Why Microsoft and Adobe are laughing all the way to the bank

I recently got an email from a friend. She is looking to purchase a new computer. Apparently a friend of her's works at Dell and he spec'ed out a pretty decent machine at a good price with his discounts.

Then she asked about software. Will Adobe Photoshop work on this computer, and how much will it cost? I did a quick survey of Froogle, Amazon, and Adobe's own web site and determined that a legal copy would cost pretty close to the list price of $650. This was almost as much as the cost of the computer.