1 Sorry to threadjack, but I'm getting reports from readers that their comments over at The Pond are being "held for moderation".  Halp?

2 Hmm...way beyond my budget ATM but cheaper than I'd've thought.
Wait...
Aussie dollars...
WAY cheaper than I'd've thought!

3 It's not that much difference now. 1 US$ == 1.12 AUD

4 The Aussie dollar was actually above parity with the US dollar for a while.  It's trickled back down over recent months.

5

When I clicked the link, it was AUD 1699.  I searched for the same monitor on www.dell.com in a new tab, and the USD price was 1299.  (bing's converter, operating at 1.12 ratio, says the equivalent amount in USD would be 1520.)

My understanding is that's not just due to the conversion ratio, but that electronics just cost more in Australia.  (I remember hearing in years past that stuff there cost twice as much, after price conversion, as the same thing would cost in the US.)

6 Interesting.  I see $1559 for the Australian price.  As you say, it's now showing for $1299 on the US site, after being launched at $1399.
The Australian price includes 10% sales tax, which is a national tax here.  Typically Australian prices for anything other than commodity computer items also include a 20%-100% "because screw you, that's why" markup; fortunately, Dell haven't done that.

7 It's a sign!  If I buy a UP2414Q with 5-year extended warranty, and a U2414H, the total cost is...  $2014.

8

I now see the $1559 and $1299 prices, aus and us respectively.

The places I'd particularly heard of the massive Austrailian "screw you" markup was on computer games.

9 Yes.  It's so nice to see a new game on steam, selling for US$50, unless you live in Australia, in which case it's US$90 because screw you.  There's no distributor involved, no foreign exchange uncertainty (the price is still in US dollars), no sales tax.  It's just major game publishers being major dicks.

Book publishing is even worse, because of the way the English language market was divided up between US and UK publishers back in the 19th century.  It's not that unusual to simply be unable to purchase an ebook from Australia, because, again, screw you.  Never mind Amazon constantly teasing me with $0.99 ebooks and $1.99 audio books, except that Australians can't have them, because screw you.

10 My resolutions are 1920x1080 on 27", 1440x900 on 19", and worst of all 1024x768 on 15.5".  Planning on getting a 27" 4k monitor whenever I can afford it.  Oh yeah, almost forgot, I'm currently running twin 1gb Sapphire AMD Radeon HD5450 cards.  Not the best, but it works and that's what I get for building a system on a budget.