Monday, December 30, 2013

We might live in a global economy, but why are there so many local?

I’ve often read about new product launches with great excitement, then been disappointed when the local release date is ages away.

We’ve always had this issue with music and books in Australia, and more recently we've had the issue with technology. Many electronic items take a long time to hit our shores when they have been commonplace in Asian, European and North American markets for months.

Some versions of products never even make it to Australia such as some tablets or mobile phones with above base level built in memory capacity, and many tablets and laptop computers with cellular connectivity.
This is frustrating for those of us who like to have the latest and greatest after being teased for months with reviews, publicity and demonstrations.

This is one of the few areas where Apple is ahead of the others, with simultaneous releases of products across regions. Their main failing, other than an ageing, restrictive and over controlled ecosystem is the price disparity across regions.

In Australia, where we are closer to the manufacturers and distributors of Apple products, we pay more than they do in the US where things have to shipped across the globe.

Don’t even get me started on software pricing disparities.

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