10 clicks…

In the best case scenario it takes me at least ten clicks, 5 of which are redundant, and quite a bit of lucky guessing, to get from the “immediate purchase” link in the Delphi 2010 press release to a page where I see even so much as a price tag… and still left wondering whether this is even the best offer… isn’t that a bit… erm, how do I put this… ridiculous?

1. Click “immediate purchase”
2. Click “Europe”
3. In the “Germany” section, click “Find an International Distribution Partner”
4. In the “By country” section, drop down the selection list
5. scroll down
6. select “Germany” (again! – see 3.)
7. Click “Submit”
8. Select one out of 32 arbitrary vendors from the Partner Directory (and be sure to click the link in the right hand column as otherwise you will have to click once more to actually get to the vendor’s page), many of which do not even appear to have an online shop at all as far as I can tell… Most do not even mention Delphi or RAD Studio on the front page.
9. If you took a lucky guess in the previous step the vendor will have a direct link to the Delphi product page on its front page. If so, click it. Otherwise take however many clicks it takes you on that vendor’s page to select Delphi (again! – see 1.) from the product catalog.
10. Click through to the page with the pricing information only to find out that, as usual, there is a whopping 43% premium for European customers on the Pro upgrade ESD!

So much for “immediate purchase”…

In the words of Donna Noble: You’ve got to be kidding me!

That said, Delphi 2010 does still look like a worthwhile point upgrade from a technical POV… My sincerest kudos to the R&D team!

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here’s my calculation, in case you were wondering:

• Delphi Pro UPG ESD in US online shop:   399 USD ~ 279 EUR (as of the time of this writing)
• Delphi Pro UPG ESD in EU online shop: ~399 EUR excl. VAT
• 120 EUR difference! (~43% of 279 EUR)