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back to article Australian government gouged on PC software prices

Consumers aren’t the only buyers that suffer the infamous “Aussie tax” on IT: AGIMO has revealed that its desktop OS software purchases cost about double similar purchases by the US and Singaporean governments, although its hardware arrangements yield competitive prices. Chiming into the price gouging debate, AGIMO has stated …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not sure about all of them

    but I know at least one major vendor that builds in Singapore and ships to order.

    I'm not sure about processing refugees offshore, but if you can fill a container, buying offshore and arranging the shipping yourself seems like a plan. For those cost savings, you can rip and replace any faulty kit.

    Sometimes its just the resellers trying it on. HP's 8 port gigabit switch 1810-8G generally goes for around 145-200 AUD, but there's one shop punting it for over $350! Nice work if you can get it!

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  2. tkioz
    FAIL

    /sigh

    The Average Australian [b]is[/b] paying extra on government purchases.... because that money comes from our taxes!

    Maybe we should triple the costs of "rare earths" and other resources we sell until the prices on stuff is brought down to the international level.

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  3. Magani
    Linux

    AGIMO

    Isn't that an autonomous walking robot built by Honda?

    Seriously, Richard, for the non-acronym breathing mortals who read this, how about a hint for those who don't know what it stands for (like Penguins).

    ('Australian Government Management Information Office' for those who can't stand the suspense.)

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    1. Oddb0d
      Reply Icon

      Fair but cut the author a little slack

      The acronym is expanded below the article, where the tags are. Besides it's an easy thing to overlook when you're writing with length & deadline in mind.

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  4. flibbertigibbet
    Flame

    And Dell joins the club.

    Take the Dell Precision 4700 laptop, in the one default configuration offered www.dell.com.au:

    From www.dell.com: $1549.

    From www.dell.com.au: $3599.

    That's a 232% increase. I wish it was a joke, but I think they are serious.

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  5. silent_count
    Joke

    Fair cop guv

    It's fair enough that, in spite of the AU$ being worth about the same* as the US$, Australians pay far more for software. It's a long flight from US->AU and we have to keep the pigeons fed.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_over_Avian_Carriers

    And then there's the additional cost of localisation. Converting currency from dollars to um... dollars. And the language from Merkin to English.

    --

    * At the time of writing, AU$1 buys you US$1.05.

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  6. DigiGuy

    Australian government gouged

    Maybe it has come time to mandate a regularly increasing percentage of software used by the gubberment to be FOSS with perhaps a small starting point of say .. 10% increasing annually by say ... 10 more percentage points. Perhaps that would draw some attention to the problem, maybe something would change. With any savings obtained perhaps we could invest in Aussie software companies, creating Aussie jobs, obtaining Aussie income tax to feed back into the system rather than contributing to Mr Ballmer's next bonus payment. We could do a Munich and really get up some noses.

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