Adobe’s CEO Deftly Dodges Questions About Unfair Pricing

The Verge and Gizmodo have featured a video found on Youtube that shows Adobe’s CEO, Shantanu Narayen, masterfully avoiding answering a very direct question: “How can Adobe justify selling the Creative Suite for $1400 more in Australia than in the United States?” Rather than talking about the pricing of the Creative Suite, Narayen continually deflects to the Creative Cloud.

Now, I love the Creative Cloud. I think it’s insanely useful and with the release of the new teams aspect, it rocks even more. However, not everyone may want the Creative Cloud, and watching Narayen deflect away from a question repeatedly just looks straight shady. I understand the desire to not answer the question, but this can’t be good for Adobe’s image in Australia.

[Via Gizmodo via The Verge]

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http://twitter.com/abhijithrao abhijithrao
Also note the expressions on the face of the guy standing behind Shanthanu. Especially during the second set of questions. I wont be surprised if someone remasters this with some thought bubbles.
TrevorSherwin
Wow talk about dodging the question. I’m really surprised he didn’t stop him from his cloud ramble and asked him to point blank answer the question.
robsydor
Q: Now that you won the super bowl, what are you going to do?
A: When we think about the Creative Cloud, we feel that is the best offering to our fans.
http://www.rlmorris.com Lee Morris
From what I’ve read, technology and software as a whole is usually about 50-100% more than the US in Australia due to a drop and then rise in the value of their money. The value in their currency went back up but the prices never went back down.
dstaeger
It fits with what I experienced with Adobe customer service lately. And as owner of several perpetual licenses (and therefore paying in advance!) the recent upgrades which are reserved for cloud users are like a slap in the face. Prices are also massively higher in Switzerland, even for the identical, english language dowload product.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Andrew-Williams/1049288034 Andrew Williams
I agree it’s a PR nightmare. He should have just answered the question rather than deflecting it. Hello Coral Painter.
http://www.facebook.com/netke Nemanja Nedić
According to Adobe, $49.99 is equal to 61.49 Euros…
https://www.facebook.com/FlexibleVision Roman
This guy is almost as good as Obama.
So client from Australia should login to Adobe web via proxy in US and pay the US price.
Joe
Photoshop Extended: US = 999 USD, Germany = 1366 Euro (~1823 USD). Even when taking higher taxes into account, this price is insane. And yes, Adobe tells us that the UI and help documents needed to be translated.
zuluclayman
@rOOmak:disqus – many do that & many are driven to piracy by the extortionate local pricing.
This took place at the same time as Adobe, Apple and Microsoft were summonsed to appear before a Federal Government IT pricing inquiry in Canberra. The companies have been accused of
stonewalling efforts by politicians to figure out why Australians pay so
much more than Americans for identical tech products, many of which are direct downloads from American servers.
http://twitter.com/darkmavis1980 Alessio Michelini
yeah, that’s pretty common with american companies…
Tim Turner
It’s overpriced here too.
http://www.facebook.com/alex.woolfenden Alex Woolfenden
Pretty much nailed it on the head Lee… The Australian Government’s IT Pricing Inquiry has issued subpoenas to Apple, Adobe and Microsoft to appear in court for questioning on why prices are higher in Australia compared to other markets.
Will be an interesting outcome once reached…
http://twitter.com/RasHenning Henning Ras
May I give you Aussies some excellent advice when you want to pay the USA price. Done it when I have to upgrade my website previously, tried it and it worked….Just change your PC or Mac to the country settings if you are in the USA and the pricing adapts to US Dollars online.Go online and order from the website.The you pay the price with your card online like if you are IN the USA….Job done, Same when you want to buy online flights prices, use the same and travelocity on the USA site is cheaper anywhere in the world on travel tickets or Hotel reservations….
http://www.facebook.com/carmelo.vespa Carmelo Vespa
1226,00€ on Amazon.de
http://www.facebook.com/joejtopping Joe Topping
That would be considered rude, so he let the man finish what he was saying (which is the best way to go in my opinion) he didn’t have to point out that he was avoiding the question, I think it is evident in this video and sends a very negative image about their company.
http://www.facebook.com/joejtopping Joe Topping
Q: What does 2+2 equal?
A: When we think about the Creative Cloud, we feel that is the best offering to our fans.
Rory McLean
While that is a method of getting around the issue – it’s strictly speaking in breach of the terms and conditions / user license.
http://www.facebook.com/joejtopping Joe Topping
I think this guy is being extremely rude avoiding the question so blatantly.
Andrew S
That one video really killed my view on Adobe and the products it produces. I don’t care how useful any of them are, the outright refusal to entertain any questions besides answering them with a scripted nonsensical response is not only childish but irresponsible, and thoughtless. If there was no answer that should be stated, but instead CREATIVE CLOUD hey let’s talk about how markets are changing CREATIVE CLOUD is nice yes change new markets.
What a load of crap, and I thought the US price was bad…this opened up a whole new can of worms I didn’t know about.
I think it will take me that much longer to buy something more from adobe, and when you consider how many people think similarly to how I do, how much this one press conference mistake could hurt their CREATIVE CLOUD and online markets. OH boy… he just talked a lot of money down the tube, some CEO!
Yes I could benefit from Adobe’s amazing products and likely will, but this does make me want to search for other options that much more. Bad move.
James Allan
I live in Australia and EVERYTHING here is overpriced. I’ve moved here in 1999 from the UK and the affordability of food and clothing and technology has become a joke. This is one of the most expensive countries in the world to live in. Having said that, I love living here and can only hope that wages begin to rise to meet in coming years to redress the balance in cost of living.
I also get CS6 Master Suite free through work so no price gripes from me :)
http://www.allan-photography.com
http://www.facebook.com/cdjohnson Chris D Johnson
James Allan pretty much speaks for me on this topic. Everything here is insanely overpriced and its a joke. Retail wonders why they are going broke and companies like Adobe wonder why they have a problem with piracy.
Joe
Amazon.com: 850 USD. Looking at that German pricing is still at 192%.
http://www.facebook.com/bartvanoverbeeke1 Bart van Overbeeke
Nice stretch of the word ‘deftly’
NitsanSimantov
HA. What a dick.
http://twitter.com/Reactivestills Gary Martin
One reason not to buy software.
christian lacasse
3:30 to 3:45 here you go. Adobe’s semi-explanation of offer and demand.
But hell yeah! Talk about a full blown dodge here ;-)
Point made = Adobe is full of shit regarding the Australian pricing. Good luck mate
Frank King
I wish there was a better competitor because adobe is shady
The Commenter
Mr. Shantanu Narayen really push me toward cancel my CreativeCloud subscription and use a pirated copy.
http://twitter.com/dpherlein David Herlein
Dodge Tool anyone?
Tom Coles
^THAT^ was funny!!!!
kurtberns
an a$$hole what to expect?
justafamuslim
+1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
i s a shame that there is nor real competition.. please nobody mention GIMP.
and corel sucks too…..
justafamuslim
shut up ugly man….. he is like g.w. bush….. a moron.. a monkey….
http://twitter.com/intensitystudio Antonio Carrasco
Next time a bill collector calls me, I’m just going to tell them about the wonderful features of Creative Cloud!

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