It's a competitive world, and therefore every company competes in price, so to some extent it's a matter of circumstance, because without competitors, companies tend to charge whatever they want, and usually quite high if they can get away with it, but all things considered, given the current state of affairs involving DAW selection, Sonar is one of the better deals.
Here in Australia, we do have good suppliers for DAW software, and they do compete price-wise.
 
Here are the prices for the various DAWs in Australian currency as of now.
 
 
Pro Tools $799.  
Ableton Live (as is stated at Ableton's 'own' website) Live 9 Suite $749
Cubase $699
Sonar Platinum $608
Studio One $449
 
 
 
Lets give kudos here to Cakewalk, they are at the very least, competitive, and i'm thankful for that.

Huh over here it's
Live 9 Suite 519
Cubase 519
Sonar 449 (X3P, no Platinum yet)
Studio One 349
All in Euro.

Sonar isn't doing badly but the Ableton pricing seems really weirdly high in your list.

EDIT:
I just saw you took prices from their site. In that case Sonar goes for 550 here and Ableton for 599. Were you perhaps looking at Push+Ableton? Push is a considerable piece of hardware that they're currently pushing (haha...) you to buy with Ableton.

I suspect one reason for the pretty sudden appearance of the membership model was to catch the competition flat-footed. On the other hand, the surprise, angst and confusion created among current users provides an unprecedented opportunity for poaching by the other guys. I would be surprised if we did not start to see cross-grade offers from other DAWs in the near future.
 
 

Sanderxpander
Huh over here it's
Live 9 Suite 519
Cubase 519
Sonar 449 (X3P, no Platinum yet)
Studio One 349
All in Euro.

Sonar isn't doing badly but the Ableton pricing seems really weirdly high in your list.

EDIT:
I just saw you took prices from their site. In that case Sonar goes for 550 here and Ableton for 599. Were you perhaps looking at Push+Ableton? Push is a considerable piece of hardware that they're currently pushing (haha...) you to buy with Ableton.

Yes, you're right, i looked at the wrong price-list at Ableton's website, the price i had stated ($1198) is with the dedicated hardware they call "Push".
 
Anyway, your prices, in Euros, converted to Australian as of now...
 
 
Cubase 519 Euros - equals $730 Australian (purchase price i quoted here... $699)
Sonar 449 Euros - equals $630 Australian (purchase price i quoted here... $608)
Studio One 349 Euros - equals $490 Australian (purchase price i quoted here... $449)
Live 9 Suite 519 Euros - equals $730 Australian (purchase price i quoted here...$749)
 
So, for Cubase, Sonar and Studio One, wherever it is that you're located, you're actually paying more. The exchange rate i gave you is based on my real-time currency converter up to the minute international exchange Rates.
 
There are cheaper DAWs like Reaper and Mixcraft and Bitwig Studio, but none of those offer the types of tools or same caliber plugins that Sonar does. All things considered, i would say that Cakewalk have set the right price for Sonar. And, in fact, if anyone needs value-for-money, or has a low budget, Sonar Professional simply can't be beat. This shows intelligent analysis of the market by Cakewalk, and a keen understanding of how to best set price for a win-win situation. Hopefully Cakewalk is making a good profit at their current selling price, that way they can continue to improve Sonar and give us more plugins in the future.

With the other Daws you mentioned you can transfer your license (Sell it) which is not the case with Sonar. Not meant as a crit just a statement of fact. Possibly why comparisons are sometimes odious.

Gerry, this is not true for Europe:

The European Court of Justice (ECJ), the uppermost legal body of the European Union, provided for final clarity with its judgement and declared trade in used computer programs to be fundamentally legitimate.
The ECJ also ruled that the trade in used software is also permitted with software transferred online.
The ECJ's ruling should also be applied to volume licenses and their splitting-up. The Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt confirmed this in proceedings between Adobe and usedSoft.
In justifying their verdict, the 13 judges of the Grand Chamber clearly stated that the principle of exhaustion applies to each initial sale of software. The Court even decreed that second purchasers may even download the software from the manufacturer again with licenses transferred online. "Furthermore, the exhaustion of the right of distribution extends to the version of the copy of the program upgraded and updated by the owner of the copyright," according to the European Court of Justice. The Court therefore went further than the concluding opinion of the ECJ Advocate General on 24 April 2012.
The ECJ's judgement was issued at the request of the German Federal Court of Justice. In the past, software manufacturers had utilised the partly ambiguous statutory regulations to discriminate against this trade and significantly intimidate customers. In principle, the resale of used computer programs was already legal.
The ECJ's judgement provides for legal certainty throughout the entire European Union. It is therefore to be expected that the trade in used software will now also grow strongly in other EU countries outside of Germany, its "country of origin".

I now about that but what is the reallity? What is the official Cakewalk position? I will not be surprised that for legal reasons they do not have one LOL. Has anyone purchased a used version of Sonar and then asked Cakewalk to register it? Maybe the new system is more about this than anything else, now there is a thought.
 
 
I ask because I have 3 boxed versions of Producer cluttering up my studio that I am loath to throw in the recycle bin.
 
 

i suspect the official CW position is that Sonar is used so little in Europe it's not worth worrying about.

Unless you paid the full retail price for each version, you still only have one license which was upgraded each time to the new version. If you gave away or sold the disks, there is no way the recipient can acquire a legitimate license to use the product unless you are willing to give them your license too.

Right now Sonar is by far the best bang for the buck. Way ahead of the rest as far as included instruments and plug ins. 
Just compare Sonar's Artist with Cubase Elements. Both are $100. Sonar X 3 plain or the new Artist  comes with triple the features.
Cubase Elements 7 is like using Cakewalks Music Creator 6 which is under $50.