Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iPod Apple Aust: You cannot do this! iPod$$ = rip! (RANT)

Chundles said:
Economy of scale.

Australia and the US - roughly the same size and distance from the factory.

20 million people here, 370 million people there. Makes it much easier to sell at a lower price where you know you're going to make back the lesser margin on the volume of sales.

Then there are all the other variables.

In the end, we pay more - it's not immoral it's just the way things work. You can't go basing prices off the exchange rate alone.
Click to expand...


370 million?!!!! I see accuracy is not Australia's strong point :p
 
Hi,

If you actually go to the Apple Online store, add an item or two in the cart and check the shopping cart. You'll see the price breakdown on the shopping cart page and it will have the item cost without GST. At the bottom, it will add 10% of the total cart and that is added as GST.

Compare the prices that way and it makes more sense. :)

Eg.
iPod nano, 16GB - (PRODUCT) RED
Quantity:
1
Item Price:
A$ 253.64
 
TraceyS/FL said:
Sale tax can goa variety of places.

Can go something like this:

State: 5%
County: 2% (orange county FL has a HUGE hotel tax rate)
Local: .5% (or sometimes penny per dollar, or penny per sale - that is what built our library here, a 1 cent tax).

So the prices Apple would have on their sight would vary GREATLY from State to State (some have no sales tax, some have 10%). It's not a national thing - so it could never be priced that way.

It just depends on where you live. Mine is 7% in my county here in FL, and 6.5% 4 miles up the road in the next county.
Click to expand...
This is exactly why the US doesn't include something like VAT in retail prices. It just varies too much.

Ex: Here in Colorado Springs our tax on regular goods is 7.5% (I think). However there is no tax on food. Back in Virginia tax on regular goods was 4.5% and on food it was 4% (again, if I remember correctly ... I hate internet acronyms).

Remember, the US is basically a bunch of smaller, state, governments who have decided to be under the control of a larger, federal, government. There is always a change that if a state wanted to (and voted to be) they could secede (break away) from the union. It's quite an interesting government system.
 
Trip.Tucker said:
370 million?!!!! I see accuracy is not Australia's strong point :p
Click to expand...

Perhaps he was including the Illegal immigrant workforce? :p

Acutally we've had the same price issues in Canada, basically getting gouged. In the past when our dollar was low (.65) that was always the reasoning. Basically we'd pay a few extra dollars for a magazine, a few extra grand on a car and of course hundreds more for a Mac. Fastforward to the past couple of years and our currencies have pretty much been at par...yet strangely enough all our merchandise remained enormously out of whack. It takes time for the adjustment to settle it we were told (ie they needed more time to rake in the inflated profits)...well what was the solution? The magazines took off the US price so we wouldn't know how much extra we were still paying....Apple came clean and adjusted the prices so we basically pay $100 more for a MacBookPro....the car companies have somewhat reduced prices but you can still go across the line and pickup a Toyota Prius for $10,000 less if you go through an Auto-broker. All the major auto companies tried to say the warranty wouldn't be valid if CDNs did that but that is infact a violation of NAFTA actually so that won't hold up. I wouldn't cross-border shop to save a hundred bucks but 10 grand & I'm doing it no questions asked!

I'm still shocked at the prices of Mac computers in Australia! :eek:
Does those prices include all taxes?
 
suprnovaynwa said:
Hi,

If you actually go to the Apple Online store, add an item or two in the cart and check the shopping cart. You'll see the price breakdown on the shopping cart page and it will have the item cost without GST. At the bottom, it will add 10% of the total cart and that is added as GST.

Compare the prices that way and it makes more sense. :)

Eg.
iPod nano, 16GB - (PRODUCT) RED
Quantity:
1
Item Price:
A$ 253.64
Click to expand...

yes lol im well aware of the GST prices being added onto the price. it happens automatically though, the prices that are quoted are with GST. in america it seems as though it isnt added on until you go to the cart.

QuarterSwede said:
This is exactly why the US doesn't include something like VAT in retail prices. It just varies too much.

Ex: Here in Colorado Springs our tax on regular goods is 7.5% (I think). However there is no tax on food. Back in Virginia tax on regular goods was 4.5% and on food it was 4% (again, if I remember correctly ... I hate internet acronyms).

Remember, the US is basically a bunch of smaller, state, governments who have decided to be under the control of a larger, federal, government. There is always a change that if a state wanted to (and voted to be) they could secede (break away) from the union. It's quite an interesting government system.
Click to expand...

oh well thats pretty confusing to understand. in australia we have one tax rate on everything (im pretty sure its everything!) which is 10%.

so are you saying that if your in one state where the tax on items are 7.5%, you could go to the nextdoor neighbours who are at 4% tax, buy it there and be laughing?? or do they have some sort of thing you ahve to pass through??

there are no taxes from border to border where we are, im on the NSW/QLD border i drive over it everyday haha

Koodauw said:
Math Fail.
Click to expand...
clearly a typo fail...no need to be immature
 
DoFoT9 said:
yes lol im well aware of the GST prices being added onto the price. it happens automatically though, the prices that are quoted are with GST. in america it seems as though it isnt added on until you go to the cart.



oh well thats pretty confusing to understand. in australia we have one tax rate on everything (im pretty sure its everything!) which is 10%.

so are you saying that if your in one state where the tax on items are 7.5%, you could go to the nextdoor neighbours who are at 4% tax, buy it there and be laughing?? or do they have some sort of thing you ahve to pass through??

there are no taxes from border to border where we are, im on the NSW/QLD border i drive over it everyday haha


clearly a typo fail...no need to be immature
Click to expand...

yup taxes are based off the location where you buy it

but remember that states are huge for the most part so it is pretty impractical for me to just drive to say nebraska to buy something on a whim. with that said, there are many many many residents from other states in different states at any time. it would be absloute hell to have to go through a customs like process for buying stuff in diff states
 
dukebound85 said:
yup taxes are based off the location where you buy it

but remember that states are huge for the most part so it is pretty impractical for me to just drive to say nebraska to buy something on a whim. with that said, there are many many many residents from other states in different states at any time. it would be absloute hell to have to go through a customs like process for buying stuff in diff states
Click to expand...

it would be really cool if you lived on the border of 3 states and could get the best prices. thats more what i was thinking haha. i live on a border, but there are the same taxes all round our country.
 
dukebound85 said:
yup taxes are based off the location where you buy it

but remember that states are huge for the most part so it is pretty impractical for me to just drive to say nebraska to buy something on a whim.
Click to expand...


Not compared to our states they're not...

The next state north of me is about a 15 hour drive on the highway. It's about 5 hours to the southern border and about 15 to the west.
 
Same in Canada. I have to drive abo 12 hrs to get from Vancouver (BC) to either Calgary or Edmonton (Alberta)...AB doesn't have any sales tax but its hardly worth the trip. Could also go to Oregon in the US but then we have to drive through Washington & deal w/ customs on the way up.
 
dtklamf said:
yeah but some idiots like the O.P don't seem to be able to grasp such a simple concept.
Click to expand...

mate, thats not on. if your going to be abusive and just downright mean then your not going to last in society very long at all.

i am here to learn and to be taught, not to be made fun of nor picked on.

grow up.
 
Iceland:

iTouch 8gb = $588
iTouch 16gb = $766
iTouch 32gb = $966 :(

iPod classic 80gb = $479

iPod nano 8gb = $366

All prices are US dollars and prices of older iPods models.
 
I've got proof Australia is being GOUGED by Apple & probably every other company...

With the Canadian, US & Australian dollars all within a dime of each other why are iTunes songs .99 in Canada & the US and 1.69 in Aus?

For the full album in N/America its $9.99 and in Australia its....wait for it....$16.99!!!

Cripes!!! I couldn't believe it when I saw it, I thought Apple quietly went & bumped up the cost of everything...would make the labels happy no doubt.
Nope, its just the cost of things in Aus.

Can anyone explain the "added Down Under costs" of binary code?
I can understand higher prices when it comes to physical product being imported, duty, taxes, shipping etc. How is there shipping expenses in DIGITAL FREAKING DOWNLOADS?!?!?

I'm only visiting here in Auz for a year but I honestly don't know how they do it here & just put up w/ this. I'm told Australia is in a recession, what they need is an uprising and revolt!!!
 
EVERYTHING is more expensive in Australia, often two or three times the price. Clothes, shoes, electronics, DVDs... it's not as if Apple alone is charging more. Look at how much CDs cost in both countries, and you'll see that the iTunes price difference is in line with that.

I'm in the US now and I couldn't believe how cheap everything is compared to at home. One example (that many not resonate with the majority of readers here, but anyway) is makeup -- a MAC brand eyeshadow is about AU$35 at home, and US$12-14 here.

But think about it this way: average salaries are way higher in Australia than in the US. I know professionals here on $30-40k a year after five years in the workforce -- they'd be on $70-80k at least back home. It's not as simple as dollar for dollar conversions.
 
lacereza said:
EVERYTHING is more expensive in Australia, often two or three times the price. Clothes, shoes, electronics, DVDs... it's not as if Apple alone is charging more. Look at how much CDs cost in both countries, and you'll see that the iTunes price difference is in line with that.

I'm in the US now and I couldn't believe how cheap everything is compared to at home. One example (that many not resonate with the majority of readers here, but anyway) is makeup -- a MAC brand eyeshadow is about AU$35 at home, and US$12-14 here.

But think about it this way: average salaries are way higher in Australia than in the US. I know professionals here on $30-40k a year after five years in the workforce -- they'd be on $70-80k at least back home. It's not as simple as dollar for dollar conversions.
Click to expand...

C'mon man, we're talking digital downloads...no overhead for product or shipping whatsoever. How can almost doubling the cost of binary code really be justified? I'm on a professional job exchange and the difference is wage is about $6 or 7 grand from Canada to Aus so its not always that much.

What would iTunes downloads be in Mexico, 5 cents (US) a song?
 
MowingDevil said:
C'mon man, we're talking digital downloads...no overhead for product or shipping whatsoever. How can almost doubling the cost of binary code really be justified? I'm on a professional job exchange and the difference is wage is about $6 or 7 grand from Canada to Aus so its not always that much.

What would iTunes downloads be in Mexico, 5 cents (US) a song?
Click to expand...

not to mention somewhere like south africa, theyd be paying a massive 0.00001cents per song :rolleyes:
 
If you are such a "poor uni student" maybe you shouldn't be spending a ton of cash on a toy?

Or maybe you should get a job and pay for it with your *earned* income?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back