A Program Deliberation and Mediation Committee (PDMC) survey of prices of 18 U.S.-made software programs indicates that U.S. software companies with no local rivals are making unreasonable profits in the Korean market, to the detriment of customers.

It showed that Microsoft’s SQL Server 2000 Ent 25Client is priced at W18 million in Korea, but costs only US$4,790 or W5 million in the U.S., some 3.6 times less than here.

The world’s largest software maker's operating system Windows XP Pro and its Home Edition are sold for 54 and 36 percent more in Korea. Office 2003 Pro, Visual Studio .Net Pro 2003, and Windows Server 2000 are 30-82 percent more expensive.

Adobe’s Photoshop 8.0 and Acrobat 6.0 Pro are sold at $699 and $399 in America, while in Korea they cost $1,140 (W1.14 million) and $750 (W750,000). Autodesk’s 3D Studio Max 6.0 and Auto CAD 2005 are 51 and 45 percent pricier than in the U.S.

Given that the American GDP is 4.1 times higher than that of Korea (as of 2001), the real price difference would be much bigger, the PDMC said.

In fierce competition with domestic virus vaccine software such as V3 by AhnLab, Symantec’s Norton Virus 2004 was the only U.S. software that is cheaper in Korea than at home, costing W39,000 in comparison to the U.S. price of $40 (W40,000).

(englishnews@chosun.com )