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iPhone 4S Launches in 22 New Countries with 1-2 Week Estimates for Online Orders
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It's actually quite upsetting to see that T-mobile and other providers delivered phones today (NL for instance) when Apple was unable to do so !
Very upsetting
According to Apple, Siri works only in "English (U.S., UK, and Australian), French, German".
The Siri team has their work cut out for them...
The Siri team has their work cut out for them...
No, there's no law requiring any warranty in the EU. While most companies offer 1-2 years warranty, this is entirely volountary.
The law dictates consumer rights however, that says that the consumer has the right to get the product repaired or replaced when a defect manifests itself within three years, if this defect was present when the product left the factory, and it's up to you as the customer to proove that this is the case.
The industry consensus is that any such defect always shows up within six months.
My experience is that some companies, like Apple, never budges on this and wont do anything unless the customer can actually proove it, which is practically impossible, while other companies such as Acer and HP wont take the argument with the customer and just repair the thing.
so to get that free healthcare how long do you have to wait? I bet you have to wait a long time to get your free healthcare. just saying.
One step closer to the New Zealand release. Whenever that will be...
I suspect that papa new gunia and the democratic republic of Congo will get the 4s prior to New Zealand this time around.
unlocked FULL price iPhone 4S will be available everywhere else when it is available in US of A!!!
Ehm... no, actually free markets with social network. Meaning, everyone has health insurance, unemployment insurance, a functioning infrastructure, good school systems, less poverty, etc. Just all the things I miss in the USA. I mean I am fortunate to have health/dental/vision covered and even am eligible for unemployment payments because I worked in the last 6 quarters, but many are not. I work for a State Mental Health Dept. and believe me - what you call "Socialism" is just the backbone of a functioning western society except USA. If I ever get seriously sick, I buy an airplane ticket to the EU and get treated there because I cannot afford the 20% I have to paying case of e.g. cancer treatment. In Germany, same or better care would cost me $14 in total for the first quarter visit to a doctor. That's it. So, before you start to throw out your agenda, know what you are talking about.
Not for Greece.
New York gets lots of tourists from overseas who come to the US to buy goods and then sneak them back to places (like Sweden) with high taxes.
What I don't get about Europe is why they don't revolt over sales taxes as high as 25%. Sales taxes and VATs are the most regressive forms of taxation since they hit those with lower income harder (since lower income people spend more of their income). Here, a presidential candidate is getting hit hard for suggesting a 9% national sales tax.
Yes and no. You are right about the defect rule. It is actually not a warranty for own fault but the "European Guideline" the national laws abide by is not even given in the USA and you have to buy it extra i.e. care plan. If, for example, my cell phone breaks after 1 month in the USA and it is not covered by a voluntary warranty, I pay for it - no matter what (if I don't have it covered otherwise). Inside the EU, it depends on where you live and what you buy. New cars, for example, have to have that protection against flaws for 3 years in Germany. That is not covered by the European Guideline but that is how Germany as sovereign entity made the law for the guideline.
Two years, not three years. Member states might have longer periods but European law requires member states to provide for at least two years of liability when goods are sold to consumers.
That's not just "industry consensus", that's European law.
Within the first 6 months the burden of proof is reversed in favor of consumers.
I.e., the product is legally assumed to be defective from the beginning, unless the seller proves otherwise.
True - though you can get tax breaks depending where you are for exactly this tax. E.g. Oklahoma pays it back as tax return in case you are under a certain income.
Its all a matter of what you get for the tax. Keep in mind that while US taxes are lower, the infrastructure suffers for it. The army upkeep eating up a huge amount that should go to the people doesn't help either.
Also bear in mind the massive economic debt the US suffers. You don't need to point out the EU situation either however - I'm well aware of it.
Yea, I went the other way (EU>US) and totally agree.
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Funny thing: US has the same debt as Greece per capita.
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Our economic activity per person is about twice that of Greece, though. Plus we have certain expenses that Greece doesn't have (a big military costs a lot of money, and we don't do a very good job of billing the people who benefit from that military, such as the EU - Britain and France almost carry their own weight, but have massive debt issues, too).
My point is that people claim to want all the benefits of taxes, but then complain when merchandise is so much more expensive because of those taxes. This isn't the first time the price of Apple products has been used as a barometer of costs.
The specific complaint about the 9% sales tax is its regressive nature. Lots of people are talking about raising taxes here without any tangible "benefits" in return, since there is $14 trillion of debt to pay off (and a trillion or so more when you add in states). It seems that the EU uses a combination of high personal income taxes (even at lower levels of income), regressive VATs and sales taxes, and comparatively low corporate taxes to finance themselves. I'm just surprised why no one is advocating replacing the VAT with other taxes that aren't so regressive.
All prices are incl. VAT. VAT rate in NL is 19%, Italy and Austria 20%, Spain 18% etc.
Doesn't explain the differences...
hence the reason for the china-men scalpers on the Apple store line every morning
Exactly this - I was going to point this out, but you beat me to it. I'm another ex pat American, living in Sweden. All you weird Americans who have this stupid idea that you live in a country that somehow runs things better are completely dominated by a denial reality vortex field thousands of magnitudes of power greater than the late great Steve Jobs was ever able to conjure up.
Are you all so eager to forget the fact that if the US federal government had not raised their own lending ceiling, you'd all be sitting in far deeper s*** than even Greece is now? A move that will devalue the currency and cause more harm than good in the long run? And let's not forget that it was our own deregulation of banks and the finance industry, coupled with their greed, that sent all of us down this road of world recession in the first place.
Contrary to the popular right leaning American sentiment, the offering of free, public healthcare and welfare benefits does not equate to the non-existence of private practices or extreme waiting times for care. Private practices in fact flourish both in the Dental and Medical fields, not to mention the insurance and pension industries. Of course those who are wealthy enough use some of their money to take advantage of these things because what they offer is better than the government programs, but the fact that there are systems in place so that no citizen is left without basic necessities of human welfare is something we in the United States have never been able to claim at any point in our proud history.
It baffles me how threatened people get by this stuff simply because it is a different way of doing things - that actually accomplishes more for the society in which it operates than anything in the US. Allow yourself to open up your mind just a wee tad - you might be surprised at what you find.
Take for example income tax differences. Sweden's tax table starts at around 20% for low wage earners and goes all the way up to 58% for people making $100,000 a month or more. Plus everyone pays an average of about 22% sales tax (groceries are 6%, most everything else 25%). So the everage Joe who pays 30% income tax and 22% sales tax ends up paying in to the goverment around 50-55% of his income.
What does he get? Well, he gets a hell of a lot actually. He gets an automatic $20 co-pay medical insurance with a cap of maximum $220 total annual out of pocket cost. He gets a government funded pension from 65 years old that will pay him 65% of his ending monthly salary until the end of his days. He gets subsidized burial costs. He gets the right to take up to 270 days of parental leave at 80% of his current wage, paid by the government, plus an additional 10 days at that same rate immediately following the birth of his/her child. He gets paid a government benefit of $150 a month per child, and even more if he has more than 3. He gets subsidized daycare for about $160 a month per child. His children get free dental and orthodontic care until the age of 20, and free university tuition. He gets a guaranteed government mandated 25 days paid vacation every year.
There is more - but just take these things for a moment. How much does the average American pay out of their own paycheck every month to get these kinds of coverages and benefits, and what percentage are they then, personally deducting from their pay, in effect taxing themselves, to achieve the same result the Swedish citizen gets automatically? Go ahead, add up you monthly costs for health and dental for your family, plus your 401K, your kids braces, daycare costs, and their college funds, and add to that the lost income for anything less than 5 weeks vacation that you get as a "benefit" from your job.
Then of course the Swede also still gets to enjoy many of the same tax deductions that Americans enjoy, such as primary residence home loan insurance deductions, and commuting expenses, even payments made to pay for labor costs for housekeeping services and home renovations.
Then look at the state of Sweden. It has weathered this global financial crisis better than almost any western country. How is this? Ask their genius finance minister, Anders Borg. Look him up. He is a complete finance guru, invited by many governments, including our own, to come and give them advice, which then is not listened to, unfortunately.
The point here is that the whole idea that government run benefits programs are anti-American, anti-freedom is crap. The idea that freedom equates to the "everybody for himself" mantra is a classic divide and conquer tactic used by an elitist government to keep people selfish enough to be scared by forward thinking and smart ideas and programs such as these. They need the money to support their unnecessarily gargantuan cash cow/natural resource appropriation tool/military force anyway!
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So you think it would be good for the US military to become a mercenary force, and "invoice" countries for our participation in cooperative military operations? Are you seriously suggesting this?
We reap what we sow. I am all for the US government just flat taxing the top 25% of American income earners (not taxable, but gross) on 20% of their 2010 tax filings. That would generate the money needed to pay off the debt instantly.
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Scandinavia benefits from being resource rich countries with small populations. That's how Canada and Australia weathered the recession, as well. The welfare state came after their wealth, and did not lead to it.
Sweden in particular also benefits from a rather favorable regulatory environment and low corporate taxation. Swedes choose to spend their wealth on a caretaker government that taxes exorbitantly in exchange for a degree of financial security. However, it isn't free. Your "free" tuition and child benefits come by paying 20% more for everything you buy, having a tax rate of 20% for even the lowest of incomes (vs our rates in the low single digits or even negative), and similar costs.
Don't think that all that "security" is free from a social perspective, as well. Central planners in Denmark, for instance, decide how many slots to open up at universities for each profession. There's a reason the US has average-at-best performing grade schools and high schools, but most of the top universities in the world. Our children don't suddenly become smarter the summer they turn 18. Our expensive universities simply outperform the "free" universities elsewhere and offer hundreds of different programs that simply don't exist elsewhere, and as a result attract the top students from all over the world.
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No, that's not what I'm suggesting. However, the US has pulled more than its weight in defending the EU, and it's disingenuous for the EU to criticize our military spending when a big reason it is so much is that we directly or indirectly subsidize NATO countries. If we weren't around, most EU countries would pay a lot more to defend themselves and wouldn't have as much for a generous welfare state. To use the favorite term of Keynesians, the EU has been freeloading for 7 decades now.
Sweden in particular also benefits from a rather favorable regulatory environment and low corporate taxation. Swedes choose to spend their wealth on a caretaker government that taxes exorbitantly in exchange for a degree of financial security. However, it isn't free. Your "free" tuition and child benefits come by paying 20% more for everything you buy, having a tax rate of 20% for even the lowest of incomes (vs our rates in the low single digits or even negative), and similar costs.
Don't think that all that "security" is free from a social perspective, as well. Central planners in Denmark, for instance, decide how many slots to open up at universities for each profession. There's a reason the US has average-at-best performing grade schools and high schools, but most of the top universities in the world. Our children don't suddenly become smarter the summer they turn 18. Our expensive universities simply outperform the "free" universities elsewhere and offer hundreds of different programs that simply don't exist elsewhere, and as a result attract the top students from all over the world.
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No, that's not what I'm suggesting. However, the US has pulled more than its weight in defending the EU, and it's disingenuous for the EU to criticize our military spending when a big reason it is so much is that we directly or indirectly subsidize NATO countries. If we weren't around, most EU countries would pay a lot more to defend themselves and wouldn't have as much for a generous welfare state. To use the favorite term of Keynesians, the EU has been freeloading for 7 decades now.
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iPhone in Norway
Here in Norway, Apple is selling (through their site) unlocked full-price iPhones. The 16 GB is 4890 NOK, about 900 dollars.
And here in Norway, the warranty is two years, but you can complain on production defects within 5 years and get free service or replacement. By law.
Yeah, I was a bit surprised two weeks ago when I called the service partner of my phone company (which I bought my 3Gs through) and told them how the data connection and GPS signal seemed to be unstable, plus a lot of dust under the glass. I thought the warranty was just Apples usual 1 year, but they told me it was 2 years. But that ended in July. But since it´s still within the 5 years, they would take it in. Sent me a pre-paid envelope, and I got a new 3Gs back in 6 days
I don´t like socialism (in it´s pure form, which we don´t have anyway), but I do like the fact that companies have to offer me products that work and are durable
...oh, by the way, there was also some court ruling in Norway saying that the providers can´t lock us into phone contracts for more than one year. For good and bad I guess. I´m happy with the prices and the service of my provider (chess.no), but I´m considering buying full price directly from Apple, because that´ll actually be cheaper in the long run (1 year).
Here in Norway, Apple is selling (through their site) unlocked full-price iPhones. The 16 GB is 4890 NOK, about 900 dollars.
And here in Norway, the warranty is two years, but you can complain on production defects within 5 years and get free service or replacement. By law.
Yeah, I was a bit surprised two weeks ago when I called the service partner of my phone company (which I bought my 3Gs through) and told them how the data connection and GPS signal seemed to be unstable, plus a lot of dust under the glass. I thought the warranty was just Apples usual 1 year, but they told me it was 2 years. But that ended in July. But since it´s still within the 5 years, they would take it in. Sent me a pre-paid envelope, and I got a new 3Gs back in 6 days
I don´t like socialism (in it´s pure form, which we don´t have anyway), but I do like the fact that companies have to offer me products that work and are durable
...oh, by the way, there was also some court ruling in Norway saying that the providers can´t lock us into phone contracts for more than one year. For good and bad I guess. I´m happy with the prices and the service of my provider (chess.no), but I´m considering buying full price directly from Apple, because that´ll actually be cheaper in the long run (1 year).