OK - my email to the European PR dept brought me a telephone from Dave Burkett. I pretty much got the identical response outlined in the interview above. Part of my argument is that when Adobe do their market research it is likely to be with larger companies, multiple licenses, bigger budgets and less likely to include sole traders. The point is that any product can be established as great value for money - until you find somebody who can buy it at half the price you can! Mr Burkett had no answer for that. I explained that it was impossible to buy from US resellers as several of them highlighted that they "cannot supply international customers as it goes against their agreement with Adobe". This is blatant price fixing and I am now going to take my complaint to the national press, consumer associations and I will even see if the Office of Fair Trading can be stirred from their slumber! I will be liaising with others to see just how much pressure can be brought to bear on this monopolistic and greedy manufacturer. If you want to help then please email me at david@adobepricing.com

As meaksnow said, I can admit Burkett is right when he says translations etc etc etc are the reason why EU pricers are higher then USA ones, but when I try to buy an upgrade version - or a complete one, it doesn't matter - of CS3 and I choose the downloadable English (and I say ENGLISH) version, why I have to pay more then in USA if I'm in Italy?!?!?!
Burkett says that they decided CS3 prices not taking into account the currency. Now he should make me understand why 599$ for a CS3 Design Premium upgrade in USA become 1763,57 Euro (ex VAT) and not at least 599 Euro ex VAT (it should be this way if you don't take into account currency...).
So the truth is that Adobe is trying to make more money from UE professionals then from USA ones. If I'm buying an English downloadable version of a software I want to pay the same USA price because Adobe is not going to spend more money for me then for an USA designer: no translation, no shipment...
Sorry, but I'm not going to upgrade my CS suite because I don't want to spend 1700 Euro + VAT instead of 599 $. I would spend 599 Euro + VAT, but not 1700.
I can't imagine a world where every USA downloadable software is 300% more expensive in the rest of the world, even if you download it in English directly from their servers...

I feel sorry for those who have to pay those higher prices --- and I thought the US prices were disgustingly high!

For me, there is not enough that's new and exciting about CS3 to warrant an upgrade. I'll see what CS4 brings.

Adobe's argument for higher costs due to higher business costs might be correct. There are indeed additional translating and marketing costs for a foreign language version. But if a European resident wishes to purchase the U.S. English edition (either purchasing it in the U.S. or via Amazon.com etc.), then Adobe should support the software, which includes activation. I was told by Adobe's hotline during a visit to the U.S. that if I purchased a U.S. version that I would not have any support nor would I be able to activate the software. Pretty weak for an international company.

And I thought US prices were crazy. If only I was a student or teacher I could buy a complete education version for about one third the cost. My niece, a student, was able to buy CS2 for $375.00. I had to pay $1300.00 as a professional! Give me a break! Adobe is screwing the very people who got them where they are.

Australia speaks English, is a single market, and there are no additional research or marketing costs as most material is just straight sourced from the USA.

We may be metric and favor English spelling but the first is a given and the second largely ignored by Adobe.

The reason they charge like a wounded bull is because our government has given them greater powers to do so than in the States. They are rapidly becoming the Microsoft of DTP as they power Quark out of their previous dominance and now have Macromedia in their clutches as well.

Adobe's point of view isn't completely true. I live in Norway. A small country with 4 million inhabitants. The suite is not localized, but some products (like ID) are, but have to be bought separately if we want the localized version.
Adobe has two people working in Norway. One of them works exclusively with Acrobat. The other one works with creative software.
A full Design Premium will cost me the equivalent of 3.500 USD (incl taxes). It would actually be cheaper for me to go to New York, stay at a fancy hotel and buy CS3 there than to buy it directly from Adobe locally. Go figure. There is no valid reason for this pricing

I think Adobe is aggressively digging their own grave. Besides AE they're pretty much irrelevant in the professional video space, I doubt the little toy additions in Photoshop will change that.

With the current course and how they hate their customers and spy on them actively I give Adobe about 10 years till it's over.

Terri: Your interview had the clue that even you missed. Terry stated to you "We also compensate the distribution channel and that costs about 25% more per dollar of revenue in the EU than in the US" That is where reality costs come in. Another was "And it costs five times as much to manufacture and maintain inventory in the EU than in the US." The resellers in the EU historically mark up the price a lot more. Canon sees a 150% mark up on their software. I have seen that, especially in Switzerland. There are other methods of getting US software to friends and relatives in the EU. We do it a lot. Adobe does not penalize for that.
Regards,
Rick Redfern
714.840.4737
125 words

For educators and their students, even the education price is too high for most -- even in the US