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Does not change the fact, SE is their bargain offering - which is why charging more than the VAT comes across rather greedily.

Whilst the Apple buyers tend to be less price sensitive; it's $250 lower than the next model; and true that higher international prices cushions for fx volatilities. It's a douche move.

As GBP appreciated again relative to the dollar after the EU thing (hopefully) - the gap will further disconnect.

It's not that bad for the UK. The American price of $399 I presume is without sales tax which equates to £280 at current rates so with our 20% VAT (sales tax for non uk readers) it takes it up to £336 for us.

So yes there is a little premium attached to it of £23 but not as bad as the article makes out.
 
Speaking of premium... The iPad Pro 9.7" 128GB WiFi stands at C$1,000 :eek: Up C$230 from the 128GB Air2.
At this point that's not only outrageous but disrespectful.
Prices have gone mad over the last 12 months and it's not just an exchange rate problem.

Sorry Apple you're done abusing my hard earned $s :mad:
 
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Okay, I've done the maths!
Selecting a few different Apple products, and pricing them up before addition of taxes, and comparing them to the US $ price.

Note - this is based upon xe.com currency conversion which no consumer exchange would ever offer, so you could add a few % to these prices if you wanted a realistic currency valuation.. but we'll stick to the bank rates for simplicity here.


prices.jpg

As you can see, the UK actually does pretty well, with several products actually cheaper here. The biggest difference is indeed for the iPhone SE, at 4% more in the UK. But this can easily be accounted for by currency and import figures.
So in fairness, I think Apple has converted the $ amount, and rounded up or down as needed to make the GBP a round xx9 figure!

Australia and Euro-countries such as Germany do slightly less well, however.
Only one product out of the seven I selected was cheaper in these countries than the US.
The remainder all saw an increase of up to 15%.
Again currency and import eat into that figure...
But I certainly don't feel this is as much of an Apple foreign-country markup tax as many are suggesting.

The higher prices paid in these countries are far more a result of local VAT / sales taxes than any Apple initiated-markup. UK VAT at 20% really hikes the prices. But that's hardly Apple's fault.
 
It would be nice is Apple was consistent. Ok they are consistently expensive.

So comparing the Cdn pricing.

iPhone 5SE

16 GB US$399.00 vs C$579.00 a difference of C$180.00 for an exchange of $1.4511
64 GB US$499.00 vs C$709.00 a difference of C$210.00 for an exchange of $1.4208

Current spot rate is around 1.305

The 9.7 iPad pro is in the 1.33 to 1.34 range.
The 12.9 Pro is 1.31
Air2 is between 1.20 to 1.25
Mini4 is at 1.10

So why the difference when these two devices were announced at the same time? And look at the differences in the various product prices.

The best deal in relation to exchange rate is the Mini4.
 
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Why is this even a story? US don't include sales tax which is why they seem a lot cheaper than other countries pricing.

Even if you take the salestax into account the product is a lot more expensive in the EU.

$399 = €355 + 21% NL tax = €429,55
however they charge us €489. So we pay an additional €60 or $67
 
It's not that bad for the UK. The American price of $399 I presume is without sales tax which equates to £280 at current rates so with our 20% VAT (sales tax for non uk readers) it takes it up to £336 for us.

So yes there is a little premium attached to it of £23 but not as bad as the article makes out.

But the pound is seriously undervalued right now based on historical averages and there is STILL a premium.
 
Thanks.

Here's the Canada comparison for the same 7 products as above:

prices canada1.jpg

So some of the recent products are certainly a few percent more expensive, but there are several cheaper, such as the MacBook.
 
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Yep. ¥52,800 (about $475) not including tax here in Japan (where we don't even have ApplePay, which I think is the most compelling new feature). I'll definitely be hanging on to my 5s for a while longer.
This, plus the fact that the new 9.7 inch iPad "pro" is priced at ¥64800, somewhat around with $599 with today's FX rate, making the pricing of SE unreasonable.
At least they should unify their FX rate, preferably with the lower one.
 
Are the European prices before or after tax? If they're after-tax, it's not that surprising considering VAT can be upwards of 20% in France and just slightly less in other European countries.
Even if you take the salestax into account the product is a lot more expensive in the EU.

$399 = €355 + 21% NL tax = €429,55
however they charge us €489. So we pay an additional €60 or $67
You seem to have forgotten to take in to account import tax. There's also going to be 'thuiskopieheffing' added in there along the way too.
 
This level of premium has always existed for every Apple product and can easily be explained by stronger consumer protection laws in Europe, UK and Australia, such as mandatory or implied minimum 2 year warranties for electronic devices.

I got a free repair for an out of warranty 2.5 year-old laptop because of them, and so I should for a high end MacBook Pro costing as much as it does it should be built for a minimum guaranteed life of 3 years without having to pay extra.
 
For further amusement, look at the 9.7" iPad Pro prices in Australia.
Or any Apple prices in Australia.

It's hilarious to watch US prices revealed on stage. They bear no relation to reality anywhere else in the world.

Biggest reason I'm not upgrading my iPad? Outrageous prices for something that can really only do email, web and show photos.
Any serious work, I use a Mac. iPad is a casual use device, based on an OS crippled to run on a 3.5" phone. Giving it a desktop class processor and split view, is bullet point marketing. It's not that kind of device. Sure make it lighter, faster, brighter, but nobody needs those features.

There's no chance I'm upgrading my iPhone 6 Plus this year at the prices Apple's charging. They've priced themselves out of the market for all but those who just don't care about the cost.

Way to change the world, Tim. Just keep jacking up prices until you lose loyal customers. Any wonder the majority of Apple's income comes from overseas… for the moment.

But, to my knowledge, the 'Apple Store' doesn't exist in New Zealand, and Australia. They are all sold through resellers only, or direct. Could this be 'negotiated pricing' through those resellers, rather than Apple just gouging people 'because they can'?
 
Okay, I've done the maths!
Selecting a few different Apple products, and pricing them up before addition of taxes, and comparing them to the US $ price.

Note - this is based upon xe.com currency conversion which no consumer exchange would ever offer, so you could add a few % to these prices if you wanted a realistic currency valuation.. but we'll stick to the bank rates for simplicity here.


View attachment 622443

As you can see, the UK actually does pretty well, with several products actually cheaper here. The biggest difference is indeed for the iPhone SE, at 4% more in the UK. But this can easily be accounted for by currency and import figures.
So in fairness, I think Apple has converted the $ amount, and rounded up or down as needed to make the GBP a round xx9 figure!

Australia and Euro-countries such as Germany do slightly less well, however.
Only one product out of the seven I selected was cheaper in these countries than the US.
The remainder all saw an increase of up to 15%.
Again currency and import eat into that figure...
But I certainly don't feel this is as much of an Apple foreign-country markup tax as many are suggesting.

The higher prices paid in these countries are far more a result of local VAT / sales taxes than any Apple initiated-markup. UK VAT at 20% really hikes the prices. But that's hardly Apple's fault.

You made a mistake, you have to add 100€ to the iSE 64Gb's price in Europe...
 
It's not that bad for the UK. The American price of $399 I presume is without sales tax which equates to £280 at current rates so with our 20% VAT (sales tax for non uk readers) it takes it up to £336 for us.

So yes there is a little premium attached to it of £23 but not as bad as the article makes out.

Sales tax is not the same thing as VAT. Also, there are quite a few states in the U.S. where anyone can go into an Apple Store and buy one and pay no sales tax at all.
 
Why is this even a story? US don't include sales tax which is why they seem a lot cheaper than other countries pricing.

They don't seem, they ARE a lot cheaper in the U.S. I can pick one up for $399 out the door from an Apple Store when it goes on sale, because I live a couple hours away from a tax free state.
 
This level of premium has always existed for every Apple product and can easily be explained by stronger consumer protection laws in Europe, UK and Australia, such as mandatory or implied minimum 2 year warranties for electronic devices.

I got a free repair for an out of warranty 2.5 year-old laptop because of them, and so I should for a high end MacBook Pro costing as much as it does it should be built for a minimum guaranteed life of 3 years without having to pay extra.

Sometimes it's worth investing in a more premium product. My mid-2011 iMac 21.5" developed an LCD panel fault just shy of owning it three years.

Could have cost me £480 out of warranty to get it replaced; in the end it was just £30 for the engineers' report (via KRCS).

Exercised my rights under the SoGA and got it replaced for nothing.

In terms of the U.K. I don't feel our pricing SIM Free is that bad... And it isn't Apple's fault currency around the Globe is all over the place.
 
Gosh, and reading Gizmodo's 'reviews' yesterday sounded more like hit pieces than anything at all fact based.

It is odd that Apple would price them so high though. Are they actually paying more duties in each country, or are foreign buyers subsidizing US iPhone buyers...

A good deal of this has to do with various value add taxes (VAT) in those countries but even after factoring the VAT out there's still an increase in relative prices when converted to US dollars.

I would suspect it has more to do with hedging currency fluctuations than anything else. Otherwise if the dollar strengthens it starts eating into margins. Rather than floating the prices daily/weekly/monthly to accommodate the changing exchange rates they build in a buffer to protect against movement and keep a static price in each market. Then likely round up to the next nice sounding number too.

There could also be strategic considerations coming into play market by market as well but I'd bet most of this has to do with currency hedge.

In a lot of markets this probably equates to an easy win for Apple but there are some markets whose currencies move significantly against the dollar and could see big losses quickly for Apple. There have been cases where Apple has had to make pricing adjustments mid-cycle as a result (Russia comes to mind) but building some pad in can help minimize those situations.
 
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I urge people living in non-us countries to stop buying them if it gets too pricey...because they will continue to increase the price.
 
At $399 just like the new price for Air 2, you would think it's at least priced the same as that. Nope, for China a 16GB Air 2 is now ¥2888(~$450), but iPhone SE is at ¥3288(~$500). Not much difference, but still odd.
 
Along with all the tipping that the Americans do, buying anything in the US must be incredibly frustrating and somewhat confusing.

So, after tax and tips, how much is the iPhone SE in America?

Depends whether I spoke to a retail clerk, had a runner retrieve my pre-order from the back of the store, or consulted with the genius bar before purchasing. Standard USA tipping etiquette for Apple Store is:

retail clerk: 15%
runner: 5.7%
Genius: 22% is the wait was less than an hour, 18% if over an hour

You should write that down in case you visit a US Apple Store, it can be quite confusing.
 
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