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Socialism...

Our 'real' tax rate is much higher -- social security, medicare, sales tax, payroll taxes (your employer pays these, but certainly affects your wage) AND income tax -- federal, state, and local. Figure out your percentage tax burden for every dollar earned from that and you'll be shocked.
 
Stuff this man pretty sure it won't be released here till December and from there it would probably have 3 week shipping and it wouldn't make it because of the holidays and the delivery rush etc.

I'll just wait for Modern Warfare 3. :mad:
 
This new iPhone in Mexico has a 110 dollar premium, compared to the USA, obviously without tax. :mad:
 
i think apple should include Hong Kong, China and South Korea to the initial launch event with the usual 6 or 7 major GDP countries ...

I think it's a function of supply for now. Plus until they get a deal with China Mobile, most of the sales on the mainland will be off-contract or gray market.

Eventually China will be a Tier 1 country for Apple, but it's still a few years off.
 
I think the cell phone plans in Sweden are a lot cheaper, around 78 dollar for an "unlimited cell phone plan", including unlimited text, phone and data, lower speeds after 5 GB often tho.
 
Scandinavia benefits from being resource rich countries with small populations. That's how Canada and Australia weathered the recession, as well. The welfare state came after their wealth, and did not lead to it.

Sweden in particular also benefits from a rather favorable regulatory environment and low corporate taxation. Swedes choose to spend their wealth on a caretaker government that taxes exorbitantly in exchange for a degree of financial security. However, it isn't free. Your "free" tuition and child benefits come by paying 20% more for everything you buy, having a tax rate of 20% for even the lowest of incomes (vs our rates in the low single digits or even negative), and similar costs.

Don't think that all that "security" is free from a social perspective, as well. Central planners in Denmark, for instance, decide how many slots to open up at universities for each profession. There's a reason the US has average-at-best performing grade schools and high schools, but most of the top universities in the world. Our children don't suddenly become smarter the summer they turn 18. Our expensive universities simply outperform the "free" universities elsewhere and offer hundreds of different programs that simply don't exist elsewhere, and as a result attract the top students from all over the world.




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No, that's not what I'm suggesting. However, the US has pulled more than its weight in defending the EU, and it's disingenuous for the EU to criticize our military spending when a big reason it is so much is that we directly or indirectly subsidize NATO countries. If we weren't around, most EU countries would pay a lot more to defend themselves and wouldn't have as much for a generous welfare state. To use the favorite term of Keynesians, the EU has been freeloading for 7 decades now.

I agree with every single point you made in the first part of your post. It highlights the choices that United States citizens have made with regard to their tax levels and benefits. It is all about choices. We Americans have created an envirnoment for ourselves where deregulation has caused instability and greedy corruption, and the wealthy use their money to enrich themselves instead of the nation, using philanthropic activity to reduce their own tax burdens more than to help their fellow man. You also seem to be suggesting that the US is a resource poor and overpopulated country...odd that...

As for military spending and apparent freeloading as you call it...we're the ones who voluntarily took up the role of world police following the second world war. Nobody pressured us into the role, or even asked that we step into it. We did that primarily as a calculated move to generate economic activity and to further our own interests across the globe, not as a defenders of the downtrodden and helpless. There is very little that can be called noble with the military activities of the United States in the past 50 years with a few standout exceptions. What exactly do you mean in regards to European countries defending themselves? From what? Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden? Oh wait...:rolleyes:
 
5795 KR = 912 USD
Thats the 16GB model

You can't be serious Apple

It evens out. Scandinavian carrier services cost about one fourth of what US ones do, and they dont create bogus plans that should be free in the first place, such as tethering.

Ive got no complaints about the price, ordered tro 64 giggers. What annoys me is the slow delivery they offered. I pre ordered like within 5 min, and will get mine delivered between the 4'th and the 11'th nov.
 
Tax rates in Italy was actually just raised to 21%.
Remains the question how a 2% difference in VAT-rate (NL 19% vs IT 21%) account for a 12.5% price difference for 64GB 4S at the the Apple store (€799 in NL vs €899 in IT)?
 
It evens out. Scandinavian carrier services cost about one fourth of what US ones do, and they dont create bogus plans that should be free in the first place, such as tethering.

Ive got no complaints about the price, ordered tro 64 giggers. What annoys me is the slow delivery they offered. I pre ordered like within 5 min, and will get mine delivered between the 4'th and the 11'th nov.

Hmmm, I got the same delivery time, except I ordered three for our company, and only did it 1 day before the official release.
 
I agree with every single point you made in the first part of your post. It highlights the choices that United States citizens have made with regard to their tax levels and benefits. It is all about choices. We Americans have created an envirnoment for ourselves where deregulation has caused instability and greedy corruption, and the wealthy use their money to enrich themselves instead of the nation, using philanthropic activity to reduce their own tax burdens more than to help their fellow man. You also seem to be suggesting that the US is a resource poor and overpopulated country...odd that...

We have natural resources, we are just less willing to drill or frack or mine to get at them than Canada, Australia, Norway, or Sweden. Plus, Canada and Australia have 1/10 the population and as much oil and natural gas (Canada) and minerals (Australia) as we do, so yes in a way we are resource poor compared to them.

We also have more regulation, not less, than Sweden. Sweden has more visible customer-oriented regulation (such as the warranty protection), but less of the bureaucratic red tape-type regulations (e.g. Sarbanes-Oxley) that we see at the state and federal levels here.



There is very little that can be called noble with the military activities of the United States in the past 50 years with a few standout exceptions. What exactly do you mean in regards to European countries defending themselves? From what? Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden? Oh wait...:rolleyes:

Again, it's a matter of what's seen and unseen. Tell the people in Eastern Europe that little we have done has been noble. They were actually upset when we canceled plans to build up a defense shield in Eastern Europe last year. We've been a counterweight to Russia, China, etc.

Anyway, the point of this whole discussion is that the disparity in pricing in Apple products isn't some nefarious plot by Tim Cook to squeeze people in Europe.
 
I am form Latvia and my mobile operator have started to sell iPhone 4S as well but I am really disappointed about the offered tariff plans. Will try to negotiate with them that I can pay upfront for the device so I don't need to pay insane monthly fees.

So far the only tariff plans offer iPhone for free but you have to pay monthly fees that takes your arm and the leg while included data, texts and minutes are very limited

Hope that my negotiation skills will help in this :)
 
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We have natural resources, we are just less willing to drill or frack or mine to get at them than Canada, Australia, Norway, or Sweden. Plus, Canada and Australia have 1/10 the population and as much oil and natural gas (Canada) and minerals (Australia) as we do, so yes in a way we are resource poor compared to them.

We also have more regulation, not less, than Sweden. Sweden has more visible customer-oriented regulation (such as the warranty protection), but less of the bureaucratic red tape-type regulations (e.g. Sarbanes-Oxley) that we see at the state and federal levels here.

Anyway, the point of this whole discussion is that the disparity in pricing in Apple products isn't some nefarious plot by Tim Cook to squeeze people in Europe.

So now you are saying we are either more lazy and less industrious than those nations (or simply feel above that kind of base labor), or you are suggesting that we care more about the environment than those other countries so won't touch the resources we have available to us. Both seem rather strange arguments.

Then you talk about Sarbanes-Oxley as if it somehow has anything to do with financial regulation. That legislation is a CYA measure that only really ended up making financial statement audits for public companies more expensive and lined the pockets of the big three accounting firms left after Anderson was forced to disband. We can go on and on about the ridiculous "regulatory" institution called the SEC that bosts the most disgusting levels of conflict of interest I have ever witnessed, and they get away with it, because it somehow never gets brought to the attention of the regular citizen. (I'm a former financial statement auditor from one of the top ten firms in the US, now a CFO here in Sweden, so I know about this stuff). The United States has the least amount of actual real regulation in its financial industry of anywhere in the entire western world. All it takes is a quick look at some US history. After the 1929 crash and subsequent depression, the US implemented real and firm regulation on the banks, and there was a long period of prosperity. Then regulatory legislation was slowly lobbied away by financial institution connected interests, until you eventually get to where we are today, where SEC committee members swap out careers as regulatory gov. employees for lucrative top executive positions at financial institutions they were regulating not long ago...


But anyway, as you say, this is way off topic, and I think we both agree that Apple at least, is not just pricing their stuff differently to make a extra buck in certain countries. There are countless variables to take into account, some of the more obvious ones have already been touched on here.
 
I think the cell phone plans in Sweden are a lot cheaper, around 78 dollar for an "unlimited cell phone plan", including unlimited text, phone and data, lower speeds after 5 GB often tho.

Exactly! We're paying a subsidized $125 up front for the 64GB 4S and then about $80 a month for 24 months here in Sweden, so about $2,050 over 2 years for the phone + unlimited full featured usage. Not bad compared to what a US user would pay for the same experience. Could a non-grandfathered in US user even get that experience at any cost before Sprint came into the picture?
 
it was really depressing seeing so many young people making queue in front of my newly open apple store in Bologna, Italy on the 27th evening, and seeing how these people has nothing better to do than lose one day of sleep just to have a phone at 9am rather than, say, 2pm...

am i missing something?

edit: just to clarify, here in italy you can buy an iphone without contract, it goes for 659-779-899 euros respectively for the 16-32-64 gigs.
 
Portugal... 4º mundo

olá a todos...
Sempre tive uma ligação muito próxima da Apple.... desde o meu primeiro Classic, depois profissionalmente tive diversos equipamentos da marca... sempre de uma qualidade superior. Lamentavelmente o nosso pais, Portugal foi renegado para ultimo, mais parece um pais do 4º mundo no que diz respeito ao lançamento dos novos equipamentos, somos assim tão insignificantes para a Apple

Hello to all ...
I've always had a close connection of Apple .... since my first Classic, then had several professional equipment ... Always with a superior quality. Unfortunately our country, Portugal was denied to the last, looks more like a parent of the 4th world, a less important country to the launch the new equipment, we are so insignificant to Apple...
 
5795 KR = 912 USD
Thats the 16GB model

You can't be serious Apple
This is including +25% VAT and import costs. Take those out of the picture, and you'll likely end up at a similar price.

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Here in Norway, Apple is selling (through their site) unlocked full-price iPhones. The 16 GB is 4890 NOK, about 900 dollars.

And here in Norway, the warranty is two years, but you can complain on production defects within 5 years and get free service or replacement. By law.

I don't really understand the difference here between "warranty" and "complaints on product defects". The warranty usually only covers pure product defects in the first place, not mishandling the product or thinking it "didn't work as you wished".
 
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So sick of waiting. Still says Ships: 1 - 2 Weeks Delivers 03 Nov, 2011 - 09 Nov, 2011

Ordered on the 21st in Ireland
 
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