Apple Blames Everyone Else For High Australian Prices

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
Why do people in Australia have to pay twice as much for music and movies compared to U.S. prices? Apple says it isn't their fault...it's the evil record companies, film studios and TV networks. :rolleyes:

But at A$19.99 ($20.87), the Australian price of Justin Timberlake's album "20/20 Experience" on Apple's iTunes music store is about double the $10.99 charged in the United States. AC/DC's "Back in Black" is marked up 70 percent for Australian fans. King said the pricing of digital content was based on wholesale prices set via negotiated contracts with record labels, movie studios and TV networks.
Click to expand...
 
lol. :p

Compare Steam's US and AUS pricing. Is it also Valve's fault.
 
Could some of this difference have to due with Australia's VAT tax?

Or maybe it's the high cost of shipping stuff to Australia :)
 
That makes sense, because Apple's profit margins are so RAZOR THIN and they have such tiny cash reserves, they couldn't POSSIBLY afford to sell to Australians at the same prices as the rest of the world.
 
LOL, how much has apple spent on suing every tom, dick and harry for rounded corners and swipe screens and so on.

If apple wouldn't be the thug on the block their coffers would be over flowing with cash.

Fuck apple, hope they crash and burn
 
You know what would make a lot of money? Creating an import website for Australians to ship products to their country that were purchased elsewhere. Some products might have compatibility issues, but there should be plenty where you could undercut the sales from the official retailers.
 
Ducman69 said:
That makes sense, because Apple's profit margins are so RAZOR THIN and they have such tiny cash reserves, they couldn't POSSIBLY afford to sell to Australians at the same prices as the rest of the world.
Click to expand...

Maybe Australians need to get their government under control.
 
jpm100 said:
Maybe Australians need to get their government under control.
Click to expand...

LOL...we're ones to talk....after all the F-35 program is forecast to cost more than the entire 2013 GDP of Australia. Yes,
 
Skripka said:
LOL...we're ones to talk....after all the F-35 program is forecast to cost more than the entire 2013 GDP of Australia. Yes,
Click to expand...

Was wondering when someone would make an apples to oranges comparison and say the US was worse.
 
jpm100 said:
Was wondering when someone would make an apples to oranges comparison and say the US was worse.
Click to expand...

You want an apples-apples comparison...look at their budget and debt. They're actually in a fairly healthy place. Yes the USA is in far fiscally worse a situation....and most on this board would contend out government is far more "out of control".

I strongly doubt that the prices are anything but Apple's choice to shaft other countries, because they can. Same thing with computer parts, outside the USA take a computer part price in dollars swap out the USD sign for a GBP sign...and that is the price for everyone else.
 
The Aussies asked and they got an answer from the companies in question (Apple and others). I'm not seeing a point in being upset. They were notably miffed that they only got written responses from several companies, but they haven't considered the value of their nation to the companies in question as a revenue source. The cost versus benefit factor of providing a real person simply isn't there. Apple was the only notable exception that saw fit to send a live human.
 
Apple wants to sell content at low prices because they have the capacity to do significant volume. It's the same with Valve and Steam: $99 games in Australia don't benefit Valve, as they have the potential to earn significantly greater revenue by instead charging $19. We all know this.

Unfortunately, they don't get to do this, for the same reasons Valve doesn't just get to decide that the new Call of Duty is going to be sold for $7.99. That call is Activision's to make, not Valve's.
 
wonderfield said:
Apple wants to sell content at low prices because they have the capacity to do significant volume. It's the same with Valve and Steam: $99 games in Australia don't benefit Valve, as they have the potential to earn significantly greater revenue by instead charging $19. We all know this.

Unfortunately, they don't get to do this, for the same reasons Valve doesn't just get to decide that the new Call of Duty is going to be sold for $7.99. That call is Activision's to make, not Valve's.
Click to expand...

Except that Apple does get a cut percentage-wise on everything sold on iTunes, just as valve gets a cut for sales on Steam. Although it is fair to say they aren't the ones setting the prices, they're still getting a benefit on it.

It's basically a market issue. No one is trying to undercut the rest, so everything is inflated in price.
 
Why sell things more expensive in Australia, they speak English, it means you don't even have to translate anything, literally almost nothing is different software wise. Second the trend is common, aussies complain on almost every forum that digital media is more expensive for them from all different companies. To me this obviously means, we know its not shipping so the obvious answer is it has to be some systemic issue with tariffs or government policy or cost of running servers.
 
rudy said:
Why sell things more expensive in Australia, they speak English, it means you don't even have to translate anything, literally almost nothing is different software wise. Second the trend is common, aussies complain on almost every forum that digital media is more expensive for them from all different companies. To me this obviously means, we know its not shipping so the obvious answer is it has to be some systemic issue with tariffs or government policy or cost of running servers.
Click to expand...

Yes, because a 10% VAT on goods/services obviously means that the cost of a downloaded MP3 album will double. "Obviously".
 
Its because of all the PIRATES!!

Also comparing Australia to the US is kinda impossible since there are only like 20 people living there.
 
ballistic90 said:
Except that Apple does get a cut percentage-wise on everything sold on iTunes, just as valve gets a cut for sales on Steam. Although it is fair to say they aren't the ones setting the prices, they're still getting a benefit on it.
Click to expand...
Read my post again, please.

rudy said:
To me this obviously means, we know its not shipping so the obvious answer is it has to be some systemic issue with tariffs or government policy or cost of running servers.
Click to expand...
No.
 
Unless I had extra income to afford this BS I'd be a pirate ALL DAY if i lived in Australia
 
Ducman69 said:
Uhh, no they don't, they speak Australian. For example, in Australian "Beer" is translated as "Fosters".
Click to expand...

And try looking for Ketchup or Shrimp (it's tomato sauce and prawn)

I was there a few years ago, and I found the food prices high, almost as bad as Disneyland :)
 
wonderfield said:
Read my post again, please.
Click to expand...

Yeah. I did. Unfortunately, you didn't seem to understand the situation.

Regardless of what anyone charges for software on iTunes or on Steam, the owners of the distribution software gets a cut. The higher the price of the item, the more the distribution software owners get, too. Therefore, they get a benefit from the prices being higher.

Next point, it's true that neither Valve or Apple set the prices, it's the software owners/producers that do. However, since a vast majority of these companies see no need to reduce prices, they won't. Australia is not considered a big market, and there's no competitive market to bring the price of the products down. It certainly isn't taxes or costs involved in the inflated price, since we are talking about a digital product.

Canada suffered a similar problem, where most software manufacturers were pricing software the same way they did back in the 1990's, where the Canadian dollar was worth 60 US cents. In 2002 and beyond, the Canadian dollar had well recovered most of its value, and still software had a 20% to 30% premium attached to it. I don't know if it was ever rectified, but there wasn't any extra regulations or anything of that nature driving the price difference for the software.
 
shifty68 said:
Its because of all the PIRATES!!

Also comparing Australia to the US is kinda impossible since there are only like 20 people living there.
Click to expand...

pirates are jacking half the freight doubling prices ARGHH!!!
 
ITT : Murricans.

The problem is the large pricing differential on products with digital delivery. Greed.
 
Why is it hard to think that the record labels are the ones screwing Aussies out of their money? I believe that more than I do in Apple deliberately inflating the price of downloads.

I currently live in Denmark, and we don't even have iTunes Match, or iTunes Music in the Cloud, because of the local (Scandinavian) music labels are asking MUCH more than their US based versions are.
 
Apple doesn't set the prices...

Do they make more money due to the higher prices... Yes they do, but I also bet their number crunchers know they could make more money selling cheaper with volume... but maybe not. Unless you have numbers or proof that Apple is intentionally telling its customers to raise prices, then this is not an Apple issue not matter how much I personally dislike the company.
 
ballistic90 said:
Yeah. I did. Unfortunately, you didn't seem to understand the situation.

Regardless of what anyone charges for software on iTunes or on Steam, the owners of the distribution software gets a cut. The higher the price of the item, the more the distribution software owners get, too. Therefore, they get a benefit from the prices being higher.

Next point, it's true that neither Valve or Apple set the prices, it's the software owners/producers that do. However, since a vast majority of these companies see no need to reduce prices, they won't. Australia is not considered a big market, and there's no competitive market to bring the price of the products down. It certainly isn't taxes or costs involved in the inflated price, since we are talking about a digital product.

Canada suffered a similar problem, where most software manufacturers were pricing software the same way they did back in the 1990's, where the Canadian dollar was worth 60 US cents. In 2002 and beyond, the Canadian dollar had well recovered most of its value, and still software had a 20% to 30% premium attached to it. I don't know if it was ever rectified, but there wasn't any extra regulations or anything of that nature driving the price difference for the software.
Click to expand...

Right, but selling more units at a lower price would net them more money in a situation like this. A lot of Australians just avoid Steam and iTunes now, adjusting prices to be reasonable is a sound business decision.
 
ballistic90 said:
Yeah. I did. Unfortunately, you didn't seem to understand the situation.
Click to expand...
There is no misunderstanding.

ballistic90 said:
Regardless of what anyone charges for software on iTunes or on Steam, the owners of the distribution software gets a cut. The higher the price of the item, the more the distribution software owners get, too. Therefore, they get a benefit from the prices being higher.
Click to expand...
Only in the case where the advantage of total volume does not outweigh the advantage of a greater per-unit margins.

During their numerous sales, Valve, and their partners, make more money when they charge less. How can this be? The answer is simple: volume. Their per-unit margins are reduced, but the volume increase is significant. Valve makes more despite taking less per unit; partners make more despite selling fewer units.

Given a distribution structure where delivering substantial volume is nearly as trivial as delivering little volume, as with digital distribution, the advantage of low-price/high-volume is significant.
 
"partners make more despite selling fewer units" should be "partners make more despite selling for a lower price".
 
Steve said:
Apple says it isn't their fault...it's the evil record companies, film studios and TV networks. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
It's probably true, so not sure why the :rolleyes: was tacked on.

If an international distributor has exclusive rights to sell content in other companies, then any company wishing to offer products will likely need to go through an extra middleman, with additional costs. Instead of Apple selling label/studio content X for a negotiated price in say NA and EU, a 2 bit distributor in a minor market (Australia) has already paid that label/studio (possibly at a higher rate than Apple negotiated in the example NA/EU) and also wants a cut for itself.

That's not even the bigger issue on pricing. That's just the mess of international licensing and inefficiency.

The real problem is content where the maker sets the price, and it's radically different from prices in other countries. Part of it is GST and duties on imported products, which could tack on 15% to the price just to start, but it doesn't explain the often 50% difference in price. Currency valuations are part of it too, where large disparities can also explain part of the problem, but isn't the problem in this case (currently US$1 = AU$0.96, near parity).
 
ballistic90 said:
Yeah. I did. Unfortunately, you didn't seem to understand the situation.

Regardless of what anyone charges for software on iTunes or on Steam, the owners of the distribution software gets a cut. The higher the price of the item, the more the distribution software owners get, too. Therefore, they get a benefit from the prices being higher.

Next point, it's true that neither Valve or Apple set the prices, it's the software owners/producers that do. However, since a vast majority of these companies see no need to reduce prices, they won't. Australia is not considered a big market, and there's no competitive market to bring the price of the products down. It certainly isn't taxes or costs involved in the inflated price, since we are talking about a digital product.

Canada suffered a similar problem, where most software manufacturers were pricing software the same way they did back in the 1990's, where the Canadian dollar was worth 60 US cents. In 2002 and beyond, the Canadian dollar had well recovered most of its value, and still software had a 20% to 30% premium attached to it. I don't know if it was ever rectified, but there wasn't any extra regulations or anything of that nature driving the price difference for the software.
Click to expand...


Nope still much the same although Apple hardware FINALLY sells for the same price as USB, nI noticed they stopped adding the 20% premium here in Canada even though the $ was at par or better than the USD.

Cars still have a ways to go in that respect, along with Cell packages and internet packages, tv cable, but they play allot of that off as "higher delivery costs"
 
I can easily believe that is the studios that cause higher prices. Anyone blaming only Apple is an idiot.
 
Skripka said:
You want an apples-apples comparison...look at their budget and debt. They're actually in a fairly healthy place. Yes the USA is in far fiscally worse a situation....and most on this board would contend out government is far more "out of control".

I strongly doubt that the prices are anything but Apple's choice to shaft other countries, because they can. Same thing with computer parts, outside the USA take a computer part price in dollars swap out the USD sign for a GBP sign...and that is the price for everyone else.
Click to expand...

Apples and Oranges wasn't just a reference to the two countries. Which are also Apples and Oranges.
 
rudy said:
To me this obviously means, we know its not shipping so the obvious answer is it has to be some systemic issue with tariffs or government policy or cost of running servers.
Click to expand...

There is no reason to charge up-to 90% more for the same damn product unaltered in anyway from the same server / service hosted offshore.

ITUNES is the same service worldwide
ADOBE is the same service worldwide
MICROSOFT is the same service worldwide

just to name the prominent ones.

no reason at all :mad:
 
Ducman69 said:
That makes sense, because Apple's profit margins are so RAZOR THIN and they have such tiny cash reserves, they couldn't POSSIBLY afford to sell to Australians at the same prices as the rest of the world.
Click to expand...

None of that matters, they aren't out for charity. They are out for profit and there is nothing wrong with that.

Want to make an article with some substance? Question the content makers about their license pricing difference, not the distributor. But wait, then apple isn't in the headline, so then what's the point if no one gives a shit enough to read it?

Keep putting apple in the headlines Steve, remember, there's no such thing as bad press.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top