Don't blame Apple, blame Brazil's incredibly high tax rates on imported electronics.
"imported electronics"... Well, Foxxcon has an iDevices factory in Brazil (don't know if they actually make anything else in there), so how exactly does high import taxes affect this pricing?
When they moved in here, the propaganda was that prices should drop significantly since the 100% import tax rates wouldn't apply anymore, but prices remains the same - and now they've increased with the latest releases...
@1member1 - I agree with BRLawyer, except for the part where prices drop (I'm still to see this becoming true). Just to remember, back in the days of iPhone 2G, Apple noted that 1/3 of their devices were operating on a regular basis in Brazil, even though the only carrier authorized to sell the iPhone was AT&T, which doesn't operate in there.
At the very least this means brazillians were willing to pay for all the expenses that included buying an iPhone, importing it into Brazil, jailbreak it and unlock it to work with local carriers, for a total price of over US$ 1200.00 for the 16GB model - I know this because I was one of the guys that did this!
There is a HUGE market in here for Apple, if they make it through this taxes barrier without skyrocketing their prices
