He told the INQ: " Being as we are in Canada I go to the convenient pull down menu, and select "Canadian Dollar". So now we see it has an MSRP of $3,514 ! Apparently Microsoft thinks that the exchange rate between US and CAD dollars is 1.406, a 40.6% exchange premium. Of course it is more like 10%, or less lately."
He said he figured that this was just a document that hadn't been updated. But, he said: "Sadly it does not stop there. If I go to order this from a Canadian distributor and as we're entitled to wholesale "reseller" pricing, now it "only" costs $2887 CAD$, equivalent to $2,625 USD. So, the wholesale price is higher than US retail."
We did a little bit of comparison on other currencies using the www.xe.com currency translator.
Visual Studio 2005 Professional
Edition with MSDN Premium Subscription
|
Microsoft Price
|
XE conversion
|
|
| USA |
$2,499
|
$2,499
|
| Canada |
CA$3,514
|
CA$2,765
|
| Sweden |
KR 24,473
|
KR 18,320.91
|
| UK |
£1,677
|
£1,346.43
|
The reseller said: "So, why not buy in the USA from one of my USA distributors? The answer is: It will be unsupported if registered to a customer with a Canadian address, meaning no updates, no Software Assurance, etc." µ