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True. But either way, consumers in Germany are paying more for the products then they previously were, with precisely zero benefit. It's as if the value proposition doesn't apply to Apple.

I currently own an iPhone 6, after owning a Moto G and HTC One. Quite frankly I've been unimpressed with the iPhone. Largely it works well, a few really annoying software issues, but there really is no reason why it should be the default choice in smartphones.

the strange thing is that iPhone is not the default phone. there are more android phones in the world.
 
Those prices are looking really weird compared to Austria now. They had been the same before, despite the higher tax here in Austria.

View attachment 608381
Oh Apple.

Next thing you know some of their Apple Stores are raising in-store prices, because the janitor of the mall got a raise.

Just eat it up Apple. I know the bad PR likely won't spread too wide, but really?
Those in the know who do all the friends and family ads for you for free don't get a massive kick out of this.

Then again, keep pouring oil into the fire, maybe one day your penny pinching will finally come to a collapse because some lucky day Average Joes sees right through it again, just like in the 1990's, or did that never happen?

Then you should contact your government representative and ask them why they feel the need to raise your taxes again, while providing you no increase in value for your tax dollar.
I'm salty enough about my government already and I have been for the longest time.
Also the tax is not completely new, they just widened the products this applies to.

But to see Apple penny pinching and really having the audacity to up the price right away is ridiculous.
This shows how shareholder-controlled Apple is now, this is a long shot from Steve's ethos.
Hell, just eat it up and save yourself this weird PR effect.
But as I said, Apple isn't targeting educated buyers too much anymore. So why care.

Glassed Silver:mac
 
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I'd just like to know where they got those backgrounds for those devices. They look pretty cool and nice to have.
 
First of all, consumers in Germany SHOULD be paying more "then" they previously were. If a government entity increases a tax on the consumption of a product the people who are consuming the product should pay for it. If your local municipality increased sales taxes by half a percent would you expect all of the vendors who sell that product in your city to lower their prices by half a percent, and just pay the tax themselves?

If Apple were to buy USB flash drives or blank CDs in Germany to use for their business do you think they should insist that he seller of the USB flash drives or CDs should eat the cost of the new German levy?

As an aside, I would not be surprised that, if you were to check you would find that other smartphone sellers in Germany, including Motorola and HTC likely raised their prices to allow for this new tax, also. Greedy bastards! /s

Second, you are absolutely correct about the iPhone in that it should not be "the default choice in smartphones." There should be no "default choice in smartphones." It's a consumer product, and each consumer should make the decision about which product serves their needs. Period.

But the fact is that the marketplace has spoken, and continues to speak. The iPhone is, without any confusion, ambiguity or controversy the number one selling single smartphone in the world. Period. If you don't see the value in it over other phones that's completely your business. Don't buy one. Of course, hundreds of millions of people, including myself disagree with you. I've owned multiple Android devices, and used even more for work. I will say unequivocally that none of them comes close to the quality and usability of the iPhone, for me.


Well Said!
 
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They had to, way to pricy in India, even now the prices of an iPhone 6S (+) are more than in Europe, Apple probably sold too few of them there.
Actually, nobody should buy them in Europe either for a while, maybe then we will see prices go down as well.
I want to buy a new one but I find them too expensive even though I can easily afford them.
 
the strange thing is that iPhone is not the default phone. there are more android phones in the world.
You're comparing apples to oranges. There are more Android devices than iOS devices, but there are more iPhones than any single Android powered device.
 
First of all, consumers in Germany SHOULD be paying more "then" they previously were. If a government entity increases a tax on the consumption of a product the people who are consuming the product should pay for it. If your local municipality increased sales taxes by half a percent would you expect all of the vendors who sell that product in your city to lower their prices by half a percent, and just pay the tax themselves?

If Apple were to buy USB flash drives or blank CDs in Germany to use for their business do you think they should insist that he seller of the USB flash drives or CDs should eat the cost of the new German levy?

As an aside, I would not be surprised that, if you were to check you would find that other smartphone sellers in Germany, including Motorola and HTC likely raised their prices to allow for this new tax, also. Greedy bastards! /s

Second, you are absolutely correct about the iPhone in that it should not be "the default choice in smartphones." There should be no "default choice in smartphones." It's a consumer product, and each consumer should make the decision about which product serves their needs. Period.

But the fact is that the marketplace has spoken, and continues to speak. The iPhone is, without any confusion, ambiguity or controversy the number one selling single smartphone in the world. Period. If you don't see the value in it over other phones that's completely your business. Don't buy one. Of course, hundreds of millions of people, including myself disagree with you. I've owned multiple Android devices, and used even more for work. I will say unequivocally that none of them comes close to the quality and usability of the iPhone, for me.

like u can do anything about a government. they r all idiots no matter which party you pick
 
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It has been a really stupid decision from Apple to make it that obvious instead of pricing it just into new products.

They just get masses of bad press because of that.

Also I think they will round it up soon, because those numbers look really silly and after that they might match the prices with the Austrian store, just to make everything identical again.

But I don't mind. I usually don't buy directly from Apple, because the resellers are cheaper. Also they don't even have "physical" stores in Austria.
 
Wrong. In Germany it's legal to copy media among friends or family, the so called Privatkopie, literally "private copy". So if your friend buys a CD or if they buy music from iTunes they can give you a copy of that music legally.

The copyright fees are a compensation for that kind of copy.

(the law does obviously not apply to any sort of download)

You are mostly correct, you are not allowed to share copyright-protected materials with friends either. It’s strictly for personal use only. Without the private-copy exception, Germany would likely have to prohibit such copies entirely, just as the UK now does.
 
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Oh Apple.

Next thing you know some of their Apple Stores are raising in-store prices, because the janitor of the mall got a raise.

Just eat it up Apple. I know the bad PR likely won't spread too wide, but really?
Those in the know who do all the friends and family ads for you for free don't get a massive kick out of this.

Then again, keep pouring oil into the fire, maybe one day your penny pinching will finally come to a collapse because some lucky day Average Joes sees right through it again, just like in the 1990's, or did that never happen?


I'm salty enough about my government already and I have been for the longest time.
Also the tax is not completely new, they just widened the products this applies to.

But to see Apple penny pinching and really having the audacity to up the price right away is ridiculous.
This shows how shareholder-controlled Apple is now, this is a long shot from Steve's ethos.
Hell, just eat it up and save yourself this weird PR effect.
But as I said, Apple isn't targeting educated buyers too much anymore. So why care.

Glassed Silver:mac

Agreed. Well written.

In the end I, as a consumer, do not care where the money goes. Fact is, I need 854,96€ to get the newest iPhone with a usable amount of storage space right now.
In 2012 I needed 629€ for the brand new iPhone 4s 16GB (which was more than enough back then).

You can do the math, the price increased by ~36%, which is just ludicrous.
 
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Apple's prices are ridiculous here in Europe. Worse is Apple doesn't pay taxes anywhere in the EU... Except for a mere amount in Ireland.



^lefty who hates the Union :)
^hegelian who can't distinguish between political/cultural and financial union
 
Oh Apple. Next thing you know some of their Apple Stores are raising in-store prices, because the janitor of the mall got a raise.

That's a silly analogy. If raising the salary of employees of the landlord had a direct impact on the COGS, then a raise of price would be entirely appropriate.

Just eat it up Apple. I know the bad PR likely won't spread too wide, but really?

If you want to be upset with someone, be upset with your government for continuing to increase the COGS on consumers.

I'm salty enough about my government already and I have been for the longest time.
Also the tax is not completely new, they just widened the products this applies to.

And that makes it legitimate... how? Just because you have a computer, copyright-holders have the right to charge royalties on your computer resources. Really?

But to see Apple penny pinching and really having the audacity to up the price right away is ridiculous.

When YOU have a company manufacturing and selling something, YOU are welcome to eat the margins whenever some petty-ante government increases your costs. But I'm betting you will never ever be in that position. Funny how those not in the business like to second-guess the people who actually make things.

This shows how shareholder-controlled Apple is now, this is a long shot from Steve's ethos.

Would you care to give us 4-5 examples where a SJ's Apple just ate it when petty governments gratuitously increased their costs?

Hell, just eat it up and save yourself this weird PR effect.

The only thing that's weird is trying to claim there is widespread upset about this. Where the #!$$ is your evidence for this claim?

But as I said, Apple isn't targeting educated buyers too much anymore. So why care.

Please educate us: what computer manufacturers are just eating gratuitous costs that governments throw at it? Provide your evidence. Simply throwing spaghetti in the wall doesn't cut it.
 
Apple's prices are ridiculous here in Europe. Worse is Apple doesn't pay taxes anywhere in the EU... Except for a mere amount in Ireland.

In every product's price they sell in the EU is a sales tax between 17 and 27% included, what the country gets where it has been sold, only if they spend more money for buying and renting things, they don't have to pay sales tax and get even sales tax back, but I don't think that makes any sense, unless they want to get bankrupt. ;) Also the payroll tax for every employee goes to each country where they work.
 
They have to raise their prices to avoid inversed discount effect: people might think they actually paid 5 euros too much yesterday...
 
First of all, consumers in Germany SHOULD be paying more "then" they previously were. If a government entity increases a tax on the consumption of a product the people who are consuming the product should pay for it. If your local municipality increased sales taxes by half a percent would you expect all of the vendors who sell that product in your city to lower their prices by half a percent, and just pay the tax themselves?

If Apple were to buy USB flash drives or blank CDs in Germany to use for their business do you think they should insist that he seller of the USB flash drives or CDs should eat the cost of the new German levy?

As an aside, I would not be surprised that, if you were to check you would find that other smartphone sellers in Germany, including Motorola and HTC likely raised their prices to allow for this new tax, also. Greedy bastards! /s

Second, you are absolutely correct about the iPhone in that it should not be "the default choice in smartphones." There should be no "default choice in smartphones." It's a consumer product, and each consumer should make the decision about which product serves their needs. Period.

But the fact is that the marketplace has spoken, and continues to speak. The iPhone is, without any confusion, ambiguity or controversy the number one selling single smartphone in the world. Period. If you don't see the value in it over other phones that's completely your business. Don't buy one. Of course, hundreds of millions of people, including myself disagree with you. I've owned multiple Android devices, and used even more for work. I will say unequivocally that none of them comes close to the quality and usability of the iPhone, for me.


Apple is known for paying very low price for its manufacturer and wage to their manufacturing employee. When is last time Apple increase its pay to its manufacturers? Don't ptetent Apple is good hearted company who do everything fairy. Apple is just a greedy company who trying to squeezing everything from consumers to its suppliers to its manufacturers.
 
Agreed. Well written.

In the end I, as a consumer, do not care where the money goes. Fact is, I need 854,96€ to get the newest iPhone with a usable amount of storage space right now.
In 2012 I needed 629€ for the brand new iPhone 4s 16GB (which was more than enough back then).

You can do the math, the price increased by ~36%, which is just ludicrous.

It also has a bigger screen, too ;-)
(Waiting for the "6C" or whatever it's called...).

But that's what you get when you let politicians decide who get voted on in a four-year interval...

Personally I think those five € or whatever the price increase is, should never be the decisive factor - given the price of the device is already at the upper limit anyway...
 
Apple is known for paying very low price for its manufacturer and wage to their manufacturing employee. When is last time Apple increase its pay to its manufacturers? Don't ptetent Apple is good hearted company who do everything fairy. Apple is just a greedy company who trying to squeezing everything from consumers to its suppliers to its manufacturers.

I'm not "pretending Apple is good hearted company who do everything fairy," whatever the eff that's supposed to mean.

Apple is a publicly traded, for-profit company, and just like any other publicly traded for-profit company that follows their charter they exist to make money for their shareholders. And they do a great job of it.

Your meaningless rant has absolutely nothing to do with the subject matter. The German government increased what is essentially a consumer tax on a class of consumer product. Apple, like every other company who sells that class of product in Germany raised the price of the product to reflect the increase in that tax. Not only is there absolutely nothing wrong with the fact that they did it, but failure to do so would have been counter to their charter as a for-profit company, and a dereliction of their obligation to their shareholders.

Ironically, it appears to be you who has some misguided notion of some fantasy world where companies like Apple are supposed to be like your big hearted friend and take care of you, instead of making money.
 
I honestly can't believe ANYONE would think Apple is obligated to pay YOUR tax. If you think the iPhone is over priced that's fine. But how anyone thinks it's Apple's responsibility to absorb each individual country's taxes, tariffs, and fees is beyond me.
 
I honestly can't believe ANYONE would think Apple is obligated to pay YOUR tax. If you think the iPhone is over priced that's fine. But how anyone thinks it's Apple's responsibility to absorb each individual country's taxes, tariffs, and fees is beyond me.

But this isn't even about the tax. Tax, and duties are part of normal business, just as horribly manipulating transfer pricing to mitigate tax liabilities. Another part of normal business is reducing the cost of products already being manufactured. Do you think that Apple pay the same price for components today as they did when the first iPhone 6S was produced? Suppliers would have made their processes more efficient, more reliable, and Apple would have negotiated their costs down accordingly. It happens in all business.

So now here's the question. Apple will undoubtedly reduce the cost of manufacturing any product during it's life cycle and pocket the profit. An additional 'tax' comes along... You're getting stiffed with it.

The point is about the end user. They will see Apple passing on any incremental cost to the customer, while many competitors will take the hit. This has precisely zero to do with 'big nasty government wanting their slice of Apple's pie'.
 
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