

Adobe CEO desperately tries to avoid answering a simple question (2013) - romefort
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaR2jR-RpYo

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CliffyA
Back when this video was made (and the Australian dollar was at parity with
the American one) it was cheaper to buy a plane ticket to America and purchase
Creative Suite than to buy it in store locally.

[http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2013/02/dont-believe-the-adobe-
pri...](http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2013/02/dont-believe-the-adobe-price-cut-
hype-its-still-gauging-you-silly/)

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mrmondo
It's for reasons like this and the ongoing quality and security issues Adobe
has faced around flash player that I'm now actively avoiding all of their
products. I've 'replaced' Photoshop with Pixelmator which is lacking in some
areas, but for most of what I do is sufficient - it certainly is a lot faster
than Photoshop.

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michaelbuddy
I never thought pixelmator was a good replacement. BUT the two new projects
from Serif, Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo DO look like good
replacements.

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mrmondo
I actually have both! I almost never use affinity photo because I find myself
spending more time trying to work the Ui than I do on the work itself - the
personas are clunky and the app is bloody expensive

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marcoperaza
This Q&A is hilarious. The CEO is just giving the same PR-approved answer to a
politically sensitive question. The real and politically-incorrect reason for
the higher prices is that the cost of doing business is higher in Australia.
For example, the minimum wage is very high and consumer protection laws
require the company to provide a 2-year warranty at no additional cost. It
sounds like some people want to have their cake and eat it too. They want
Australia's high minimum wage and strong consumer protection laws, but they
don't want to pay for it. There's no free lunch in this world.

As for the demand side of things, Australians must be sufficiently willing to
pay the higher price.

The Australian dollar has gotten weaker since this video was taken, so now
Adobe's prices are almost at parity with the US. I'm sure the risk of foreign
exchange fluctuations is part of Adobe's pricing strategy.

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bmm6o
What's "politically incorrect" about saying that they have to provide
additional services in the Australian market? And I don't buy that a 2-year
warranty costs Adobe $1800 per user. How many hours of phone support is that?

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thought_alarm
Somebody save me a click. What question?

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ch_123
He is asked why Creative Suite costs $1,400 more in Australia compared with
other countries when the software is delivered over the internet.

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charlesdm
"Because we can"

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MarkMc
I'm Australian and have no problem with Adobe's pricing strategy. Clearly they
have decided that the demand curve for their software in Australia is
significantly different to the US and are pricing their software accordingly.

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ris
Yeah... Creative Cloud... every time I see some of my company's assets being
put into a proprietary Adobe format, I wince.

I guess they'll just have to learn the hard way when one day Adobe won't let
them open their own files. It's another one of these things that boggles my
mind over what people will accept these days. Having to pay a subscription
just to keep being able to use your own (really important) files. And doing
all this relying on a company that will very unambiguously pursue goals that
put its own interests over those of their customers.

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jbob2000
I don't think the answer of "Creative Suite is the only thing we have left, we
have to make profit where we can" would fly.

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kayfox
And my friends wonder why I'm still using CS3 and in some cases Photoshop 6.

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joshstrange
Can we add a 2013 tag to this?

