Adobe Encouraging Flights to US For Cheaper Prices

A couple months ago, Adobe was hit with bad press about their prices of software in Australia being incredibly high. So high in fact, that people had found that it was actually cheaper to fly to the US from Australia to purchase their products. Now, in their latest PR blunder, Adobe's actually endorsing the idea of flying the United States to purchase their products.

In a recent hearing on IT pricing in Australia compared to other countries, Paul Robison (Adobe marketing director of ANZ), encouraged Australian buyers to purchase the Adobe Creative Cloud product, at $49.99 per month, exclaiming that most of customers are moving to the cloud versions anyway.

While this price is comparable to the US price of the product, the box prices for their products are as much as $1000 more in Australia than in the US, for essentially the same products. "If Australian customers don’t see the value of Adobe’s software, they can buy another company’s software" Robson said. "Alternatively, they can take a trip overseas or import the American version."

Adobe encourages the cloud services that they've made available, as its more cost effect, since they do not need to use distribution chains or retail stores.

While the cost for the box products are significantly higher in Australia, the student discount is roughly 24% more for students in Australia than they are in the United States.

Is there more of a reason for such high profit margins in the Australia market? Or is this just another simple case of price gouging?

[via Computer World]