes pricing EC attacks iTunes’ UK price premium
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=8899.

Why not sign the following petition and see if we can get the EU to do the same with Adobe

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/...-software.html

Harry

Alternatively buy from ebay. I bought a sealed unopened copy of CS2 for £250.

May not be good comparision but may worth to mention.
I buy a small bottle of water or a cane of coke almost anywhere in USA for under one US $. Last year during summer vacation in Europe, I paid 5 Euro for the the same thing in Paris, 3 EU in Italy and Switzerland, 1.5 to 2 Pound in UK.
So to me appears yes. You are either richer or have used to pay more...

I guess a lot depends on the area or establishment where you buy these items from, but where I live a small bottle of water cost 50P with coke approx 70p.
A little under 1 US $ and a little over 1 US $

Another important consideration for Adobe is that the EU population is almost 500 million as against the USA of almost 300 million. Admittedly the the EU we have quite a number of different languages.

Harry

POORER is the word Sassan. We have been paying crazy prices for years. It is just that with the internet we now know how much more. ;)

I seem to remember Bill Gates being asked why, when he was covering a European launch of something. Totally unconvincing reason given.

Don

Were you dressed like an American at the time? We pay much less than that. ;)

Seriously though, Paris is expensive, and maybe you were at tourist areas in Italy? I think a coke costs between 50p and 80p (~$1-$1.6) outside London though I can't abide the stuff so I might be wrong.

Yes it could be that local distribution costs are higher due to requiring a distributer in each country, with staff speaking the local dialect.

But I prefer the Rip-Off-England explanation. The idea that the entire world is out to persecute us goes better with my personal psyche ....

What do you mean 'idea'? Everyone knows it for a fact that the rest of the world dislikes us - well me at least.

Of course, the other option is not to buy from Adobe.
There are other graphics packages out there that will do similar jobs.

The other option is to buy on the internet, from abroad.

We as a nation have been ripped of for years but our government (which ever party) is not prepared to do anything about it. We went through cars being too expensive and EU rules said we should pay less and the manufacturers produce "special" models not available anywhere else but here in the UK. CDs, DVDs, camera equipment, computers, software the list is endless.

They certainly do rip us Brits off, then they wonder why there are so many pirate copies of their software about. Why leave this with Adobe, what about Microsoft and Corel. Just to name two more.

Alan

It's not just "With adobe" iTunes is being investigated http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6520677.stm

Ha! Nice to see some other poor bar&rds getting it in the neck! Here in Oz, we have exactly the same problems, only the rip-off tends to be of even greater proportions.

CS3 appears to be £65 (158 AUD) cheaper than the UK

Hoolie Doolie!
That's downright disgraceful. All prices in $US

USA: $649
Oz: $915
UK: $1127

That's just unbelievable! Especially when you remember it's for a product that is discracefully overpriced in the first place. A fair and reasonable price for a very powerful product let down by extrememely poor performance and a user interface straight out of the stone age would be around $150 US.

That is the first time I have ever seen a UK price even worse than the Australian price.

Well now, we have many of the same problems when it comes to things like gas, booze and cigarettes. being much cheaper in the US. It carries through to many items. Much of the differences in price come down to tax and market size and I wonder if that's not the same in EU and specifically UK. Market size probably isn't the same issue there as it is here but I suspect that taxes are even more of an isssue for you and are a real pain. On the other hand those taxes go to pay for social benefits such as health care that are pehapos not as univiversal in the US. I get tired of being ripped off in prices but I have to remind myself that if we want the programs we have to pay for them. I do get fed up of Canadian products being more expensive here than they are in US or other parts of Canada.

I agree with a lot of what you say, but the pre-tax cost of CS3 is $960 in the UK

I pretty much agree but I bet your politicians don't have such good index linked pensions and expenses as ours do. :D

CS3 standard version ca. $1400, extended version weighs in at about $2100 here in Germany. I'll be sticking to PS7 for a while, methinks.

I knew it was "crazy expensive" the only time I visited Uk... but truly got the point during my visit to Catalonia, Spain, last April.
Is the same EU!!! and things are between 15% to 40% cheaper!!! and still, very expensive if compared to America and super expensive if compared to South East Asia...
I think that considering what you guys have mentioned here -about major populations and diversity of languages- things should have a higher range... but I believe that Spain is into that range... UK... well, sorry to say, but yes, sounds like they are ripping your heads off!!!

its probably due to all the people that download from shared torrents

Yep, but you still have to activate the software and if searching for cracks and activation work arounds you expose you PC to untold Internet demons. I think the use of legal software has been on the increase for the last few years.