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Apple Lowers iPod Prices Up to 10% in Australia
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I applaud your attempt at giving a considered explanation of the situation, but this is only 'sort of' true.
Apple's pricing scema has been at the whim of fluctuations in the past. The 2089 Mac mini was released in Australia at over $au1000. Within months, as the Australian dollar rocketed up from it's 72c - $us1, the price of the unit dropped to a bit over the $800.
The price of the mini between generations in the USA hadn't changed, but when the new generation was released, and the Australian dollar had taken a 10-15 cent hit recently, Apple quickly jumped the price from $800, to $1000. Only to find themselves priced out of the market again. Hence a drop soon after back to $800 or so.
Macroeconomics do have an impact on the pricing structure, bit Microeconomics have a far greater influence when it comes to the pricing in AU. Australia has the disadvantage of having a small, widely dispersed population and small market. Logistics of selling in Australia pose a far more significant factor per unit than it does in the USA.
If macroeconomics are involved, it's the en-masse movement of money and materials that has been created by the opening of the international market in the past decade to almost all Australians. Buying even the most basic consumable items these days in AU no long is limited to your local stores ability to get this in. Furthermore, the Australian dollar since the start of the GFC has been substantially more stable than any other currency that is exchanged on a regular basis with the USA. To all intensive purposes Australia's Macroeconomic pull is likely to be stronger to companies like Apple.
Hence why Australia is now always considered in the second round of new product releases of items like ipad 2 and iphone 4.
This can change just as quickly as it started, but the Australian market isn't just surfing the macroeconomic seas anymore. It's small, but it is no longer niche, in terms of macroeconomic factors.
How about a price drop for Canada? We've been hovering near parity for ages now... I don't mind so much myself... it's a half hour to the border from where I live... if I want to pay the US price I will 
Ummm, USA doesn't manufacture anything??? Wow, last time I checked we manufacture a lot of automotive, military, medical equipment just to name a few.
http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2009/12/us-remains-largest-manufacturer-in.html USA still is the leading manufacturer in the world by a wide margin, although you might not see your tshirt or DVD made in USA (which are considered low end goods), it does not mean USA doesn't manufacture, we do, you just gotta look into more technology involved fields. Just to put it in perspective, USA, a country with population of 330 mil manufactures about 1.6 times more than China (country with a population of 1.4 bil). And its not like manufacturing is becoming cheaper in China or other developing nations, people there constantly want more and will not work for a dollar per day like they used to, hence, there is a big inflation problem in China these days thats under reported and add to that a real estate bubble that will be as big or even bigger than in USA.
I see plenty of reasons why USA makes perfect place to invest. USA has the innovative mentality, lots of trends start from USA, there are a bunch of world-class universities who lead the world in R&D, and then there is access to the market of potential 330 mil customers (USA has the 3rd largest population in the world) and last but not least, we offer security, in a case of a conflict no one has a more powerful military than USA (thats the reason why a lot of countries keep their gold reserves on US soil), if anyone hasn't noticed it, our currency is basically backed by our military. USA has plenty of problems but its not like rest of the world is doing great, its definitely too early to write US off.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; 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)
1) I'd prefer to save $20 rather than spend it. $20 x 1000,000 iPods = a LOT for Apple!
2) Nobody's attacking you, so don't go claiming it...
Thunderhawks said:
1) I'd prefer to save $20 rather than spend it. $20 x 1000,000 iPods = a LOT for Apple!
2) Nobody's attacking you, so don't go claiming it...
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; 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)
The app store is annoying actually... that's a place where prices could be dynamic, but most apps have the 100% markup.
Most online stores use USD and scale prices according to the exchange rate (so we all pay the same.) They also dodge GST (legally.)
This is hurting Australian retailers in a BIG way.
The app store is annoying actually... that's a place where prices could be dynamic, but most apps have the 100% markup.
Most online stores use USD and scale prices according to the exchange rate (so we all pay the same.) They also dodge GST (legally.)
This is hurting Australian retailers in a BIG way.
I bought an iPod touch on Sunday from the Australian online store and Apple reduce the prices on Thursday...
Does anybody know if Apple are likely to refund the difference if I ask them? I've heard of Apple allowing returns of products like iPads if a new one comes out within 30 days of your purchase and they'll upgrade your Mac OS if a new release is made within 30 days of your purchase... So I guess this is a similar case.
Anybody think it is worth a try or not?
Does anybody know if Apple are likely to refund the difference if I ask them? I've heard of Apple allowing returns of products like iPads if a new one comes out within 30 days of your purchase and they'll upgrade your Mac OS if a new release is made within 30 days of your purchase... So I guess this is a similar case.
Anybody think it is worth a try or not?
I doubt it. The cost of the time you'll spend wasting the effort to chase that will outweigh the amount of money you'd get back, even though you're highly unlikely to successful. Even if you attempted to sue for this (I know, this is far fetched) it is likely to be seen that you'd 'agreed' that it was a fair price at the time, and as such you signed a contract of purchase.
I believe so- they follow same store policies as the retail stores which offer 2 week return policy no questions asked.
If I were you I'd call up Apple Store customer support and ask them if they are willing to refund the difference if not you'd like to return it under the 2 week refund policy. Be polite about it because both times I've dealt with Apple Store online I've gotten a positive outcome (e.g. $50 refund for when my iTouch 4G arrived a week after the promised delivery time and hence missed my anniversary; full refund of photo book which missed the date it was for due to delays in the manufacturing process), etc...
(and before you ask, I was delivering it to my office in the Sydney CBD- these were genuine issues with the supply chain and Apple missing the agreed upon delivery times by at least a week in both instances)
Wow, clearly tech forums and business/finance forums are two separate worlds with the things some people are saying here.
Surely there must be a slight slip of sales of iPods in Australia. They will charge whatever they can get away with and why shouldn't they?
I personally suspect the popularity of iPhones and other smartphones has eaten away at the portable music player market.
Surely there must be a slight slip of sales of iPods in Australia. They will charge whatever they can get away with and why shouldn't they?
I personally suspect the popularity of iPhones and other smartphones has eaten away at the portable music player market.
What makes you think I'm not implying the mismanagement have not being going on for years? I'm not just bashing the current administration, but the ones before as well. Being sensitive much because the current top guy is your hero or something?
And anybody with half a brain that we are just not keeping our currency low. We are skirting a crash here. Have you seen the charts of the current debts due and government revenues? Please look at the IMF charts (http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fm/2010/fm1001.pdf) We are not that far away from all those European countries that have been getting bailouts and their credit ratings slashed. When daddy takes away the credit card, see how quickly EVERYTHING you buy shoots up in price. The only thing keeping us up right now are the troubles abroad, and the sentimentality that the US always sorts its problems out.
No one's even brought up China in this thread in regards to their currency manipulation. Why bring it up?