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Adobe shooting itself in the foot with high EU prices?

by Bob Crabtree on 25 April 2007, 10:01

Tags: Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE)

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We reported recently about Adobe's inflated prices, see Adobe ripping off UK again with latest CS-family software?, but now Danielle Libine has come up with a well-reasoned analysis of the impact - on customers, company and resellers - of the excessive prices of Adobe software in the EU.

She believes that Adobe is effectively shooting itself in the foot, arguing that high prices are going to have a whole lot of serious repercussions for the company even if the EU itself doesn't investigate Adobe - as we believe it should - because of the competitive disadvantage at which its pricing puts European creatives against rivals in the USA.

And would-be Adobe buyers in the EU, she reckons, are being pushed towards pirating the company's software while even Adobe die-hards over here are likely to lose their passion for the apps and the company itself and look elsewhere or opt for pirated copies.

In a 20-page/413KByte PDF (right-click to download), Danielle pulls apart Adobe's limp excuses for high EU prices, looking at the expenses Adobe says it has to absorb for its EU sales and customisation and showing that each costs far less than the company claims.

She also analyses the pricing of rival products and concludes that it appears only Quark rips off EU customers to anything like the same extent as Adobe - so, we think, no change there in Quark's behaviour!

Further, Danielle makes the important point that pricing in the EU is so high that it hurts the retail channel and Adobe subsidiaries over here.

You can fly to the USA for a short holiday, buy an Adobe software suite and still be quids in compared to what you would have been if you'd bought the same software in the EU.

What she doesn't say - but it's what we'd be thinking if we took a trip to the USA to buy software - is that you could actually make a handsome profit just by purchasing a couple of other suites and flogging them on once you came home.

Check out Danielle's overview, read the PDF of the full article (right-click to download), then tell us in the HEXUS.community how you feel about the pricing differentials between the EU and the USA.

HEXUS.links

HEXUS.community :: discussion thread about this article
HEXUS.lifestyle - news :: Adobe ripping off UK again with latest CS-family software?

HEXUS.lifestyle - press releases :: Adobe Reveals Creative Suite 3 Production Premium
HEXUS.lifestyle - press releases :: Adobe Device Central CS3 Mobilises Creative Pros
HEXUS.lifestyle - press releases :: Adobe Delivers Two Editions of Photoshop CS3

HEXUS.lifestyle - news :: Adobe still ripping off EU buyers?

External.links

Danielle Libine - Overview, Adobe pricing in the EU - and how it affects customer behavior, encourages piracy and harms company image
Danielle Libine - Analysis of Adobe pricing (20-page/413KByte PDF- right-click to download)

Adobe UK Store - home page.
Adobe UK - home page
Adobe UK - Creative Suite home page
Adobe USA home page


HEXUS Forums :: 4 Comments

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Posted by tickedon - Wed 25 Apr 2007 14:43
Regardless of what the EULA or whatever says, I'll be buying my electronic copy from the USA. Adobe must be crazy to think we would pay so much more than the USA. I'm all for supporting the local Adobe office, but, this takes the p*ss imo.

The hardware market is pretty fair these days in terms of pricing in the states and here, why isn't software like that? I can understand some increased costs for translating software, but, not to the extent we're seeing from Adobe.
Posted by Dorza - Wed 25 Apr 2007 18:30
tickedon
Regardless of what the EULA or whatever says, I'll be buying my electronic copy from the USA. Adobe must be crazy to think we would pay so much more than the USA. I'm all for supporting the local Adobe office, but, this takes the p*ss imo.

The hardware market is pretty fair these days in terms of pricing in the states and here, why isn't software like that? I can understand some increased costs for translating software, but, not to the extent we're seeing from Adobe.


In protest at their pricing I wouldn't give them a penny, be it in $ or £.
Posted by Gordy - Fri 27 Apr 2007 10:54
How to make people pirate your software

Step 1. Charge the earth for it
Step 2. Double the cost for anyone not in the good ole US of A
Step 3. Treat customers like idiots and claim it cost more to make the same product with no localisations.
Step 4. Erm pirate??
Posted by Gordy - Fri 27 Apr 2007 10:56
tickedon
The hardware market is pretty fair these days in terms of pricing in the states and here, why isn't software like that? I can understand some increased costs for translating software, but, not to the extent we're seeing from Adobe.

The english version of all the adobe products is exactly the same worldwide there is no US or UK differences in the languages. So they have no extra costs for that version.

Someone else did a very good step by step analysis with the same english version across the world and it was a shocking difference especially compared to other software companies.