Hi Rick,

A thoughtful post, as always. Thanks.

>> Unfortunately there's no easy way to deal with this. How would you set this up and more importantly monitor this? The reality is that a small vendor who doesn't have specialized outlets in a given country is unlikely to have separate pricing policies for different countries. The reality of it is that if a product is worth $100,000 to Indians for a $1000 in US funds for the vendor that 100,000 is still $1,000. If you now go and sell that product for $10 you're left with 100th of the revenue. Financially that makes little sense... <<

My guess is the real risk of regionalized pricing, even by an egalitarian company that wanted to recognize local buying power, would not be offshore but back home. Say you've got a product that sells for $500 USD and is widely considered a tremendous bargain by American customers. Spend $500, save XX hours of development time, my hourly rate is YY dollars .... no brainer. But overseas customers tell you $500 USD is more than the per-capita income here, way more than I can afford. You decide to give them a different (lower) price, not only because it pleases you aesthetically but because you know firsthand that the U.S. is not the entire planet. So you decide to peg your price to the local economy. U.S. customers still pay $500 but in China they pay this, in India they pay this, in Indonesia they pay this. And the price reflects not only market exchange rates but local buying power.

Know what happens next? Care to guess?

Right on the first guess -- your U.S. customers become disgruntled. They complain that overseas customers -- those damned foreigners! -- pay less than they do. American dollars 500, zigyats 10, exchange rate 8.79 zigyat per USD, bottom line = American developer getting screwed. More likely the American developer will try to figure out a way to buy your product not in dollars but in zigyats, and your bottom line drops. It's a merry-go-round once you start messing with currencies.

What thoughts went through your mind when you priced West Wind, and did currency rates enter into them?

Mike