... I think that you might want to refrain from comment unless you are an Adobe rep, being that you are from the US.
I just highlighted how in the US, you basically get everything cheaper than everyone else on thsi planet. So, of course to you this is a moot point, right? Well not for the rest of us adobe customers outside the US. Live in our shoes for a while and you will realise how good you have it, accross the board...
So, 'being that I am from the US' somehow disqualifies me from discussion? Now that is a new form of discrimination... Americans need not apply?
Never mind that I spent most of my life in Europe, both Western and Eastern, and only the last couple of years here in the States... so I lived in your shoes, mate, realized 'how good they have it' and decided to move over here.
But all this aside, this has nothing to do with nationalities, and everything to do with Economics 101.
Btw, this has been debated ad nauseam on internet boards before, and on this board as well:
http://luminous-landscape.com/forum/index....opic=23821&st=0But allow me one observation: coming from Eastern Europe, I am often surprised how ignorant some people in the West could be when it comes to understanding basics of free market economies, in spite of the fact they had several centuries to 'get lt'.
But back to the subject: since this is a photographic forum, I will refrain from going into detailed economic analysis of the multitude of factors that shape pricing in each market. Suffice to say that different markets will always have different size, different supply and demand, different uniformity (e.g., common language), different infrastructure, different price and income elasticity, different spending pattern, different taxation, etc., and, as a result, will always have different pricing even for the same product.
In a free market economy, companies exist to maximize profit, and consumers try to minimize their cost. Companies are free to set whatever price they can get away with, and consumers are free to buy or not to buy at that price, or to buy a competitive product. There is no such thing as a "just" price, hence there is not such thing as an outrageous price differential, nor there is a need to justify or explain pricing. In other words, the pricing differential is quite normal, legitimate, and can not be labeled "outrageous". We do not consider the differential between day and night to be outrageous either, we just take it as it is.
Selling identical product at different prices is known in Economics 101 as Price Discrimination. Contrary to popular belief based on the use of the word "discrimination", it is not illegal to price discriminate. On the contrary, it is widely in use and also taught in every business school as a preferred weapon of choice in maximizing profit. Two conditions for price discrimination to work: proper customer segmentation (i.e., defining customer groups willing to pay more, e.g. UK customers, or business travelers) and ability to put up barriers between those groups.
And no, I am not in any way associated with Adobe.