Backspace knows a designer who loves his Mac but recently had to do a job using a PC.
Fair enough, he thought. All he really needed was a decent display. A 23-incher would do nicely.
Naturally - being a computer-literate chap - he looked on the internet, and found about four flat-panel displays he liked.
Of particular interest was Hewlett-Packard's L2335. The price in Singapore was listed as US$1,599, or about HK$12,500. In Hong Kong, however, HP wanted HK$27,000.
Needless to say, the designer was not happy. He said HP gave him the 'usual runaround', meaning no support for Hong Kong.
'I guess HP doesn't have to justify its pricing policies to a customer, but it is an annoying thing to have to deal with,' he said.
'And it's not like you can say it is vastly superior or different because the Philips, BenQ and HP LCDs all use the same panels from LG Philips.'