There's quite some commotion in Australia due to the high prices of software over there, but just how expensive is software in Australia? Neowin came across an example from News.com.au that shows it's actually cheaper to fly to the US and purchase a copy of Adobe CS6 Master Collection over there, than to purchase the software in Australia.
In Australia, Adobe's Creative Suite 6 Master Collection costs AU$4,344 for a boxed copy, or AU$3,949 for a digital copy which is GST exempt. In the United States, the exact same product will cost you US$2,599, which when currency converted comes in at AU$2,513 - a difference in price of AU$1,831 over the boxed copy (AU$1,436 over digital).
A return flight to Los Angeles costs AU$1,147.58 on Virgin Australia, meaning if you chose to fly to the United States to purchase CS6 Master Collection you would save AU$228 over buying a digital copy locally, and it's a whole AU$684 cheaper than buying a boxed copy. If you are unlucky and forced to pay import tax and duty for the product coming into Australia, the total amount (CS6 + tax/duty + flight) would be AU$4,049, which is still cheaper than buying a boxed copy locally.
