Yet another European not understanding that stated prices in the US market do not include sales tax, where european prices include a 20-30% VAT tax.
$1600-(.3*1600)= $1,120.
So a ~6% price difference which... absolutely wouldn't account for regionalization, compliance, or other costs associated with any of the dizzying array of EU regulations, oh no! /s
Look, there's a lot to be mad at in this world - but maybe massively regressive consumption taxes placed on goods and services you need to function as a member of society aren't the fault of the corporations who provide those goods and services?
All I understand is that VAT and other taxes existed ever since the original iPhone.
What I don’t understand though is that my first iPhone 5 cost me 679€ which was around 870$. In US the price was around 649$ or smth (without taxes, and even with them it was still cheaper than in Europe).
But this was bearable. To some point. I’ve been coping with that like “hmm, well. They gave me more storage!”. But then I realized: storage costs nothing. I can buy 2 terabytes SSD nowadays for less than 150€. And Apple charges 100€ for each storage tier upwards.
Turns out price hike happened in
2018, not in 2023 as I first suspected.
Here is a comparison table of European prices*:
iPhone 4 - 629€
iPhone 4s - 629€
iPhone 5 - 679€
iPhone 5s - 699€
iPhone 6 - 699€
iPhone 6s - 739€
iPhone 7 - 759€
iPhone X - 1149€
*
(note for mods: do NOT delete this post please, I had wasted my time, searched the web and now compiled the list myself without relying on AI tools)
This is something I cannot understand, if VAT exists, then how were they able to evade taxes before iPhone X? I know it became a more expensive phone, but wasn’t 350€ (~409$) price increase too much?
And also this sudden spike with 1300€ (!) iPhone 14 Pro. Insane. They probably reduced costs because they felt that those are not selling well.
Right now Apple is about to cross psychological purchase barrier.
Also, Europeans are not ought to pay taxes for Apple. Everyone knows it doesn’t cost these bean counters 1000$ to manufacture an iPhone in Chinese and Indian sweatshops, especially given how they are cutting corners on materials nowadays. And they literally had other sales formula back then if it indeed was cheaper to buy an iPhone than now.
Also competitors are selling their flagships for much cheaper than Apple. Same competitors sell in US for same 1000$. Then something is different in their formulas, because they do not manufacture Pixels and Galaxy S in Europe either, but somehow they usually cost much, much less than “premium” Pro iPhone