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Apple Bumps UK Prices as VAT Rises

Back to the topic - UK vs US prices

Just to be clear - the median exchange rate for the last 120 days is about $1.55/£.

Taking the base MacBook Pro price of $1199 and adding in VAT at 20% = $1438.8

Using the above exchange rate = £928.26, the current price of the base MacBook Pro in the UK = £1020, approximately £90 or $142 difference - you really think that is the additional cost of doing business in UK per machine?
 
Given that apple prices are higher here than the equivalent US price anyway with this increase I wonder if this makes the UK the most expensive place to buy an Apple product now?
 
toromac said:
Haha. I'm an idiot? Do you know what triage is? Do you know that people are not always treated in the order they came into the emergency room. Do you know that several conditions are not initially life threatening, but later can be, depending on the wait time. You may wait considerably longer in the UK if your condition is an intermediate problem compared to the US. Think before YOU speak.
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For a person who doesn't even live in the UK you seem to hold strong opinions on the matter - better still, such opinions backed with no evidence what so ever.
 
davidramsay said:
Just to be clear - the median exchange rate for the last 120 days is about $1.55/£.

Taking the base MacBook Pro price of $1199 and adding in VAT at 20% = $1438.8

Using the above exchange rate = £928.26, the current price of the base MacBook Pro in the UK = £1020, approximately £90 or $142 difference - you really think that is the additional cost of doing business in UK per machine?
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Yes. It's more expensive to maintain a business in Europe. Cost of buildings is more expensive, taxes, wages, etc... Again, not to say there isn't some padding there, but it costs more for companies like Apple to sell in the UK or outside the US.

UK people, correct me if I'm wrong, but you pay a premium for most of your software and hardware products compared to US prices... correct?
 
davidramsay said:
Low-earners still pay tax in one form or another, even on food (yes food), you didn't think food was exempt did you - what about distribution costs etc - OK it is a very small amount but watch the prices slowly rise.
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Your example does not make sense. A few pounds a year paying towards the distribution cost taxes on necessities does not equate to the amount you would be charged for surgery or other healthcare costs if UHC did not exist in this country. Also, by the same measure US citizens are all paying for the healthcare insurance of other people when they purchase goods, even if they have no insurance themselves.

I would still rather live in the EU and pay higher taxes than migrate to that medieval serfdom based society across the Atlantic.
 
On the Apple Store the iPod Touch price for an 8Gb model is £193 while the 32 Gb model goes for £254. But on Amazon UK they are priced £174 and £229 respectively. Even if Amazon is holding back the VAT increase it's still a significant difference.

Also, while the entry level 13"Macbook Pro has gone up to £1020 on the Apple Store, you can pick up the same model for £960 elsewhere.

All that will happen is people will shop around and get their Apple products cheaper from elsewhere. It's not as if the Apple Store is the only place to buy Apple products.
 
I was suprised that Apple didn't take a hit on the profit margins. Why, it would only be for a small amount of time as when they do thier usual product shuffle they could re-align the price anyway.

People are fogetting the added impact of changing the price - all shop displays etc need changing. This would not be required.

Also they could use it as a way to sell stuff. "We pay the extra VAT - come buy our products"

While people say 2.5% will not make the difference I know a few people that will see this pushing the price up just enough they cannot justify the extra over a 'PC'. With the state the country is in these sorts of rises can and will make a difference to sales.
 
To be fair to Apple, when VAT went down to 15% for a while a couple of years ago they were one of the few companies that reduced prices by 2.5% rather than keeping the extra for themselves.

On the difference between UK and US I always assumed that as Apple very rarely change a products price throughout its lifespan that they build in a large gap to cover themselves on what the exchange rate will do over the course of 9-12 months before the next upgrade. Its not the best system for the UK consumer but it does make sense from a business point of view as long as people keep buying the product.
 
This isn't Apple's fault. It's the ConDem coalition government's fault. Thank you Chancellor Osbourne while you're swanning off on your £8000 ski holiday. Bet he made sure that was paid off before he increased the tax.

Getting a lot grumbling about the tax increases and job losses from friends and customers.

Well, at least I can say it wasn't my fault. I didn't vote for them....
 
Optimus Frag said:
This isn't Apple's fault. It's the ConDem coalition government's fault. Thank you Chancellor Osbourne while you're swanning off on your £8000 ski holiday. Bet he made sure that was paid off before he increased the tax.

Getting a lot grumbling about the tax increases and job losses from friends and customers.

Well, at least I can say it wasn't my fault. I didn't vote for them....
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So it's your fault then for voting Brown in - who put us in this defect in the first place?

Talk about shirking responsibility...
 
bigjobby said:
Some companies hold their prices to remain competitive. There are many stores doing this at the moment and they can often maintain their operating margins by raising the price of other goods (eg. supermarkets). However, some retailers simply do not have the operating luxury to do this; probably not even Apple with their relatively small portfolio of goods.

When a company pays for business related goods and services, they can claim the VAT back.
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Exactly. Supermarket can retain the price because the markup on food is way higher than on computers.

I know why they can do that, but my argument was focused that Apple doesn't have to. Saying that Apple has to retain the price because are considered to be selling luxory computer makes no sense, as this is applied on many other businesses.
 
koobcamuk said:
Where do you live?

I know for sure, that I am buying my next Apple product in Japan. Even with the bad (for UK) exchange rate, it's still much, much cheaper.
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The U.K.

The highest increase is that of the mac pro at £44, is that £44 really going to break you ??
 
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Optimus Frag said:
This isn't Apple's fault. It's the ConDem coalition government's fault...
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Nothing to do with the previous bunch running up record budget deficits then.

Here were our choices. Take the pain now or take even more pain later. Taxes had to increase whoever you voted for last year. Government spending had to be cut whoever you voted for last year.

Although the current government are a long way from perfect I'm still happier they're in power rather than that bunch that preceded them. For a start the Tory-Lib coalition can scrap useless and expensive crap (e.g. ID cards and tax credits) without having to make out they haven't just made a U-turn.
 
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John Lewis havn't increased prices (yet).

The £99 and £999 price points now do look somewhat ridiculous. The previous prices were obviously set so the final price looks good. Otherwise we'd have seriously random prices.

I imagine most companies will increase prices over the 2.5% rise so to maintain the "look" of the prices (and make extra profit) or keep the prices the same.
 
It would've been nice if Apple froze their prices but as we all know that Apple don't do discounts, a price freeze would effectively be discounting their goods.

Food for thought.
 
Popeye206 said:
Can't speak for Apple, but I know in software we price in Europe higher because the cost of sales is higher. Plus we have to account for fluctuations in currencies so prices are padded. Now, I'll also say in past companies we also raised prices in some countries because the market will bare it and the channel partners want the higher price so they make more margin. It's a more complex than just taking a 1 for 1 price exchange. Just pointing it out... still doesn't make it fun for the UK and other countries.
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Funny how currencies fluctuate both directions but prices are only padded in one direction.
 
They may being doing this to get a later advantage.

In the future they might reduce the prices back down to the psychological effect prices. For example from £1020 or whatever it is back to £999.

If they did this in say 6 months could boost sales by quite a lot.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-gb) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

When I went to America it was a right pain working out how much I was going to have to pay, they had like a dollar shop where everything is $1, turns out everything was $1.14 lol, unlike a pound shop where everything is a pound, must be annoying having to always do the maths...

I think apple couldve kept their prices the same if they really wanted but they just don't have to; everybody wants their stuff anyway, the only annoyin thing is that the prices aren't very neat
 
Lastaria said:
They may being doing this to get a later advantage.

In the future they might reduce the prices back down to the psychological effect prices. For example from £1020 or whatever it is back to £999.

If they did this in say 6 months could boost sales by quite a lot.
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Supermarkets do this a lot. They slowly and stealthily increase prices by a few cents over months and suddenly introduce a bargain that looks revolutionary, whereas they basically default back to the original price.

Apple could do the same upon a refresh of the products. Increase the price now and when a refresh is introduced (which in Apple's case usually means the components and manufacturing on the whole have gotten cheaper and therefore the margin higher) decrease by a few pounds / dollars / euros.

I think though that we are overestimating the psychological effect of the price increase. As has been said before there are not many people that will forego a purchase of a $1799 device if its price increases by $20. I know I wouldn't.
 
leon44 said:
the only annoyin thing is that the prices aren't very neat
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It depends how you look upon it. I bought a MBP in late 2008 and just sold it for more than 65% of the value. Try this with any machine by any other manufacturer and you will be around 35-45% at best.

My Apple hardware has also consistently been of better quality with less defects and headaches than other hardware I used before.

This all makes it worth to me to pay the premium that Apple charges, because I know that in the time it takes for a device by say Lenovo, Sony or whatever to reach zero value, I know that my Apple device will still be worth selling for a good price and I can use that to finance my next gadget.
 
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