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Creative & Opinionated: Adobe not so Suite to UK buyers of its newly launched software
Adobe launched Creative Suite 3 today - but Jo Sayer, of d3 Design, is furious that UK users of the software are being charged almost double what their US counterparts are paying to own a copy. Here she challenges Adobe to operate a 'more fair' pricing structure.
It isn't very often that I get irritated, least of all with software companies - by and large we're very happy with the mix we use on a daily basis, but Adobe have got right up my nose in the past week.
When we established d3 some 2 years ago we wanted to use the latest technology and be completely legal in our operating environment (no hooky copies here) and, therefore, we have two licences (four if you include the laptop facility!) for Creative Suite 2 Premium.
When Adobe announced information relating to the release of Creative Suite 3 we were all ready to sign on the dotted line - even though Go Live will not be updated, but replaced by Dream Weaver - so on 27 March I logged onto Adobe's website to pre-order our upgrade.
In my haste to get my order in I logged straight onto adobe.com and followed the prompts for upgrading - $440.00. Realising that I was logged into their American site, I switched to the UK site but was dismayed to find that the upgrade price 569 of our English pounds - a whopping 243% of the American equivalent. And it's not just the UK, the Euro prices fluctuate between countries and are anywhere between 100 and 143% more expensive than their US counterparts.
I immediately asked Adobe, via their support area, how they could justify such a huge price differential. They replied two days later, with what transpired to be a stock response sent to many, but failed to notify me by e-mail that a response had been posted. I have cut and pasted their response in full...
BEGINS
Thank you for contacting Adobe,
The price of software in EMEA (Europe, Middlea East & Africa) reflects both the additional expense to develop and test Adobe’s applications for local markets and operating systems, as well as for the delivery of complimentary Warranty support. Adobe’s complimentary Warranty support covers product installation and defect issues for the life of the current version of Adobe’s desktop applications.
Although Adobe Europe and Adobe US are different parts of the same global company European Marketing strategies and pricing are not directly related on those used for the US. The prices are not simply converted from the dollar pricing used for US products, therefore, the pricing used for each country in the EMEA region may vary.
Both the US and the UK are completely different markets, most things are cheaper in the US than they are in the UK.
ENDS
I have several immediate comments to make about Adobe's lacklustre and disturbing response...
1. I was not aware that we used different operating systems to those used in America and surely the testing for local markets and development costs for an International English version are the same no matter where the market?
2. It can hardly be called "complimentary support" if you have to pay more than £300 per licence to get it.
3. Are they suggesting that they are charging so much for installation and defect issues because the product is sub-standard and bound to fail?
4. Last year Adobe spent approximately one third of their Revenue on Marketing and Sales yet more than 50% of their PROFIT is generated outside the US.
5. If things are cheaper in the US than they are in the UK, then that justifies the huge price increase? I find it quite entertaining that a global company such as Adobe can use this as justification for charging more. I wait with baited breath to see what the price is in India - as surely, by their own argument, the price there for an International English version should be cheaper than even the US.
6. In the last fiscal quarter Adobe "made" 13.5 million dollars on the back of a strengthened dollar over the Euro.
Unfortunately I cannot respond to Adobe on the same case number as I found that my case had been "withdrawn" without my consent or a chance for me to reply direct...I would have had to go through the filling in of yet more forms online. I'm doing some more digging into their financial accounts to see if I can't find details on market segmentation - no doubt I will respond to Adobe in due course.
One logical explanation for such a massive global price hike is that Adobe are, like many US companies, looking to keep the US economy strong. Healthy global sales would achieve this and small price increases would be both understandable and acceptable. However, it would appear that Adobe are taking it one step further.
They do not want their global users to boost the US economy, they want us to subsidise it. We, in effect, are enabling US users to upgrade their software for nominal fees, and giving ourselves a huge disadvantage when it comes to offering competitive rates in the work that we produce using that software.
While I did expect to pay more than an American consumer to cover for transport and VAT (there should be no import duty as Adobe use turnkey providers based within each overseas market for reproduction, printing, packaging, transport etc..) I feel that Adobe are not only exploiting the EMEA markets, but also that this smacks of restriction on competition practices...needless to say I have made a complaint to the European Commission and I won't be updating to CS3 anytime soon - I only hope that other potential purchasers in the EMEA find fault with Adobe's practices - perhaps then Adobe may reconsider their blatantly unfair pricing structure and recognise the worth of their global users.
There is a petition campaigning for a revision of Adobe's pricing structure which anyone can sign up to.
Jo Sayer is Production Director of d3 design in Nottingham Web: www.d3-design.com
tel: +44 (0) 845 0945 092
fax: +44 (0) 115 924 3546
It´s hard to agree more! I´m certainly holding off buying the UK priced version, possibly in favour of combining a trip across the pond with a purchase of CS3 - the UK version (at least of CS2) can apparently be upgraded with the US upgrade, though you lose access to that expensive support. Also, I know there are a few people aiming to speak to Adobe reps direct at the next Adobe Live event this summer.
