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umbria
14 July 2011
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Competition from that upstart, Android, might also have something to do with it, don't you think, Chris?
A "dollar or two" extra per app could add up to a tidy price differential for some users, and it is hard to justify any price difference for electronically delivered and unsupported products. A lower price in a third-world market is the only variation I would consider legitimate, but you can't blame corporations for chasing profits where they can get them. They just have to balance this short-term gain against the risk of lost market share.
Comment made about the PC & Tech Authority article:
Apple slashes Australian App Store prices to matches the US?
It's been a long time coming, but Apple has finally readjusted the price of apps in Australia to match overseas pricing.
What do you think? Join the discussion. |
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photohounds
14 July 2011
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When wiill there be a fair guarantee that if you don't like something you can uninstall in 24 hours and get a refund?
Android apparently offer refunds if you don't like something - good for them. After all, you cannot run an unpaid-for copy. Fair enough too, but trade practices mean that something must be fit for purpose.
The ability to return unsuitable merchandise is a cornerstone of a genuine 'store'. The current no-refund, caveat emptor policy makes the Apple setup more of a 'trap' than a 'store'.
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rubaiyat
14 July 2011
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So Australians are finally developing a spine and backlegs!
Having railed against price gouging and the mindless twerps who think THEY owe Apple just for the privilege of buying their products, it is almost shocking to find Apple does indeed listen.
It may also be a sign of Australia's increasing economic clout and the fact that we are excellent Apple customers.
Maybe this will spread to the other foreign corporations that have for far too long ripped off Australians. |
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rubaiyat
14 July 2011
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photohounds wrote:When wiill there be a fair guarantee that if you don't like something you can uninstall in 24 hours and get a refund?
Android apparently offer refunds if you don't like something - good for them. After all, you cannot run an unpaid-for copy. Fair enough too, but trade practices mean that something must be fit for purpose.
The ability to return unsuitable merchandise is a cornerstone of a genuine 'store'. The current no-refund, caveat emptor policy makes the Apple setup more of a 'trap' than a 'store'.
Finally 100% agree with you on something photohound. |
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photohounds
14 July 2011
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Of course Apple are not alone in ripping its Aussie customers off as anyone who has bought an LP, a car, a CD, a DVD, A BD etc, etc. in the last 6 decades will attest. They are ALL overpriced compared to US prices in some cases grossly. Seeing it's nearly all NOT made in the US, why the antipodean gouge?
I buy a fair bit of music on CD (old bastard). I'd buy much more if it were $15.00 for a current release and $10 for anything over say 18 months old. The RIAA wouldn't be crying poor, and this article would have had nothing to report as online sales would be much lower than media sales.
The record companies would compete instead of collude, whine and sue on the pretext that OTHERS are destroying their business. Ah - utopia |
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gordo351
14 July 2011
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nice one apple ... now stop ripping us off with the jacked up price of IPODs 160gb classic is $249 us and in aust. same unit costs $299 with the oz dollar being so high , we should be paying $237. |
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gnome
14 July 2011
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Wow, and I can fully agree with both rubaiyat and photohounds.
All the content corporations seem to think that a few (thousand) words from their extremely well-paid lawyers can keep us all back in their glory days of, say, 1955.
And the geographic ripoff that we have copped for years looks even worse with our high dollar. The corporates obviously also think they should charge us what they like - because they can.
:-( |
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photohounds
14 July 2011
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Not any more they can't :) Viva la internet comparisons! And now?
Retailers want the gov to tax us like they did before the Libs said "we won't pay gov employees $50 to collect $10 in tax" any more.
I buy quality, new lenses but not from Aussie retailers. It is the wholesalers, mainly if my experience is any guide.
I worked in a foto store (clue) and had my eyelids slammed wide open one day by what the N*** rep told me about their margins when one of THEIR employees wanted something from 'work', but was away. I nearly fell off my chair when I did the maths.
They say margins are slimmer for wholesalers these days. What, 'slimmer' than a humpback whale ... that's still extortionate.
What do you think importers par per car dor a boatload of quality european cars? Try less that 60% of the European retail price - tax paid.
Retailers: time to put pressure on the wholesalers to make *reasonable* profits. It has been 'time' for half a century!
Everyone deserves to make a living, but there's fair and rip-off (but only if we let them). |
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bigjezza
15 July 2011
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I've always understood that the higher prices with tech were due to the higher cost to the company providing local support in Australia. With this in mind I never really minded paying more. However, with many local companies now relying on overseas call centers, and oversees companies using local call centers, I'm kinda confused |
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rubaiyat
16 July 2011
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That is a total and utter myth that it really costs more for software, or any physical goods that mostly come out of China. I have posted detailed analysis of what is involved in USA retailing as opposed to Australian and it is quite clear the arcane and extremely complicated laws and regulations in the USA work against them not us.
They charge more in Australia simply because they have got away with it. If Aussies stood up and really protested, like Apple, the corporations will buckle. Particularly with our strong dollar and excellent custom.
We need to do it as a patriotic duty because overpaying bleeds money overseas and we are already suffering badly under the several "Free Trade" agreements the Liberals stitched up against our interests. |
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amcmo
20 July 2011
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I'll disagree with Rubaiyat on this one.
We have a US presence, and while there are SOME additional legal aspects, our US office has far simpler tax processing with once a year report to the State for Sales Tax (7% total only for sales within that state and county, 0% elsewhere).
In the US we are in a right to work state which means we can hire and fire at will, 'don't like your haircut - you're fired!' Substantially lower HR costs.
Our average wages costs in Australia are almost 3 YES 3 times those in the US, if Super is included. Our rents in Australia are more than DOUBLE those in the US. Power costs us much more here.
Our Australian operations cost us substantially more than the US (UK is slightly better than Aus, NZ most costs are lower but their workplace laws are worse than ours)
We can exist on substantially lower margins in the US than we can in Australia. That is a simple fact of life and explains PART of the Australian market premium.
It DOES NOT get close to explaining Adobe's SCREW AUSTRALIA pricing.
Apple is similar, though I can understand PART of their premium, in that they set prices for a long period, therefore one would assume there is a large exchange fudge factor, after all, ours can be one of the most volatile of the 'major' currencies. Guess their reasoning is they don't confuse the market with price changes every month or two - personally I'd rather be 'confused' with pricing that mirrored exchange at least every couple of months.
Not apologising for anyone, however like it or not there is a cost to living in the best country on earth. No amount of pretending changes the fact, we are one of the most expensive countries to live in.
Almost forgot.... Our public liability premiums in Australia are double the next most expensive country we work in. AMP, gotta hate them, after 10 years with no claims, decided that some of the products we sold were too much risk and pulled the cover overnight. Found another quickly, but because no history with them, add another $2000 premium!
Edited by amcmo: 20/7/2011 01:03:21 PM |
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rubaiyat
20 July 2011
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Try being in multiple US locations and dealing with up to 5 levels of tax, unemployment tax, health insurance for your employees, the myriad of local laws and regulations.
True their depressed economy and the massive number illegal aliens and the Latino/Black underclass depresses up front wages, but that is just for now.
But most of that is irrelevant when dealing with DLed software or content which comes out of the same Internet spigot. |
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amcmo
20 July 2011
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For us, never been a problem and we did investigate several states for the location. Tax system is easy as are the local registration and licence requirements.(once you convince them and their banks that you're not a terrorist or drug lord trying to launder money) Some are better than others. California is a good one to stay away from unless mega corp.
Our wage costs have not varied over there, other than slight inflation adjustments for 7 years. If we wished to take advantage of their economy we could probably reduce our employee costs further, however we prefer to support those who've helped us grow.
The product is not a concern to us, costs us the same, whether Oz, NZ, UK, USA, just the costs of running the business. OK freight to Australia/NZ is substantially higher than our costs into the US, or UK, so adds to the end price, as does duty and Customs entry costs (NZ the worst there). For the electronic delivered software we sell, obviously no transport costs, however the costs of running the business remain the same.... much higher in Oz.
I can choose to live in any of the countries we operate in as I have residence permits in all, however it comes back to the best place to live, higher costs or not.... I do get piss..d at the likes of Adobe and other software companies screwing us, then blocking access to support if we take the internet route, however can see value in the cost of purchasing a good number of items locally and enjoying the local support. Where the value prop isn't close, then time to go on line. Just don't agree with the people who scream about local companies being thieves. |
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rubaiyat
20 July 2011
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Well there is the ultimate reason why things might cost more here:
Because everyone else overcharges us, each foreign company uses that as the reason they overcharge, thus it becomes a circular cause and effect. They overcharge us so imports are more expensive than they need to be and then they say they have to charge more because we are expensive.
I do believe we can substantially break the circle though, especially as barely any of the savings from Australia-USA "Free Trade" Agreement have been passed onto Australians despite the USA getting hefty concessions and price reductions. |
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amcmo
21 July 2011
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Don't quite agree with the logic, as I can certainly defend with docs, any difference in product costs between our various offices, though yes, the likes of Adobe (and Apple to a lesser extent) do have an Oz market price, though at least with Apple, you can get service and support on your overseas purchased product. Software companies seem to like to jack pricing for our market more than hardware, with no defence other than business costs which don't seemt ocome close to covering the difference..
The Free Trade Agreement has zero impact on PC and Software pricing as, if memory serves correctly, there was no duty involved in the first place. Lets face it, other than software it all comes out of Asia - country of manufacture, not country where the brand resides applies in the Free Trade Agreement. |
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rubaiyat
21 July 2011
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Which is all why I am so adamantly against the spurious excuses used for overcharging Australians on imports.
This is literally bleeding 100s of billions of dollars out of our economy.
Tony Abbott has the wrong end of the stick when he talks of waste. The "Free Trade" agreements the Liberals stitched up are 10's of billions of dollars wasted on exchange EVERY YEAR! We also purchase ove 12 billion dollars of refined petroleum from Singapore each year.
We will not be able to dig holes forever and whilst we are making good money now, we should wisely be reorienting our economy and eliminating 70 years of trade imbalance and debt. A start will be to use our economic clout to remove excess charges.
Apple has lead the way on the Mac App Store, it should follow with equitable pricing for content, iTunes and the App Store. Their price on hardware is much closer to US prices now but not close enough in my books. Australians have to push for parallel imports and removal of restrictive pricing to get us closer to a level playing field. |
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amcmo
22 July 2011
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Sorry, Rubaiyat, don't follow the logic..
I was in the semiconductor industry before tarrifs came off and Free Trade agreements were in place.
Australians paid a damn sight higher Oz Market Premium in those days as we insulated inneficient industries from reality. Anyone remember how much more expensive even a humble can of baked beans was compared to overseas - let me remind you - over twice the price! What about the almost useless locally produced school computers... (some made a killing selling cpu's, and memory!!!)
Local companies made obscene profits, used inefficient practices, and we paid through the nose, all because there was no free trade and huge duties.
On fuel out of Singapore, I don't know the specifics, however one would assume our maket size doesn't justify the huge costs of building a new refinery here. Someone out there may know the specifics and comment, however no point in building an overpriced refinery if it ends up with higher fuel pricess to recoup it's cost.
I commented on the price of the new MacBook Air's on another thread. Reality is it's within a tiny margin that can readily be covered by exchange hedging, freight and local higher costs.
While there are still some companies out there charging hardware OZ premiums, seems the worst of it is now in software.
Then there is still the obscene OZ premium on music books etc, due to the archaic double dipping on royalties kept in place by both parties. Nothing there to do with Free Trade agreements or other, just a local industry with political clout using spurious arguments that both major parties buy into.
Check Amazon book pricing compared to here, then try get them to ship to you locally - won't happen.
If I remember, it was only through the Free Trade Agreement that we achieved the right to Fair Use of our purchased music CD's. Prior to that it was technically illegal to back up a CD in OZ or rip it to your mp3 player.
I'm no fan of any of the Parties (they vary from dumb hidebound to economic idiots to total dumb-arse out of touch with reality - some choice!) , and believe we should have pushed for better deals in various FT agreements, however they are reality. |
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rubaiyat
22 July 2011
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I am not against Free Trade Agreements at all I am against FTA that are FTA in name only and are subverted by other practices by the other parties. We were shafted on 2 that I know of the USA and Thai FTAs, thanks to the previous government's inability to negotiate in our interests.
If Howard hadn't had to run an election against Latham, the USA FTA would have shafted our Pharamaceuticals Support Scheme as well, on behalf of the US Drug manufacturers.
The Liberals locked in the stupid and inequitable agreements and anti-parallel import agreements. The USA corporations get to screw us in ways they are not allowed to do at home. No wonder they were whooping and laughing their heads off in the US Senate when it passed. It also gave them the opportunity to stiff arm us whenever they want like they do to the Mexicans and Canadians.
By all means lets have real free trade, but that isn't what we got and the trade figures show just how much we are losing by it.
Edited by rubaiyat: 22/7/2011 03:58:22 PM |
