FCPX price in Australia

Hi, I am new here. My name is Joe and I am a filmmaker from Australia. I am looking at moving away from Adobe software, particularly Premiere Pro and have been considering FCPX as an alternative. One thing that I can not get over is the price of FCPX in Australia. In the US FCPX is $299.99, in Australia it costs $AU499.99! At present currency rates Australians should be paying about $AU390. Instead we are paying over $100 more for the exact same software, which is just ridiculous...

Are there any Australian FCPX users here that feel the same? I am keen to try FCPX, but refuse to pay Apple's rip off price. There are quite a few negative reviews on the App Store where people have been pointing out the ridiculous price gouging.

Joey06 wrote: ...In the US FCPX is $299.99, in Australia it costs $AU499.99! At present currency rates Australians should be paying about $AU390. .... ridiculous price ....

interesting observation, but same with other products, e.g. Logic Pro X ... localization? LOL
could be a licence/patent/tax thingie ... (??)

How translate e.g. Adobe its rent?


And Welcome to fcp.co

I have seen this price difference mentioned quite often from users in various regions around the world. The complaints have not been just about Apple, but Adobe and some other big name software developers. It would seem quite understandable to be concerned about such price differences.

Something I have been curious about and and never have received any detailed information is ...

1. Are there any additional taxation levees that occur before the software is purchased by the end user? As in does the developer have to add on a VAT or similar such tax somewhere before presenting the same to potential customers?

2. Is there also a higher rate of income tax that must be paid in your region that is a measurably higher percentage than what Apple, Adobe, etc. would pay for comparable sales in the U.S.? Are there any trade taxes such as tariffs, licensing, etc. that come into play for international sales in Australia? Are there more stringent (this more costly) warranty, support and refund legislation placed on developers that significantly increase expenses to conduct business there.

3. Are there any other types of expenses that these developers incur related to COD (cost of doing business) that they do not incur at the same percentage in the U.S. such as higher cost for employer share of payroll taxes, higher minimum wage rates, higher rates to support health care costs, family leave, etc., etc.

I'm not saying that these costs are not worthy, warranted or otherwise burdensome ... but if significant differences do occur, you can't blame the developer for looking out for their interest and pricing accordingly. Covering the cost of doing business is not price gouging. It's not really fair for a business to be expected to take a hit and absorb that difference.

Without the details on ALL the differences in total expenses to do business in various regions of the globe ... it can be a bit unfair labeling these firms as gougers without sharing all the info.

Any details you could share in this aspect, I would find interesting to hear.

Yep this has been reported from around the world. But you should correctly say at current exchange rate plus 10% GST (Australian VAT) its AUD$426 (AUD$73 more). The US price doesn't include any VAT.

Part of the problem is a changing exchange rate which companies do not adjust on the fly but adjust now and then. I think a lot of what they do is go for the expected lowest possible and add a margin so they never loose money if the exchange rate drops a lot. I do not know if any other hidden local costs of doing business play a part too?

You will always pay more here in Aus! Nothing you can do about it. Only thing to comfort you is that you pay more with everybody else as well so the difference stays roughly the same. Remember with FCPX you most likely never spend anymore than the price you pay once, quite the opposite of what all other mayor software companies are doing or starting to do now which is going subscription.

Sorry to not have any better news.

Happy editing
Carsten

Karsten Schlüter wrote: interesting observation, but same with other products, e.g. Logic Pro X ... localization? LOL
could be a licence/patent/tax thingie ... (??)

How translate e.g. Adobe its rent?


And Welcome to fcp.co

Yeah, same with Logic, Motion, Compressor, etc.

Thanks for the welcome!

It is much worse here west of Australia, in South Africa, we do not have official Apple, but a really inefficient reseller called Core Technology, and they set the price of Apple products, as they have the licence, and the price is through the roof, I suspect price hedging, illiegal practice, but they do it anyway, hard to enforce.

Price Hedging, is buying stock today when the exchange rate to the US Dollar is low, then selling the stock a few months later, with an updated sticker price, as if the cost of that item now costs more due to a worse exchange rate, the official policy is if you buy today, you have 60 days to recoup your cost, you may not after 60 days, increase the price on stock bought and paid for later, but it happens.

For example the MD101, less than 13 months from becoming obsolete, is costing around R13 000, $900 for a laptop that is almost 6 years old. So old it is not even listed on Apple.co, yet people buy them, not knowing the laptop is technically obsolete.

To make matters worse, we have as many people here as New Zealand has sheep, yet we do not have a full itunes store, no ibooks, a few movies, no TV series, limited IOS/OS in the App store, and the prices are more than twice that of the US store.

Products such as laptops, imacs, mac mini are bought in paid in US Dollars or Euro, shipped from Paris, exchange rate fee, customs taxes, obvious mark up, makes Apple way way more than twice what you pay for it in the US.

It is almost cheaper to fly to the US, buy the laptop cash, fly back than to buy locally, hence I did that, had a holiday in the US, bought FCPX for $299, stuck with 2 App store accounts, one US and one local here, annoying as I have funds on my US itunes I cannot use!!!

@Joey06 You must remember the VAT situation but there's always gouging. Adobe charge a hefty gouge on their products in the UK which cannot be explained by exchange rate or VAT.

Whatever you have to pay for FCPX it's worth it and so far it appears that Apple has a buy once update forever policy for it. That could change but I can certainly say I've had my money's worth ten fold.

ButchM wrote: I have seen this price difference mentioned quite often from users in various regions around the world. The complaints have not been just about Apple, but Adobe and some other big name software developers. It would seem quite understandable to be concerned about such price differences.

Something I have been curious about and and never have received any detailed information is ...

1. Are there any additional taxation levees that occur before the software is purchased by the end user? As in does the developer have to add on a VAT or similar such tax somewhere before presenting the same to potential customers?

2. Is there also a higher rate of income tax that must be paid in your region that is a measurably higher percentage than what Apple, Adobe, etc. would pay for comparable sales in the U.S.? Are there any trade taxes such as tariffs, licensing, etc. that come into play for international sales in Australia? Are there more stringent (this more costly) warranty, support and refund legislation placed on developers that significantly increase expenses to conduct business there.

3. Are there any other types of expenses that these developers incur related to COD (cost of doing business) that they do not incur at the same percentage in the U.S. such as higher cost for employer share of payroll taxes, higher minimum wage rates, higher rates to support health care costs, family leave, etc., etc.

I'm not saying that these costs are not worthy, warranted or otherwise burdensome ... but if significant differences do occur, you can't blame the developer for looking out for their interest and pricing accordingly. Covering the cost of doing business is not price gouging. It's not really fair for a business to be expected to take a hit and absorb that difference.

Without the details on ALL the differences in total expenses to do business in various regions of the globe ... it can be a bit unfair labeling these firms as gougers without sharing all the info.

Any details you could share in this aspect, I would find interesting to hear.

Price differences here in Australia have been such a big issue that there is actually an official name for it, known as the 'Australia Tax' en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_Tax

Most of it started with Adobe CS6 when people figured out that it was actually cheaper to fly to the US and purchase CS6 there than it was to buy CS6 locally. www.news.com.au/finance/business/it-is-c...5lic6c-1226576920561

The Australian Government also had an official inquiry into price gouging in Australia and forced companies like Adobe, Apple and Microsoft to explain themselves.
www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-22/apple-mic...-high-prices/4587900
www.news.com.au/finance/business/apple-m...5lic6c-1226575424795

To answer some of your questions:

1. The VAT (known as GST in Australia) is 10 percent and is included in the final sale price of goods and services.

2. I'm not too sure about most of these things, but I do know that Australia has very strict consumer rights and guarantees to do with warranty, refunds, etc known as 'The Australian Consumer Law'.

3. Again, I'm not too sure about all these things. I do know that we have one of the highest minimum wages in the world though.

Is it widely considered that Australians are charged unreasonably higher prices for most things compared to other countries, especially for intangible items like software, games, music, movies/TV shows, etc. Australia also has some of the highest piracy rates in the world because of this.
www.itnews.com.au/news/australia-tax-con...port-released-351525
www.afr.com/technology/web/ecommerce/onl...uging-20140728-jk4dl

After the government inquiry Adobe actually lowered their prices. I think that is enough evidence to show that they were in fact price gouging and the higher prices were not just to cover the cost of doing business in Australia. www.gizmodo.com.au/2013/02/adobe-surrend...government-pressure/

In this case I do believe Apple is price gouging their Australian customers by charging $500 for Final Cut Pro X.