This image shows the sliced up remains of an (apparently rather deeply yummy) cake dispatched by Adobe to UK media as a birthday gesture to mark the 20th birthday of Photoshop.
That’s nice (though InDesign didn’t get a cake last year for its tenth birthday). And apparently the cake was/is rather deeply yummy, as it should be to mark the anniversary of what is arguably an important, a culturally- important product which has transformed photography and design.
Now, we know that journalists everywhere are being sent these happy birthday Photoshop cakes, and there’s nothing wrong with the company marking the anniversary of that culturally important product. (Though perhaps a non-Flash based UI would be better for Mac users)…
BUT – here’s the puzzle:
Photoshop CS4 Mac US Price – $699.99 ($666.99 on Amazon, funnily enough).
Photoshop CS UK Price – £614.10 (£569.99 on Amazon UK).
So – ignoring the Amazon prices, in the UK Adobe charges customers $945.54 for a product it charges US customers $699.99 for. That’s a difference of $245.55. Accepting a 17.5 percent VAT hit on the US price that would raise the UK equivalent to $822.50. So what’s that additional $123 dollar mark-up for?
It sure is a lot of cakes.
Surely, for Adobe’s Photoshop customers, at least, lowering the product’s prices or perhaps just making a little more effort to ‘harmonise’ US/UK price differences SO THE DIFFERENCE IS FAIRER would be an even better commemoration?
February 20th, 2010 at 4:45 pm
$123 = shipping and handling
February 21st, 2010 at 3:41 pm
Yes it is a pretty poor show and suggests that Adobe sees the UK as a soft market. I for one strongly object and as a result am not willing to upgrade, so am still on CS 2. Actually the CS4 version of PS has been full of problems for many PC users so another reason not to upgrade.
Cheers
Richard Kenward Artisan Digital Services
February 21st, 2010 at 4:12 pm
[...] Adobe Happy 20th Birthday Photoshop Cake sure is a big one, take a slice [...]
February 21st, 2010 at 6:40 pm
$123 for shipping? Don’t be daft.
March 18th, 2010 at 1:56 pm
Photoshop masterpieces, from deceptively simple to terrifyingly complex. Not a single overcooked, oversaturated and overly-contrasty image in sight.
April 27th, 2010 at 4:00 pm
Adobe Photoshop is simply the best photo editing tool on the market. I often use it a lot on my photo studio and also in webpage design `
May 2nd, 2010 at 5:09 pm
We have a photo studio in our town and Adobe Photoshop is our primary software for photo editing. ~
November 28th, 2010 at 8:28 am
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