Cheaper content in iTunes Turkey & Russia

[0dev]

Originally Posted by Ramonn

You can save all that hassle by changing your location to Turkey in your Apple ID settings.

Lol

Actually you'd need a Turkish credit card too.

Edit: damn, scoiattolo49 beat me by one minute

[Ramonn]

Originally Posted by scoiattolo49

.. problem is that you need a Turkish Credit Card as well

Gift cards?

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Originally Posted by Beeplance

You do realise most people don't care about the price of music content and everything else outside their country.

Some people do and I got this news on this forum as well. If you go to main news page you'll see it...

I just wanted to know the reason behind it and I'm sure a lot of people are with me on this.... We're talking about up to 70% difference and these contents are not owned by Apple in the first place so I was expecting some logical/referenced answers but everyone is just going by their day by day shopping experience lol No official or relevant information on this topic.

What about in Singapore? (=

[emir]

I am also from Turkey and i don't agree with people that say this is too much of a price different between UK.

First of all, online music buying system is not something common or known in Turkey, some idiot people label people buying music as idiots, piracy is common so price should be low to make people use it and make the switch to legality rather than piracy.

Second, 0.89 TL (0.30GBP, 0.38 euros) isn't a very low price for Turkey. Turkish main ISP and Telecom company TTNet has a music service called TTNet Muzik which sells a hundred songs for 4 TL!(1.37GBP) TTNet Muzik's service sucks heavily compared to iTunes though. So i am thinking iTunes will succeed in Turkey but people here don't consider it ultra-cheap. Some even say expensive.

Lastly, price differences between countries are normal. This is the first time when something is cheaper in Turkey and other Turkey-like countries than UK, US, France, Canada etc...16GB iPhone 5 unlocked is 650$ in US and official iPhone 5 unlocked prices will be around 1100$ in Turkey when it comes out next week. Same for iPad. Base model iPad 4th gen. wifi only is 500$ in USA but 680$ in Turkey. As for Macs, price gaps are even more, close to almost doubling the U.S. prices.

As if that is not enough, every Apple product arrives 2-3 months later to Turkey. Even though we do bitch about it, nothing happens at prices are still very expensive, service still isn't nowhere near Uk and US and they still do arrive very late! (iPhone 5 is coming next week, finally)

So let us at least have these cheap iTunes prices. Maybe (hoping) things will change though when the first Apple Store arrives in September 2013.

[Costa Del Sol]

Originally Posted by Ramonn

We're all aware of the fact that prices differ between countries due to currency and taxes and duties and all that crap but dude we're talking about digital content which is owned by their respectful owners and not Apple.

100 songs for $2?

I don't know about it but that's just ridiculous dude I mean does it include foreign songs? Perhaps it's about streaming rights or users are borrowing it for the time of their subscription and not actually owning them outright. If they actually do buy and own their rights... 100 or so any music... For $2... Then I got nuttin more to say dude that's so baaaaaaaaaaaad! That service probably bought licensing fees but they can't sell them outright dude c'mon. I hope it's not what I think anyway...

I'm not rantin about me paying more but as I said you can't expect me to have sympathy for you guys payin cheaper for no apparent reason well just because you guys have less "disposable" income. So does millions in West who live on minimum wage and yet paying three times the more because they are part of the "west" never mind the difference in wealth distribution and the gap between poor and mid-high class...

I understand it may be cheaper but not 70% dude c'mon.

You guys probably think its me can't take it because I'm payin too much but that's not the case because I will buy them regardless of their price but we gotta think in large scale because these prices effect tonnes of people. Tonnes of online & high street people...

Please don't mix hardware and software sales etc. They differ country to country because of shipping and duties etc also it's much easier to draw up "creative accounting" for softwares and other digital content especially in developing-third world counties.

Lets get real....

(Puro smoking icon)

Actually, its all about entering a new market not about disposable income. If you ever become a merchant of some sort you'll understand what I'm talking about.

Country by country differentiation? Even 2 people with similar income living in the same building, same house, sleeping in the same room can get different prices from a vendor of any sort, let it be Apple or a bakery. Think of a reverse example, Mavi, a Turkish clothing company who is trying to be competitive in the US, sells clothes cheaper in the US than in Turkey. They produce in Turkey, ship from Turkey and sell them cheaper in the US. I can count hundreds of companies trying to be competitive abroad, selling goods cheaper abroad than in Turkey.

You do market analysis and then you decide on prices. Forget Turkey and Russia, just look around cities around yourself and see how companies market their products and how prices can differ.

Generally, if you are new at a market you've got to offer something especially if there are alternatives around. Its not about the music only. Look at airline fees, I'm definitely sure I'd pay more to fly to a popular destination than a brand new one.

100 or so any music... For $2... Then I got nuttin more to say dude that's so baaaaaaaaaaaad! That service probably bought licensing fees but they can't sell them outright dude c'mon. I hope it's not what I think anyway...

That was the "fight club" until 2-3 months ago where people from other nations started exploiting it. Now it doesn't include foreign songs anymore but back in last summer, I downloaded around 500 songs for the price of a couple of Big Macs. Again, it didn't have anything to do with the disposable income, its just about getting people heated up for downloading digital content.

Again, the prices will rise as iTunes get popular. Don't worry, I give it max. 2 years until Turkey and Russia starts paying 99 for a song.

Both Turkey and Russia are no longer classified as "developing countries". They are called "Newly Industrialized Nations", and there is an enormous business potential that almost every company would want to do business and be competitive at.