New Zealand iTunes Store Coming Wednesday?

About Time!!!

Hopefully this rumor comes true!!!

I've just updated my credit card and lost my access to the Austalian iTunes Store

bornonbord said:

It's too bad that the internet in NZ is incredibly expensive and most have monthly bandwidth limits.

Especially now that Apple is putting higher-rez qts of TV shows up. This suddenly makes an hour episode of Lost 500 MB.

When you only have 10 GB a month... suddenly that's a lot.

-Mark

Click to expand...

It's not too bad...$50 ($30 in US$) gets me a 7 m/b download with no download limt. Just crappy upload speed - but that doesn't affect anything I use it for.

Renaissance is Crap!!!

- start rant:

I was thinking about buying a macbook when it came out, and when I did the math, I discovered that for the price of buying it in NZ, I could take a return trip to the australian Gold Coast, buy a macbook, and still have money left over for some cocktails by the pool.

I wrote a letter to Renaissance to enquire about why the price difference. No reply of course.

Plus when I brought my Macmini from a retailer last year, they gave me a voucher for Tiger which I had to send to Renaissance. I waited patiently for two weeks after I had sent my voucher, and then called them to enquire about my copy of Tiger. Apparently they sent it to the wrong address in a different city (WTF?). after failing to receive a copy they promised to send me, I gave them another call back. Apparently I was no longer within the 3 month free upgrade period (due to them not sending it to the right address in the first instance!), and so I was no longer entilted to it!

I sent my complaint to their complaint department, and received no correspondace back. So here I am 18 months later waiting for the release of Leopard (theres no way Renaissance are getting my money for Tiger).

I sent a detailed letter of my experience to Apple USA , and although I didn't get a reply, Hopefully I did my little part in Renaissances' eventual death as the NZ distributor of apple products.

Wankers.

- end rant.

How much

What do you think for song pricing?
2$ per track?


Regarding the local apple pricing, it has been much better over the last year, but I think that is just the strong NZ dollar. When I got my iBook 3 years ago, from the US, I got a couple of airport cards and a base station too, all for about the price on an iBook in nz.

timonz said:

What do you think for song pricing?
2$ per track?


Regarding the local apple pricing, it has been much better over the last year, but I think that is just the strong NZ dollar. When I got my iBook 3 years ago, from the US, I got a couple of airport cards and a base station too, all for about the price on an iBook in nz.

Click to expand...

there are much cheaper download sites like digirama.co.nz which sells songs for $1.39 if i recall

More info please

tulips said:

For those of you who havent caught on yet. Apple Computer took control of apple.co.nz on the 29-Nov-06 and also Registered a company in NZ on the 20-mar-06. So although I wouldnt normally put much faith into NZ Tech Reports, for once they have at least got it right that something big is changing, but I dont think it is only about the iTMS.

Click to expand...

Hi, tulips. I was under the impression that Apple already owned apple.co.nz but were redirecting it to Renaissance in some way as part of their distribution agreement.

Apple.co.nz still redirects to Renaissance. Are you certain this happened? Where did you hear about it?

GreatDrok said:

Here's a question for you all. I currently live in the UK (didn't want to but my parents moved here from NZ when I was a kid) and am going to move back next year. Well, I have bought a fair amount of stuff on the UK iTunes store and when I want to play it on a new machine I have to authorise it at the UK store which is all well and good as I have an account. However, when I move to NZ will I be able to migrate my UK account and buy from the NZ store (assuming all this is for real)? I'm sure this has popped up for people moving from the US to the UK for instance so someone must know. Cheers.

Click to expand...

When I moved back to NZ from the Britain, I simply kept my UK credit card and account, so I've been able to use the UK iTunes Store from NZ this whole time Maybe you should hang onto yours too.

Thanks guys!

PCMacUser said:

When I moved back to NZ from the Britain, I simply kept my UK credit card and account, so I've been able to use the UK iTunes Store from NZ this whole time Maybe you should hang onto yours too.

Click to expand...

I had been thinking about doing this. My bank has offered to let me keep my UK account going as well as helping me get set up with banking facilities in NZ so this isn't a bad idea.

Nermal said:

Indeed I can! If you change your existing account to an NZ account, then you will be able to buy new music from NZ, and still play your existing UK music. Even if you get a new computer, you will still be able to authorise your UK music, by using your NZ account - the country only restricts where you can buy from, and the account will still have authorisation keys for the UK music. Did that make sense?

Click to expand...

Makes perfect sense thanks. I guess I'll test the water and see if continuing to use my UK account makes sense versus switching over entirely.

Good luck to y'all down under. Never been to Un(En) Zed, but I've been to Australia a couple of times while in the Navy. Perth/Freemantle twice and Sydney once. Highlights were seeing the Southern Cross and the Opera House. Sydney was a beautiful city, a local took me around town sight seeing. Perth wasn't as eye-catching, but I did pick up a large chunk of raw opal for the price of dirt. Made a couple of beautiful cabs that I still haven't done anything with but admire... end ramble

Z

mackiwi said:

It's not too bad...$50 ($30 in US$) gets me a 7 m/b download with no download limt. Just crappy upload speed - but that doesn't affect anything I use it for.

Click to expand...

Who do you have? Xtra?

From what I understand, the providers that don't have bandwidth limits (like the new XTRA) do have limits on P2P such as Skype and the audio chats and video chats of iChat. I'm sure it's really set up for things like Limewire, but unfortunately these other low-bandwidth P2Ps are effected.

Would still be good to see an NZ store... I'm sure it's a mess of math to figure out how it could be cost effective for a country of 4m

-Mark

Wow, its so cool to see so many Mac users from down in Australia and... NZ. Heh, Its nice to see that because I am moving to Australia in a few years to be with my girlfreind again. She had lived in the states for awhile and had to move back this last year. I was always really concerned about Mac support and such down there. I really think, and have for awhile, that the next country to get an Apple store should definatly be Australia. Sydney would be the obvious choice, though I am moving to the Perth/Fremantle area. It would be even cooler to have one in Perth so I could work there! Anyways, I do hear a lot about the whole Oz and NZ stuff from a Aussie point of view, as I don't live there yet, so I won't contribute what I have heard.

Oh and by the way. I am an American by birth, and I agree with you 100%, you would probably be talking to a few Americans before you find one who can tell you where New Zealand is, or have even heard of it. And many of them will more than likely be like "Isn't New Zealand part of Australia?" I have seen how mad that makes Aussies.

Excellent news

Mac Kiwi said:

Excellent news

Click to expand...

i second that the more the merier

Good news for New Zealand residents I would imagine

Well NZ, just got the iTunes store as well at the Apple online store

Edit, can't seem to sign up to the iTS as yet.

http://www.apple.com/nz

Also, does anyone have the pricing for Apple products prior to these announcements?

pknz said:

Well NZ, just got the iTunes store as well at the Apple online store

Edit, can't seem to sign up to the iTS as yet.

http://www.apple.com/nz

Also, does anyone have the pricing for Apple products prior to these announcements?

Click to expand...

Same, the NZ store is not showing up in my iTunes yet either.

It's Alive!

Confirmed, the iTunes store is now active in New Zealand as of this morning. I've currently listening to the first track I purchased. (First track from Octavarium by Dream Theater)

Individual tracks look to be $1.79 and albums are $17.99. Pricing differs for videos, games etc.

Download speed seems ok, took about 8 seconds/megabyte.

And the "Get album art" feature works well also.

Hooray!

And via the Apple Store, prices have dropped significantly compared to the previous Renaissance page as well. The price of the high-end iMac dropped by around $300.

Email

I got this in my inbox:

Dear eNews Recipient

If you are receiving this email, you are registered for Renaissance's version of Apple eNews (via apple.co.nz).

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support, and let you know that Renaissance will no longer be creating a local version of Apple's eNews.

We would like to continue to keep you up to date about New Zealand-based Apple events and news in the future. If you do not wish to receive this information, please email applewebmaster@renaissance.co.nz with the header "UNSUBSCRIBE".

Kind Regards
The eNews Team
Apple Division of Renaissance

Does this mean that Renaissance is getting pushed out?
I did read somewhere that Renaissance staff had changed their email addresses from @apple.co.nz to @renaissance.co.nz.

That would be nice, Renaissance have always been a pain to deal with, and have always abused their monopoly with excessive pricing.

On the news tonight {stockmarket section} they mentioned that Renaissance were still saying they have the Apple contract.

Cheaper than the UK too!

I was going to buy a Mac Pro in the UK before I move to NZ but looking at the prices on the Apple Store they look to be cheaper than the UK. Not sure if this is a tax thing or what? Tracks on the iTunes UK store are 79p each and at the current exchange rate NZ$1.79 is 62.3p so that looks quite significant

Mac Kiwi said:

On the news tonight {stockmarket section} they mentioned that Renaissance were still saying they have the Apple contract.

Click to expand...

2nd that. Arent they the same tho?

Lol theyre still selling NZ$478 for 8gb ipod whereas apple.com.nz store selling them for $449 arseholes