Apple is charging €199 for Aperture on the European Apple stores. Now, I understand that exchange rates fluctuate etc, but that translates to $303, which is more expensive than Aperture was before the price drop. What’s worse, in the UK, the price is £129, which translates to €168. As the company has frequently stated that overseas growth is important to it you have to wonder why they don’t try and stimulate that growth by matching prices across the globe, or at the very least, not completely gouge customers in Europe. Even taking into account differences in VAT it doesn’t come close to the gap in price.
Of course Apple aren’t the only company doing this. Adobe is renowned for it, with prices on the Creative Suite bundles far in excess of the US prices. In some cases the cost of the upgrade in Europe is almost as expensive than the full product in the US. for Example CS3 Production Premium is $1699. This translates to €1,114.83. However in Ireland the upgrade price for Production premium is €1027 and the full package is €2418 which, in dollars is $3685. That’s more than double the US price.
As the US economy slows, surely it is in corporations best interests to stimulate sales of software in the rest of the globe by lowering prices. The excuse that the cost of doing business is more expensive in Europe only goes so far, especially when it comes to software, and even more so when you are offering that software for download too. The worst part is companies are shouting loudly complaining about piracy around the world, then price their products so that most people in those countries could not afford them anyway.
Apple did a good thing lowering Aperture’s price to $199. It certainly helps the company compete against Adobe’s Lightroom. I just hope they aren’t trying to copy Adobe’s overseas pricing model too.
[UPDATE] Incidentally, Amazon has Aperture 2.0
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ha!
try buying your .mac membership. Billed in Eire where the VAT rate is MUCH higher. Adds loads to the bill.
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