What if software from Microsoft was priced differently for different markets?

[Chintan Gohel]

This is my third post on what if series. You can access the other two here http://forums.windowscentral.com/general-windows-phone-discussion-lounge/426214-what-if-ms-had-never-bought-nokia.html and http://forums.windowscentral.com/bing/426213-what-if-bing-rewards-internationl.html

So here goes: I'm basing this off what I've seen with a certain software. Kaspersky AV is sold here in Kenya at less than 10USD per license for one year while in other countries such as South Africa it is 24USD and in USA it's between 35 and 60USD.

What I've shown is price differences in a sample of countries. The price more or less reflects the level of average income. If the income in a country is higher, the higher the price of the software

I believe it would be helpful for many developing countries to have price variations for MS software products such as windows, office, office 365, and onedrive. We in developing nations should be allowed to pay less because the softwares can be out of reach for the average user, especially students. This would also help in reducing piracy and fraud.

If a person in USA with a average income of 34000USD buys office for 180USD and a person in Kenya with average income of 1160USD or in India with income of 1600USD also has to buy office for 180USD, who do you think would feel the cost more?

Share your thoughts below

thank you

 

[Laura Knotek]

I would think pricing differently in various markets would also increase sales. Customers would be less inclined to chose cheaper but inferior products if the better products were affordable to them.

 

[tgp]

Product pricing is mostly based on maximizing profit. This not only applies to software, but virtually everything sold. The lower the price, the higher the sales volume. At the same time, the profit margin is lower. Vendors attempt to find the sweet spot between sales volume and profit margin that will produce the largest overall profit.

 

[VigneshB]

At least in India, Microsoft's only proper pricing were for the Windows Phones.
For softwares, converting USD to INR is not the way they should follow. And you can see the result in the rampant piracy situation.
It's even worse for Surface devices. The base model of Surface Pro 4 with M3 sells for INR 79890 (almost 1186$) which is even higher than than the 899$ that it sells in the US. Lesser income and higher prices. Nice strategy. In a country where people think twice to spend 700$ on a hybrid device. Of, course it's a premium device. But it is hurting their sales.
Almost all other major international brands use the variable pricing for different markets. I just hope Microsoft follows suite soon.

 

[Laura Knotek]

For softwares, converting USD to INR is not the way they should follow.

I've purchased something from a seller in India (not software), and the price in USD converted from INR was actually very cheap. I agree that the reverse should be true as well.

 

[Pete]

Tax also works differently in different countries.

 

[Chintan Gohel]

Tax also works differently in different countries.

true, some countries like Kenya don't/didn't have vat or other taxes on mobile devices but may have it on accessories. I'm guessing in India the tax structure is high to discourage importing and encourage locally manufactured devices

but software should be easier to manipulate pricing compared with hardware