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

Apple Banned From Selling iPhone 16 Models in Indonesia

Lyrics23 said:
A far worse message from Indonesia would be to become known as a country where its laws and regulations mean nothing.

These happen to be the requirements to operate in Indonesia, and like them or not, it’s much better for Indonesia to ensure companies meet those requirements than allow companies to flout them.
Click to expand...
And when the laws and the message being sent can be compared to a protection racket? I think in that case (& so in this instance) the message being sent and the threat of noncompliance are equally bad; they're the same message. Don't get me wrong, they aren't the only ones doing it, I'm just saying it's a tragic way for a country to operate.
 
  • Like
Reactions: FriendlyMackle and centauratlas
MacRumors said:
Indonesia in particular is a significant market for Apple – the country's $1 trillion economy has over 350 million active mobile phones among its 270 million residents.
Click to expand...
I’m extremely skeptical of this statement. Significant potential market? Sure. But how many of those 350 million active mobile phones are iPhones right now?

Leaving aside the average price of those 350 million phones (which I suspect is considerably lower than the price of most iPhones), Apple’s current official hardware retail presence in Indonesia is also zero. No Apple stores, no online store, just a collection of resellers, who more often than not are selling 1-2 generation old products for the same price someone in the US is paying for the latest.

Some of that is no doubt due to protectionary tariffs and import restrictions, but the fact is the person I know there has an embarrassingly bad time shopping for Apple hardware and I have serious doubts about how dedicated to the market Apple is.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: FriendlyMackle, Chinch07, centauratlas and 2 others
aParkerMusic said:
It’s not universally ”stupid” for a country to adopt targeted policies in the interests of supporting local manufacturing/business, particularly if there’s a sense that competition is in some ways unfairly unbalanced. You can make the case that it can be counterproductive, but it may at times be appropriate. Let’s try to not let hatred for one man infect all political conversation (After all, it was about 5 seconds ago in political time that the American Left was pushing for these sorts of more-protectionist policies to protect union membership, etc).
Click to expand...

It's bad for consumers and for companies. These barriers just makes things more inefficient and thus more expensive.
 
  • Like
Reactions: CalMin
First, it was European countries and USA to adopt this policy back in 17-19th centuries. Famous David Ricardo was urging Britain to abolish its protectionist policies. Later Germany, South Korea, Japan and China did something similar. So it is ok for Indonesia to do it since everyone else did it.
 
  • Like
  • Haha
Reactions: rafark, SamRyouji and blufrog
From the first place, buying any Apple device in Indonesia is absolute PITA because there's no official Apple Store. Everything is reseller and mostly only bring base model, no CTO/BTO, and that's very meh especially for buying Macs with specific storage/memory config.

If any reseller have BTO mostly it was imported from Apple Store Singapore, and price gouging is inevitable. Local marketplace flooded with base 8 gb macbook (yikes)?

But TLDR Indonesian government is the blame here, they even blocked any Chinese marketplace such as Aliexpress here, many local DIYers and electronic hobbyist complaint because acquiring niche components such as micro controller, breakout board etc become absolutely difficult to get.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SamRyouji, FriendlyMackle and Chinch07
Marbles1 said:
e.g. Imagine India, with levels of development around that of Germany, except India has 1billion people. It might take another 50-100 years but the countries with the most consumers will be setting the agenda.
Click to expand...

That will only work if India(Indonesia, Brazil, etc) manage to go beyond being cheaper, something most eastern/southern EU countries are still struggling to achieve after several decades and billions in funding.

This kind of extortion may kinda work but will eventually only lead to higher consumer prices and less competitive manufacturing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: FriendlyMackle
Makes a lot of sense for trying to get investments in local industries. And they‘re such a large country that they got the economical power to make such policies, just like the US and many other countries.
 
Meanwhile Oppo (sounds like Apple) copies and thrives in Asia. It's like the scene in Welcome to America with McDowells
 
Anyone who can afford it will just buy it when they go to a day trip to a neighbor country or they buy it from the grey market which is vast and easy. That 9000 number is a big underestimation. The only loser is Indonesian reseller shops.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SamRyouji
ultrakyo said:
Currently the Indonesian government allows the 40% local content either in the form of internal component or financial investment. Apple currently opt for investment option but I think that is a bit dumb because it just means Apple is paying the cost upfront while the consumer has to bear the extra cost when purchasing Apple product. Currently Apple product in Indonesia is about 20-30% more than the US before taxes.
Click to expand...

In related news, iPhone 16 sales in nearby countries increase as do gray-market sales of the iPhone 16 in Indonesia. Protectionism like this will only hurt Indonesian consumers.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: FriendlyMackle, Chuckeee and nostradumbass
nostradumbass said:
Anyone who can afford it will just buy it when they go to a day trip to a neighbor country or they buy it from the grey market which is vast and easy. That 9000 number is a big underestimation. The only loser is Indonesian reseller shops.
Click to expand...
Those people trying to smuggle in iPhones are going to find out they have "iPods" now cause their gov white list IMEI numbers.
 
macfacts said:
Those people trying to smuggle in iPhones are going to find out they have "iPods" now cause their gov white list IMEI numbers.
Click to expand...

Nah. If they do **** like that every phone maker gets affected and the consumers will hate their banana republic government even more.
 
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