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Australian Govt Forces Apple, Adobe, Microsoft To Explain Price Hikes

An anonymous reader writes "Live outside the U.S.? Tired of paying huge local price markups on technology products from vendors such as Apple, Microsoft and Adobe? Well, rest easy, the Australian Government is on the case. After months of stonewalling from the vendors, today the Australian Parliament issued subpoenas compelling the three vendors to appear in public and take questions regarding their price hikes on technology products sold in Australia. Finally, we may have some answers for why Adobe, for example, charges up to $1,400 more for the full version of Creative Suite 6 when sold outside the U.S."

6 of 371 comments (clear)

  1. So obvious.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Printing the instructions upside down costs money silly.

  2. Re:Translate this to legalese: by NFN_NLN · · Score: 5, Funny

    Please mod +5 informative. This is the actual answer.

  3. Re:The FED by NFN_NLN · · Score: 5, Funny

    When you print money to pay off debts the currency devalues and it is a no brainer. THe exchange rates are going downhill as the house wants to debate whether to default or not eveyr 3 months.

    Therefore, the Bank of Australia wants a higher percentage to avoid the risk as the dollar is the worlds worst currency right now with the highest risk. ... Well Japan might be tieing the US in this area if the government improves more printing of money.

    So MS responds with the 30% premium to convert dollars to Australias currency by passing it on to the consumer.

    IT also explains why healthcare costs are skyrocketing up with insurnace, food, housing and student loans while incomes decline. All this free money given to rich by low interest rates inflates the money supply.

    Holy shit. It's a real life application of the Chewbacca Defense. This is amazing... :)

  4. Re:Translate this to legalese: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I believe that's "fuck you mate"

  5. Re:Translate this to legalese: by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is the actual answer.

    No it isn't. The real reason is that Australia has a relatively small population, so the cost of translating all the documentation into Australian is spread across fewer customers.

  6. Re:bad idea ? by Lotana · · Score: 5, Funny

    Let me have a go:

    Monkey == Human
    Robot == Overlord
    Zombie == Politician

    What do I win?