One of our readers (or in his words, "lurkers") recently got an unpleasant surprise when it came time to renew for DevNet. Here's a snippet from the email, to give you an idea of the story:"David,
My DevNet subscription is due for renewal. I have found that I can no longer order from the US store - they have removed the UK from the list of countries on the order form.
Instead you have to order through the UK shop. Well so far so good. Except... The US price is $599 or approximately £334. The UK price is £459 (ex vat) or approximately $822. I do wonder what justification MM have for such a price discrepancy."
This is an interesting point, and actually something not isolated to Macromedia. Microsoft, Adobe and others are often found guilty of not being "good globalists" and pushing big price gaps on customers from different economic regions. Price gaps bigger than would be accounted for by currency swings, in any case.
Curious, I checked out the prices of DevNet across different geographic stores on Macromedia's website, and cross-referened them against the US Dollar price. Here are the results:
- Australia AU$2045 ($1433 equivalent, 10% premium)
- Asia/Pacific US$1299 (1:1)
- Europe Euro1459 ($1750 equivalent, 35% premium)
- US 1299
France Euro1459 ($1750 equivalent, 35% premium) - UK £999 ($1786 equivalent, 37% premium)
Seems like you're best off in a US Dollar region, and WORST off in Pounds Sterling, trailed close by the Euro. An almost 500 dollar price gap... acceptable? You can contact Macromedia (phone or email) with any complaints or enquiries about DevNet pricing using details on this page: http://www.macromedia.com/support/service/devnet.html.