Executives from Adobe, Apple and Microsoft attempted to justify the excessively high prices their respective companies often charge for goods sold in Australia to the country's Parliament on Friday. The companies were issued subpoenas last month ordering them to appear in court today to deliver answers.
Adobe Australia managing director Paul Robson reportedly struggled to convince officials that the added cost of doing business Down Under justified price increases of up to 70 percent. The executive highlighted the more reasonable cost of web-based subscriptions but otherwise didn't really have any other answers for Parliament.
Apple ultimately blamed old fashioned tactics from movie studios, television networks and record labels for inflated pricing of digital media via iTunes. The markup for such items can be as high as 70 percent, a figure that Apple's Australian boss Tony King said he would like to see lowered. The price of physical products, he said, is largely comparable with the US.
Microsoft Australia managing director Pip Marlow said the company doesn't have a standard global price for their products. Instead, local pricing is based on a number of different factors including customer perception, cost structure and competition in the market.
Marlow said she has been working for Microsoft for 17 years and it's the most competitive time she has ever experienced. What's more, Microsoft sells a lot of products through its channel network where partners ultimately determine the final selling price of goods.