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Apple ripping off the UK and Europe

jacobj

jacobj

macrumors 65816
Original poster
The new Belkin camera link is $49 at the US Apple store (about £27). They have it proced at £70 in the UK (about $126) and EUR 100 in France (about $130 or £72).

How can they possibly justify increasing the price by 150%?

Edit: if you live in the UK you can get it from Amazon for £48.69 ($88)
 
Well...

You're forgetting to factor in the exchange rate, which at the minute makes up for a huge part of the price discrepency, at least in the US / UK example you gave.

Regardless, yes, Apple's products are more expensive in Europe - unfortunately, you gotta live with it.

andy.
 
The Apple store is much more expensive than other stores and the US-Europe price differences have been the topic of many threads until now.

But, what I'm wondering is why you wrote UK and Europe? Isn't the UK part of Europe?
 
Veldek said:
But, what I'm wondering is why you wrote UK and Europe? Isn't the UK part of Europe?
Click to expand...
Yes, but we use the £ and not the €, so prices still differ between us.
 
edesignuk said:
Yes, but we use the £ and not the €, so prices still differ between us.
Click to expand...

not everybody in the rest of europe uses the € 😉
at least the difference isn't as bad as it used to be 1 year ago

what's really worse is that they can't deliver anything in time...hello apple i paid my computer a month ago and the only thing i got so far are a few lousy emails...and a pc who perhaps is still sitting in luxembourg...arghhh
 
_pb_boi said:
Well...

You're forgetting to factor in the exchange rate, which at the minute makes up for a huge part of the price discrepency, at least in the US / UK example you gave.

andy.
Click to expand...

I'm not quite sure what you mean by this, could you explain please? If the US price is $49, and the UK price is approximately $126 - 2.5 times the US price - how does the exchange rate make a difference?
 
_pb_boi said:
Well...

You're forgetting to factor in the exchange rate, which at the minute makes up for a huge part of the price discrepency, at least in the US / UK example you gave.

andy.
Click to expand...

I am not quite sure what you mean by this. With current US fiscal policy the rates are unlikely to change for the better of the UK for some time.

This is the reason Apple dropped the prices of their displays recently in the UK (not enough, but hey).
 
Veldek said:
But, what I'm wondering is why you wrote UK and Europe? Isn't the UK part of Europe?
Click to expand...

Yes (I am very pro Europe). The differentiation was due to currency rather than culture.
 
jacobj said:
Yes (I am very pro Europe). The differentiation was due to currency rather than culture.
Click to expand...

I, on the other hand, am generally anti-Europe. The distinction is important.
 
MemphisSoulStew said:
I'm not quite sure what you mean by this, could you explain please? If the US price is $49, and the UK price is approximately $126 - 2.5 times the US price - how does the exchange rate make a difference?
Click to expand...

Yeh, I didn't read the post properly - was rushing to get to class when I was replying. Apologies for the confusion.

andy.
 
I do understand now, that it was because of the currency, though I still think one could have said "UK and rest of Europe" or perhaps "UK and Euro-land", but that's probably just me.

Dunepilot said:
The distinction is important.
Click to expand...
Perhaps it would be, if there was any... 😉
 
jacobj said:
The new Belkin camera link is $49 at the US Apple store (about £27). They have it proced at £70 in the UK (about $126) and EUR 100 in France (about $130 or £72).

How can they possibly justify increasing the price by 150%?

Edit: if you live in the UK you can get it from Amazon for £48.69 ($88)
Click to expand...

As other resellers are, like Apple, selling at around £60 I would suggest that Amazon have either bought in bulk and or are just selling the item cheap or as a loss-leader. Maybe Amazons buying methods are global whereas Apple’s are separated for the US and Europe.

It should also be noted that Belkin’s original RRP was $79.99 until recently has this change filtered through to export sales already made?

These threads, as has been said, are always cropping up about how had done by the UK consumer is but they don’t take into account some basics like the operating cost of business.

Take a look at Apple’s 60GB iPod; In the US it sells at $449, Apple could sell it cheaper say $441 and still make their profit but they aim to hit a price point of $xx9 for marketing, with today’s exchange rate it should therefore sell at €350.09 or £242.22 but in fact it sells at £262.98 in the UK €387.60 in Ireland and €408.86 in France. Apple therefore is charging a ‘premium’ of 9% in the UK, 11% in Ireland and 17% in France.

Considering the additional cost that operating in these different countries and that a certain amount of ‘wiggle’ room needs to be added for exchange movements I don’t think it’s that bad, certainly Dell have been far worse in the near past.
 
Veldek said:
I do understand now, that it was because of the currency, though I still think one could have said "UK and rest of Europe" or perhaps "UK and Euro-land", but that's probably just me.
Click to expand...
"In the Euro Zone" is the familiar soundbyte over here.

We'll never get the Euro, it's too mixed up in party-politics, subject to ulterior motives and agendas.
 
brap said:
"In the Euro Zone" is the familiar soundbyte over here.

We'll never get the Euro, it's too mixed up in party-politics, subject to ulterior motives and agendas.
Click to expand...

I hope you're right, but I fear you'll be using the Euro within 5years if Tony wins the next election.
 
jacobj said:
Yes (I am very pro Europe). The differentiation was due to currency rather than culture.
Click to expand...

Speak for yourself, I personally think the continent that is called Europe has one of the greatest ranges of culture, if not the greatest.

The United Kingdom also has a huge cultural range, not that any pro european worth their salt would want to recognise that fact.

European Culture - We're all just similarly ignorant pawns in the creation of a super bureaucracy.

Yes, Apple is ripping off Europeans, but not any worse than we have come to accept as normal.
 
kettle said:
...Yes, Apple is ripping off Europeans, but not any worse than we have come to accept as normal...
Click to expand...

Why do you think you're being ripped off?

All businesses are run to make money for the shareholders and Apple is no different. If you think that any form of profit is wrong and therefore you’re being ‘ripped off’ by all businesses? If yes then that’s fair enough but I’m afraid you will find yourself as part of a minority. Without profitable businesses we would not have 99%+ of the luxuries that we presently enjoy.

Apple make a profit from us only because we choose to buy their products, we don’t have to. Apple charge only what the market will allow them to charge and we as consumers are half that market.
 
brap said:
"In the Euro Zone" is the familiar soundbyte over here.

We'll never get the Euro, it's too mixed up in party-politics, subject to ulterior motives and agendas.
Click to expand...

<-crosses his fingers.

The Euro is not all it's cracked up to be. Introduction of new currencies has proven again and again to lead to price inflation (even decimalisation in the UK did this to a surprising extent). If you want to find out just how bad rip-off Britain could really get, fast forward to a time when we have the Euro also.

Introduction of the Euro has not led to price equalisation either, as promised. Countries in the Eurozone might be able to buy iTMS tracks at the same price, but there's still great variation in prices, and even some fixed-price products (like canned goods) have been known to display 4 or 5 different prices in Euros, depending on where they are purchased in Europe. This side of the Euro seems to have been fairly illusory.

Oh yeah, and then there's the idea that if you're going to have a common currency, and a central bank setting interest rates, then there needs to be some sort of tax equalisation. With house prices in the UK as stupidly high as they are, there's no way we could afford to hike up to mainland Europe's level of taxation.

Our economic system is just too different for this to be workable any time soon. The arguments for the Euro generally derive from savings that could be made by big business (which has largely forsaken the UK anyway), and it's not like call centres would be any cheaper to run in Euros.
 
Arent taxes included in euro price while not in US?

Also, making business in other countries cost a lot, you have no idea until you have tried. Of course Apple is big and can afford it but each country is considered a separed entity and they have to account for their revenu, hence the price hike...
 
Mantat said:
...Arent taxes included in euro price while not in US?...
Click to expand...

mpw said:
Take a look at Apple’s 60GB iPod; In the US it sells at $449, Apple could sell it cheaper say $441 and still make their profit but they aim to hit a price point of $xx9 for marketing, with today’s exchange rate it should therefore sell at €350.09 or £242.22 but in fact it sells at £262.98 in the UK €387.60 in Ireland and €408.86 in France. Apple therefore is charging a ‘premium’ of 9% in the UK, 11% in Ireland and 17% in France.
Click to expand...

In the example above I've quoted all the sale prices without any sales tax.
 
Dunepilot said:
....If you want to find out just how bad rip-off Britain could really get, fast forward to a time when we have the Euro also...
Click to expand...

In this thread it's been shown that Apple 'rip-off' Briton by just 9% and that the rest of Europe fare worse than Britain. I'm sure you'll find plenty or price variations of 9% both for and against the British consumer compared to most other countries.

So where exactly is the 'rip-off' people keep talking about in this thread?
 
Apple Japan is selling it for 9980yen, about $94.75USD, 49.50UK

Apple is an american company, doesn't surprise me that they charge more for overseas business. Whether they should do so or not I don't know, but it doesn't surprise me.
 
vtprinz said:
Apple Japan is selling it for 9980yen, about $94.75USD, 49.50UK

Apple is an american company, doesn't surprise me that they charge more for overseas business. Whether they should do so or not I don't know, but it doesn't surprise me.
Click to expand...
There is always going to be a price difference, sometime the grey market Macs will flow into the US -- sometimes they'll flow out of the US.

If you want stuff tied to the exchange rates, it'll fluctuate daily.

Sometimes you'll pay more than the marked rate, sometimes less -- but very rarely will you actually pay the price on the label.
 
Having lived in the UK most of my life before moving to the US, it's a fact of life that most stuff costs more there. This is partially due to VAT (Sales Tax) of 17.5%, partially due to the smaller market size, partially due to higher overheads paid by businesses (tax gouging by the government), and also because of retail price gouging over decades.

There used to be a huge difference in car prices between the UK and other Euro countries a while ago. There were a number of businesses set up purely to help people order their cars from other Euro countries, and transport them over to collect their cars and drive back via ferry and sort out the import taxes with customs, and still save a ton of money. The car companies hated it and tried to negate warranties, but they failed.

Prices are actually a lot more equivalent now than they used to be, but there's still a mark up. It's a case of charging what the market will bear, and currently the market is bearing it.
 
Getting just a tad off-topic here, but part of me wants the UK to adopt the Euro... then, when the European economy goes in the toilet, as it inevitably will, the UK's only means of escape will be to secede from the European Union and join the US as its 51st state. 🙂

See also: Jennifer Government, The Light of Other Days, Formula 51
 
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