We knew something was up when Apple said OS X Lion would be just $31.99 in Australia. Was a price restructure on the way? Hell yes — and it’s now also in full effect on the Mac App Store. For instance, Final Cut Pro X now costs $319.99 instead of $349.99. The US price remains $299.99. Factor in 10% for the GST, and we’re actually now 10 bucks ahead.
As with new iOS App Store prices, it looks like the difference between Australian and US pricing gets higher the more you pay: $5+ (50c more than the US), $10+ ($1 more), $20+ ($2 more), $50+ ($5), $100+ ($10), $200+ ($20), etc.
Props to Nick for calling it back in June, though: Does OS X Lion Signal A Sign Of Better App Pricing For Australians?
lambomann007
Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 11:35 AMSo, basically the difference in price is just because of GST now, right? Well, that’s pretty good then :D
Chris M
Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 11:54 AMIt’s about time those wankers at cupertino realized that people in Australia aren’t going to stand for their bullshit excuses on why things cost more here than they do there with our dollar far more superior. I for one don’t buy anything from the apple store or such as I am not an apple fanboy, but I think it’s about time the apple users got a better deal.
Sam
Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 12:14 PMApple are one of the better companies when it comes to this. At one stage, OSX was actually cheaper here than the US after they did a Re-index (might have been when Leopard came out?).
Look at every other piece of software, and I can’t think of any companies (especially looking at Adobe) that adjust their prices when the dollar goes up (yet they often do it when it drops back down).
cayal
Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 4:59 PMI am going to laugh when (if) our dollar goes back to what it once was and the people complaining when the prices go back up.
Jay
Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 12:12 PMChrisM,
What would the people in Australia do? Stop using their products? heck no. Apple makes money coz they know that they *CAN* coz people will buy it anyways. That is the true power of supply and demand. They have only done us a favour by lowering the price. Nothing else.
Patrick
Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 1:17 PMI have to agree Apple is one of the better companies. There have been many occasion when excluding GST, Australia is ahead. I also doubt that anyone at Apple HQ is thinking lets stick it to those Australians. It much more likely that pricing is set within Australia or just index against the US prices every 6 months without anyone thinking about it.
Chris M
Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 1:21 PMMy comment wasn’t intended to be an “Australians are sick of it and will do something about it” sort of approach, more just stating that it’s about bloody time this sort of thing was done. Other companies should follow suite, like as was mentioned Steam.
Brett
Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 12:48 PMNow we need Steam to follow suit!
smurfydog
Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 5:43 PM@ Brett, @ ChrisM,
Not sure what you’re complaining about with Steam. Am I missing something?
Perhaps it’s a glitch with my account (and those of my friends) but my Steam account links to the US store. Prices are in $US and conversion is done my my credit card company after I pay. Over the years it’s been sometimes more, and sometimes less than the $US advertised price. This can be frustrating as you never know exactly how much a game will cost after currency conversion and associated fees, but it’s never been too far out.
Last week I baught a game on sale advertised for US$1.49 and was billed by my credit card company AU$ 1.40.
I’m fine with that.
Marek
Friday, July 15, 2011 at 2:12 AMEven though we are charged in USD on Steam, the prices of many games are set significantly higher here than in the US.
For example the Witcher 2 is US$50 in the US, but US$75 here. Or Mafia 2, US$30 there, US$80 for us.
Here’s a good comparison site: http://www.steamprices.com/au
Richard
Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 6:02 PMSteam/Valve don’t control the currency variations, individual publishers do.
Dirk
Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 1:00 PMI think Adobe need to let us know why they’re using a large multiplier instead of an exchange rate for their Australian prices. Have a look at the boxed Creative Suite Master Collection in Australia ($4,344 inc GST) vs US ($2,599). OMFG.
Barry
Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 1:38 PMNow that Lion upgrade is coming out any time soon and it’s going to cost $31.99 . I recon we should look out for iTunes card sale ( 20% to 25% off when you buy 2 or more) just to save a few bucks more if apple is not going to directly give it to us.
Jon
Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 1:48 PMI’m hoping the gaming industry will fall into line soon also, as that is other major rip off I have to endure.
In Oz a new release Xbox 360 game costs about $99 to $110 for the standard version, whereas in the USA the standard version retails for about $59.
Aussies are sick of getting ripped off!!!…….especially when all the products all ship out of Asia, which is in our global back yard, so it’s not like they can claim freight charges are responsible for the inflated costs.
John
Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 1:53 PMSo what about people that have allready bough products like Final Cut X – there should be a refund for the difference in the price !
Karan
Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 3:01 PMJust like Myer will give you a refund if you buy the week (or day) before a sale? Hmmm…
Paddy
Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 3:00 PMDon’t forget that the iOS App Store has dropped it’s prices too!
99c apps, Yippee!
GT
Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 3:58 PMIt took them a long time to move the prices down and I think that the negative press they were getting may have helped. However, watch how fast they move them back up when the Greenback starts to strengthen. I bet it’s a matter of weeks – not months.
Aaron
Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 5:09 PMNow if I could buy a Macbook of the website for a price equal to the US in terms of exchange rate, I’d be a happy boy.
Jason
Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 10:20 PMI was in the US a few months ago and did buy a Macbook Pro. List price on the web site had the US about $300 cheaper than Oz (just straight $ for $). Went to hand over the cash and remembered that US prices shown don’t include sales tax, which added around $200. So really, the difference was only around $100, and that’s without taking exchange rate into account. Luckily for me I was in Texas which has a scheme to return sales tax to overseas buyers.
Michael Quinn
Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 5:24 PMWhat about iTunes music, movies and TV shows? Books?
Michael Quinn
Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 5:25 PMAlso – on the US iTunes store, the prices are ex-tax. Various state taxes are applied during purchase but in USA it’s fine to advertise the ex-tax price.
In Australia, advertised price must include GST.
james_whatsit
Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 10:31 PMnow to see if f***ing sony improves