Did Microsoft just say "fuck you, european developers"?

Posted on:April 13 2010

So VisualStudio 2010 is out, yay. Prices according to the website:
  • Professional $1,199 or 1.283€
  • Premium $5,469 or 5.855€
  • Ultimate $11,899 or 12.739€
That means the cheapest version, the professional edition would cost me about 543 dollars more just because I'm living in Europe. The Ultimate edition is 5403 dollar more expensive for Europeans then for Americans. That's quite a big difference.

In addition, it looks like only the Ultimate Edition contains UML diagrams which I was really looking for, and only some very few of them (Activity, Use Case, Sequence, Class, Component). The current UML specification contains about 14 diagrams as opposed to these 5.

I really would have liked buying this for my company, but this way it feels not right at all. So it looks like I will continue to use my faviourite UML tool for now.





Comments:


Mircosoft?
Joe Smith
Quote
2010-04-13 17:53:00


Microsoft?
Smith Joe
Quote
2010-04-13 17:55:00


Softmarco?
Jith Smoe
Quote
2010-04-13 18:05:00


I'm always wondering why the USA are treating Europe like a fool. Everything coming from oversea has a delay of several months: Movies, clothing, games, etc.
Price discrimination is just an additional dimension of impudence.
hermitC
Quote
2010-04-13 18:33:00


One more reason to hate MS! 5213 and counting...
Lenx
Quote
2010-04-13 20:43:00


I bet the price difference is due, at least in part, to the €497 million fine levied against them by the European Commission. Microsoft could be looking to recoup that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_Microsoft_competition_case
Michael
Quote
2010-04-14 00:54:00


The Express editions of visual studio are just fine for almost everything. :)
http://www.microsoft.com/express/downloads/
Well, of course you have to stick with external UML tools and whatnot then.
tonic
Quote
2010-04-14 01:05:00


I can only agree. That is totally unacceptable. Although I must admit, I have no idea how high the import taxes/duty is.
It's the same with e.g. 3dsmax: I remember back then, in the US it was priced at 3000USD, and here in Austria it was 5500EUR... and the $/€ currency was 1:1. But what should you do? Work with Blender? :P
Christian
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2010-04-14 01:08:00


chances are there is a business reason for this. My guess is that the VAT combined with legal expenses and additional costs for audits and licensing/packaging fees to be allowed to operate in europe, spread across dozens of countries with different standards, translation/localizations costs, additional QA expenses, etc. all add up to make the product more expensive. Besides that, MS will do what any business does, and charge whatever the maximum they can and still make sales targets. If people in Europe will pay more, they will charge more. Same deal with DVDs...
buhatkj
Quote
2010-04-14 07:05:00


I know the pricing issue from another part of my hobbies: making music. As a bass player I compared prices during my last vacation (first time in the US), and I was shocked: in a guitar center (not sure ... was it Phoenix or Las Vegas) there was a *new* MusicMan Sterling bass for 1.300$. Cheapest price here in Germany was about 2000 EUR! I'm glad that this is not so important for me 'cause I got a MusicMan Stingray from eBay in 1999 for about 1.500 DM (about 750 EUR) incl. shipping and all.
Brainsaw
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2010-04-14 07:27:00


I think your company (Ambiera) qualifies for BizSpark, Niko.
BlindSide
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2010-04-14 07:59:00


nope, ambiera is four years old now :/
niko
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2010-04-14 08:17:00


Ah, congratulations. :P
BlindSide
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2010-04-14 08:21:00


Buy it in the US !
I did for some of the Software i bought including Adobes CS4 - saved me a few thousand bucks all in all.

Am sure you got a friend over there who in return can send it then to you.

Heck i mean english or german version - what does it matter anyway ? :)
Thalius
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2010-04-14 11:54:00


Who would want one's IDE to be translated anyways?
EnglishIDE
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2010-04-14 18:12:00


Look at the good point, a vacation to the U.S. and visual studio is now officially $500 cheaper! XD And hermitC, don't blame US for their actions.
Shaun
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2010-04-15 04:05:00


The interesting point is that if you but visual studio from other sellers then Microsoft you get a prices which almost the correct conversion rate, dont know why the prices is so high when buying from Microsoft. See http://www3.zoschke.com/shop/producers/microsoft/visualstudio2010/?tab=5818ef9b-76d6-4ae5-ab63-9e2b306dc953
mirlix
Quote
2010-04-19 22:28:00


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