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Apple Raises Prices in Europe and Canada as U.S. Dollar Remains Strong

cube said:
Most of Apple's engineering is in USA.

And it is reasonable for the products to cost a little bit more in Germany, for example, to pay for some extra costs distributed across a smaller market (e.g.: localisation).
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You must be joking.

The whole European market is being distributed centralized from tax favourable countries like Ireland or Czech republic. All shipments worldwide are handled from China anyway.

Things like localization are non-issue as well, because of being handled already in China during production and packaging.

There is really no real reason for the prices to be so much higher here in Germany compared to US ever since (long before the dollar became stronger).

The greed to succeed, I suppose.
 
Even Longer said:
You must be joking.

The whole European market is being distributed centralized from tax favourable countries like Ireland or Czech republic. All shipments worldwide are handled from China anyway.

Things like localization are non-issue as well, because of being handled already in China during production and packaging.

There is really no real reason for the prices to be so much higher here in Germany compared to US ever since (long before the dollar became stronger).

The greed to succeed, I suppose.
Click to expand...

Long before the dollar became stronger, it already was higher because of the included VAT.

If it's greed, why shouldn't they just raise the US prices too? Doesn't really make sense...
 
H2SO4 said:
What on earth are you on about. It’s useless to talk about what tax you add and don’t add. The consumer cannot get away with not paying it. If the UK tax was 100% would  reduce their prices? No.

I applied US tax to the US and UK tax to the UK. Corporations aren’t stupid. They charge what they can get away with charging. You think the Mac Pro is really worth the prices they are charging, it bloody well isn’t. After all manufacturing costs the rest of the price is made up of whatever level of margin they feel they can apply.

Anyhow, lets look at pre tax pricing;
US = $3999
UK = $5116.91/1.2 = $4264.09
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You cannot compare US taxed price against UK taxed price to blame apple. The right taxed comparison is to take the US pre-tax price and add UK VAT and compare that to the price buying in the UK.

From your pre-tax calculation, you can also see that Apple is not marking up a lot more.

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Even Longer said:
You must be joking.

The whole European market is being distributed centralized from tax favourable countries like Ireland or Czech republic. All shipments worldwide are handled from China anyway.

Things like localization are non-issue as well, because of being handled already in China during production and packaging.

There is really no real reason for the prices to be so much higher here in Germany compared to US ever since (long before the dollar became stronger).

The greed to succeed, I suppose.
Click to expand...

Do you realise that all the software itself has to be localised to German? The english speakers pay for the English "localisation", the German speakers pay for the German localisation.

I am not saying that all the extras of doing business in Germany add up to 7.7%, but having some leeway to avoid having to raise prices again, it does not seem like an obscene amount as it happens with some other companies.
 
For Pete's sake everyone, it's a company... Just another company out to make as much money as it can. That's what companies do, and for those with shareholders, it is what they have a duty to do. (I am not a shareholder, for what it's worth).

You can spend all day comparing taxes and currencies, and saying it isn't fair. The bottom line is that Apple (any company) will charge as much as the market will bear. Apple are not idiots. Yes, they are hateful in many ways, but they are not idiots. They know how to set their prices to make the most money. Apple can and will sell at those prices and turn a profit. Their calculations will clearly show that lower prices would earn them less. That's how it works. If enough people can no longer afford or wish to pay those prices, they will lose money and then lower the prices.

It isn't rocket science! A company will charge what the market will bear. A few people may be saying they will now not buy this, that or the other, but Apple know that overall, their European market will bear these prices. If it did not think that, it would not put them up. Simple!
 
galrito said:
The problem is, at least here in Portugal, it only goes one way.

When the dollar was lower, a $1500 product used to cost here €1500, instead of, let's say, €1200. So that product was more expensive in Portugal, and looks like it's getting even more.
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I bet it cost €1200 + 23% VAT, plus some minor markup for the higher cost of statutory warranties in the EU.
 
The EU equivalent of a fully configured 11" Air (i7, 8GB RAM and 512 GB SSD) is $2060, it's $1648 in the US.

It may be possible to book a flight to the US for $412.. :D

The idea that this is to cover for currency losses is thus nonsense, it covers for currency fluctuation plus some added bonus on top (25% added profit margin to be exact).
 
telepati said:
Retina 3.5 GHz iMac $3192 in Turkey.
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Nonsense. No Apple products (or any other products) are sold in Turkey for US dollars.

subsonix said:
The EU equivalent of a fully configured 11" Air (i7, 8GB RAM and 512 GB SSD) is $2060, it's $1648 in the US.

It may be possible to book a flight to the US for $412.. :D

The idea that this is to cover for currency losses is thus nonsense, it covers for currency fluctuation plus some added bonus on top (25% added profit margin to be exact).
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More nonsense. I really wonder: Do you honestly not know that EU prices are including VAT of about 20%, and that you have to pay for the cost of better consumer rights in the EU, or are you so desparate to show Apple in a bad light that you don't mind a bit of fibbing with the numbers?
 
gnasher729 said:
More nonsense. I really wonder: Do you honestly not know that EU prices are including VAT of about 20%, and that you have to pay for the cost of better consumer rights in the EU, or are you so desparate to show Apple in a bad light that you don't mind a bit of fibbing with the numbers?
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I'm not desparate to show Apple in a bad light, in fact I'm normally accused of the opposite around here. :D But, you walk out a store and pay no less than $2060 (more or less) for that machine then, no matter where you are.
 
I'm so tired of these greedy price increases, when europeans are already paying way more than the US.

I could understand it if they were bleeding money, but we all know that is not the case.
 
cube said:
You cannot compare US taxed price against UK taxed price to blame apple. The right taxed comparison is to take the US pre-tax price and add UK VAT and compare that to the price buying in the UK.

From your pre-tax calculation, you can also see that Apple is not marking up a lot more.

----------



Do you realise that all the software itself has to be localised to German? The english speakers pay for the English "localisation", the German speakers pay for the German localisation.

I am not saying that all the extras of doing business in Germany add up to 7.7%, but having some leeway to avoid having to raise prices again, it does not seem like an obscene amount as it happens with some other companies.
Click to expand...

I do realise that. Still: localization costs alone are negligible compared to the actual price difference.

MrUNIMOG said:
Long before the dollar became stronger, it already was higher because of the included VAT.

If it's greed, why shouldn't they just raise the US prices too? Doesn't really make sense...
Click to expand...

I know about VAT being included, - the German prices were still higher in the past.

Why they don't increase the US prices is simple:

Apple, being a US company, calculates in USD. Would they export directly from the US, the strong dollar would get in their way and not be beneficial for them.
Even if those shipments are usually handled by third countries, stronger dollar becomes a concern. Therefore Apple raises the prices to get the same gross margin as before, trying to compensate the weaker €.

Market will show, if they are right with that policy. Many pragmatic users and businesses will surely reconsider buying at least some :apple: stuff.
The question is, if those die hard zealots will still be willing to vote with their wallets.
 
Even Longer said:
I do realise that. Still: localization costs alone are negligible compared to the actual price difference.

Why they don't increase the US prices is simple:

Apple, being a US company, calculates in USD. Would they export directly from the US, the strong dollar would get in their way and not be beneficial for them.
Even if those shipments are usually handled by third countries, stronger dollar becomes a concern. Therefore Apple raises the prices to get the same gross margin as before, trying to compensate the weaker €.

Market will show, if they are right with that policy. Many pragmatic users and businesses will surely reconsider buying at least some :apple: stuff.
The question is, if those die hard zealots will still be willing to vote with their wallets.
Click to expand...

Yes, precisely that. However, this thread seems to be mainly about emotion, so logic goes out of the window.
 
Is Tim Crook... I'm mean Cook, purposely trying to ruin Apple?

Quit counting beans, Tim. You're really gonna screw it up.
 
The Canadian dollar just took another huge tumble again today, and now Apple is raising prices.

Double whammy.
 
MrUNIMOG said:
Then where do you live? Canada?

Also, if you compare the specs, the difference in price between 13" and 15" MBP isn't big at all.
Remember, the 15" comes with 16 GB RAM and 256 GB Flash standard.
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Yes, Canada. I'm not trying to blame Apple, either, since the price works out the same in CAD as USD.

I know the specs are higher on the base 15". What I said was that I wish you could get a lower spec'd 15", perhaps with the same internals as the 13" base model. I don't need high power in a laptop, but I do need screen real estate. I have a desktop for the more demanding stuff.

I'd love to get a 15" MacBook but at CAD $2500, it's just too much, sadly.
 
Narcaz said:
Unlike the 2012 the competition really stepped up their game. I mean i can get a comparable 15'' Asus Ultrabook with 4k IPS display, 2,26kg Intel 4720HQ 3,5GHz, 16GB RAM, 1TB+128GB SSD and a Geforce 960M for 1599€. The rMBP offers a lot more (OSX, better battery life, better touchpad, pci-e ssd, thunderbolt), but that's probably not enough for everyone. Quiet tough to justify the 1200€ price difference these days. I am still enjoying my 15 rMBP, but i don't see me buying another one soon.
Click to expand...

This is exactly my issue with it. They're no longer on the bleeding edge of technology, the competition has the same or better for cheaper and apple raise the price.
Now if they dropped the price due to the lack of available technology, I wouldn't complain at all.
The way Apple treats ram and ssd, and even screen size for mbp in terms of price is absolutely disgusting.

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Altis said:
I know the specs are higher on the base 15". What I said was that I wish you could get a lower spec'd 15", perhaps with the same internals as the 13" base model. I don't need high power in a laptop, but I do need screen real estate. I have a desktop for the more demanding stuff.
Click to expand...

Yep id be more than happy with a dual core 15".
 
Good thing I got my current MBp last spring and with a student discount too! Now selling for $150.00CDN more. And its still 2012 hardware.
Anyway, I'm set for 3-4 more years before replacing. Thats for sure!
 
good thing my MBP is fairly new as I don't see myself buying anything else. The only way to get an i7 processor is to pickup the biggest 5k one and upgrade the cpu which bring a base price of 3099$ + 15% taxes = 3563$. That's not even include the ram upgrade I would do. This is sick!

I've built an i7 4970k from a fraction of the price.. time to search for a 4k monitor!

:cool:
 
This is BS. The last increase was in March and at that time the EUR/USD pair was exactly at the same levels as of today, so there is NO EXCUSE for Apple to do this.

Oh wait. Actually the euro is a little stronger now again. Euro still worth more than the dollar

The prices are silly. You pay for the name. Not quality or "what" you get.
 
Yup, that's the reason I've switched to using a Hackintosh. I love Apple products, and have owned many of their computers.

But Apple products are becoming increasingly expensive, and less justifiable in terms of overall specifications, at least to me.

21.5" Late 2012 iMac
2.7GHz Quad Core
GT 640M Graphics
1TB Hard Drive
8GB RAM
$1299 (CAD)

21.5" Late 2013 iMac
2.7GHz Quad Core
Intel Iris Pro Graphics (5200)
1TB Hard Drive
8GB RAM
$1349 (CAD)

21.5" Mid 2014 iMac
1.4GHz Dual Core
Intel HD 5000 Graphics
500GB Hard Drive
8GB RAM
$1299 (CAD)

Disappointing. To get the entry level Quad Core its $1549. Slowly the specs are getting worse and worse, while the price remains the same or higher.
 
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Damn it!

In Sydney, Australia.

Was holding out until WWDC to hear if the high end 5K iMac would get a speed bump, didn't expect the price to bump so high overnight?!!

Here's a screen shot of the config I initially was looking at:
 

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and here's what the same config jumped to overnight:
 

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