It is not just pricing, but availability
In the middle east, one of the greatest drivers for Piracy is availability.
You want to buy something but cant get it, although the middle east is a huge market.
I want to buy a kindle, Amazon wont sell me one... my cousin managed to buy one anyway, amazon wouldnt sell him books. So he goes online and downloads 5000 pirated kindle books.
I want to buy photoshop, I cant find a single shop that sells it in retail, instead you have to go through a complex search to find out how to obtain it legally. I only know one person who owns a legal copy. The official distributor is only focusing on selling to companies
I love computer games, but why should I buy a boxed game prized at more than $100 when I can buy it online at $49 or less, sometimes considerably less.... now here is what makes it worse.. how many teenagers do you know with access to credit cards? Buying online isn't exactly an option for everybody is it?
Some companies don't even bother to try to cater for the middle east and they b***h about the piracy rate of their software in the region.
I want to buy a movie, chances are the only place I will find it the middle east is a 400km drive to the Virgin megastore across the border. If you don't distribute the movie legally in the region (and I am not talking about some substandard, low quality audio and video with cheap packaging aimed at asian market where the individual's pay is normally 10% my salary), how do you expect people to obtain a copy legally? It is like they are just begging you to pirate their movie!
Microsoft made the effort, and most people I know run legit copies of windows, it is available in the market and it is priced reasonably and they actually provide tech support (even though it sucks, at least it is there).