Adobe CEO desperately tries to avoid answering a simple question (2013) | Hacker News Reader

Adobe CEO desperately tries to avoid answering a simple question (2013)

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55 pointsromefort19 comments

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...

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.

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.

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

I've been reading up on GIMP and it seems to handle any graphic design task I can throw at it.

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.

> 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.

I wonder what the price differential between Australia and Europe is, at similar points in time, then as these 2 example reasons also apply within Europe. Such a comparison might go some way to explaining if there are structural reasons, as suggested by these specific examples, or if it is simply price gouging.

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?

Somebody save me a click. What question?

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

"Because we can"

Imagine the replies: "TAX, TAX, TAX... Thank you..."

With Affinity slowly growing, it will be a lot cheaper than Adobe in the future.

It's about why traditionally distributed Adobe software is so expensive in Australia, and the CEO's response is that you shouldn't buy the old, traditionally distributed stuff, you should instead buy the stuff distributed via Creative Cloud.

No, he asks why digital downloads of Cloud-free products are more expensive, and specifically not boxed copies.

Here's a transcript of the first half of the video. Hopefully, I have not made any errors in the transcription. I have tried to remove "um"s and other filler to make it read better.

Interviewer: Mr. Narayen, just a question which I know my readers are universally asking me to ask you. How can Adobe possibility justify charging up to $1,400 dollars more for the exact same software delivered in Australia, delivered over the internet with no boxed copies, compared to US prices?

Narayen: When we look at the Creative Cloud, and where the future of Creative Cloud is that is--

I: [interrupting] We're not talking about Creative Cloud...

N: [continues talking, ignoring interruption] [portion unintelligible due to interruption] --with the company. And we think that's the best offering for customers. We really believe that if you look at what we've done to pricing there, it's actually a great value to our customers, and we think that's the future of the company, and I think it's a very attractive opportunity right now in terms of pricing.

I: There's a lot of companies, a lot of individuals, who don't want to buy Creative Cloud. They want to by Creative Suite, and the Creative Suite Master Collection is $1,400 more in Australia, but how can you possibly justify that when it's delivered over the internet?

N: I think it's important to remember that the Creative Cloud is not just for individuals, we just recently announced a Creative Cloud for teams. We think that the collaboration features that you have for Creative Cloud for teams is a better opportunity even for teams and for enterprises. When you think of the combination of what we're doing with the Creative Cloud and the marketing clout [not sure]... I think the message I'm trying to send all of you is that the Creative Cloud is the future of Creative. And when you look at the value that individuals all the way to large enterprises are getting through the Creative Cloud, we think that's phenomenal value for our customers.

I: What about the versions for customers who want to buy traditional versions of Creative Suite, which is still the majority of Adobe's business. I know you're talking a little bit about Creative Cloud being the future, but if that's that case, why not harmonize the prices of your traditional software?

N: When Adobe wants to make sure we attract the next generation... I, again, the future of Creative is the Creative Cloud.

I: I'm sorry, sir. You're really not answering the question.

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.

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.

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.

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

Can we add a 2013 tag to this?

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