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The pricing of Sony gear in Australia has again been questioned, this time by the Sydney Morning Herald and several other Fairfax web sites, following the release today of new Sony Netbooks, at significantly higher prices than their competitors and up to 60% more expensive than the same product in the USA.
Exclusively revealed in Australia yesterday, by SmartHouse and ChannelNews, the new Sony W netbooks are set to go on sale at priced at $999. The US price is $500 or A$625.
In the past very few media sites have exposed Sony’s consistent price gouging of Australian consumers. Now under the headline “Aussies Pay More For Sony’s First Netbook”, Fairfax publications which include the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age in Melbourne and the Brisbane Times are starting to question the massive price hike of Sony products in Australia.
Earlier today, Sony said that it will begin selling its first netbook in Australia on August 12th, and that the computer will cost almost 60 per cent more than in the US.
Sony Australia spin doctor, Kelly Finlay is claiming that the price difference was due to factors including exchange rates, different retail environments and the fact that the US prices do not include government taxes.
Finlay told the Sydney Morning Herald that the price hike was because the Australian model had to be adapted to comply with local standards and regulations. Furthermore, Australian marketing expenditure was “amortised across a smaller number of products”.
This is not true with netbooks and notebooks. US pricing at Best Buy, the biggest consumer electronics retailer in the USA and on various US web sites, often contain US state taxes. And as for local Australian standards and regulations the only difference with a netbook or notebook is a plug and packaging information.
For example, most netbooks have the same Intel Atom processor, the same Microsoft operating system and the same power supply and motherboard. In Australia we have 10% GST which in the case of Sony’s netbook pricing would only add $62.50 to the US price not the $311 extra that Sony is trying to price gouge out of Australian consumers.
Earlier this year Sony Australia put their OLED 11″ TV on sale in Australia at $6,999, when the same product is being sold by Sony in the USA for A$3,123. The price difference was $3,876.
In February, Sony Computer Entertainment, who are price gouging in Australia with their Playstation 3 console, threatened to sue SmartHouse when we accused them of price gouging. They also failed to pass on a major price cut to their Playstation 2 console when price cuts were made in the USA.
Netbooks from manufacturers like Lenovo, Asus, Acer, Dell and Toshiba are priced at around the $599 mark, with some reaching as low as $325.
Currently Sony is selling a VAIO P25, 8″ netbook for $2,299. The same device in the USA starts at A$1,248 a difference of $1,051.
In addition, the Australian model did not include GPS navigation and built-in wireless broadband which was included in US models.
The new W-Series PC measures 26.7cm high by 3.3cm wide by 18cm deep, and weighs in at 1.27 kilo. It comes in three colours – berry pink, sugar white and cocoa brown – and sports a 10-inch widescreen display, which is a pretty common size for netbooks. The screen comes in 1,366 x 768 which is not bad for a netbook.
It has 2 USB ports, VGA Out, and Ethernet ports, as well as a webcam and multimedia slots for Memory Stick Duo and SD memory.
It has a 1.66-GHz N280 Intel Atom processor and 1 Gb of system memory, and a 160-GB, 5,400-RPM hard drive. The W-Series has Ethernet, 802.11a/b/g, and Bluetooth technology. It comes with Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition pre-installed.
It also includes Sony’s VAIO Multimedia Suite (VAIO Media plus Multimedia Streaming Software), as well as a 30-day trial of Norton Internet Security 2009 and a 60-day trial of Microsoft Home and Student 2007.
What do you think about Sony pricing in Australia? Please leave your comments.
