Remember, US prices don’t include sales tax, and VAT is like a sales tax that extends through the whole supply chain. VAT alone likely explains the usual price differential between Macs in the USA and EU (Australia, too, but only after you first do currency conversion, since since the AUD generally trades well below parity with the USD). Oh, and remember to add about 7% to 11% to the US purchase price for the sales tax (which can differ from town to town, for what it’s worth).
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Reactions to new MBA?!
- Thread starter Saturn007
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A quick Google search shows me that EUR has weakened by 15% against USD over the past year. Not surprised with the pricing.
Ah, that explains a big chunk of it, then. Kinda surprising, as EUR generally performs well against the USD (and it’s weird to see the USD strengthening when inflation is as high as it is, inflation generally results in a weakening of currencies).
EU has inflation as well, but the central bank has not increased rates as much as the FED.
They did, it's slightly more expensive now. For a 2 year old device.
Yes, I lived in the US for a long time. Many states have no tax too (I was lucky!). However, it doesnt account for the huge differences here. Even currency fluctuations dont account for the entire difference in the UK. They have been pushing up prices here for years. Its actually cheaper to fly to the US and buy some items than it is to buy here. Ultimately its hurting their business and driving away customers. Theres an apple store near me and its almost always empty these days. And that was also the case pre-pandemic. Every time I walked past I wondered how it managed to stay open.
I'm not. My M1 MBA is perfectly fine... Nice upgrades but definitely not worth the cost.
I'd recommend the Apple refurb store for a 16gb 1tb m1 mba. Thanks what I did and am quite happy.
Even when you factor that in, the effect of buying the MBA hits UK/EU pockets way harder because the salaries are lower and the cost of living is higher than the US. For example, Americans think their gas(oline) prices are high. I would advise them to not ever look at UK petrol prices, especially atm, particularly if you have a weak heart.
My reaction above all others is that it is expensive. No longer an entry-level laptop.
My wireless headphones don’t care, either.
That’s very fair! I live in a high cost of living part of the country and was recently discussing pricing (housing and food) with a family member in a lower cost of living area. Back when I lived in the lower cost of living area, I could occasionally find a carton of 12 eggs for less than a dollar (back in 2018 or so, and mostly only at ALDI, but eggs were generally less than $1.50 outside of that), while, where I am now, I can’t buy a carton of 12 eggs for less than $3. I make more money than I did back in the low cost of living area (enough more to have a higher standard of living), but I don’t see how someone making my relative’s income could even afford to live where I currently live. They’d certainly have to be on either rent or food assistance. Low salary+High cost of living is an awful combination.
I really miss the wedge. I hope it comes back in the future on some sort of MacBook Variant--A new 12'' Macbook maybe?
That should be the case for any upgraded device. It doesn't necessarily warrant a price increase though. But the way inflation is going in the US, everything is going to continue to be more expensive.
Just weighed my 11” iPad Pro 2020 with Magic Keyboard. Together, they weight 2.375 pounds.Apple reports this for the MBA weights:
2020 M1 MBA 2.8 pounds (1.29 kg)2022 M2 MBA 2.7 pounds (1.24 kg)
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Hence, only a .1 pound difference!
Not enough to write home about! Or, really be much of a factor in deciding.
Given there could be rounding going on, and because the kg measurement goes to an extra decimal place, I figured a conversion from kg to ounces might prove informative…
I'm not very good with metric conversions, but the online calculators show that a .05 kg difference amounts to only .11 pounds or 1.8 ounces!
That's less than the weight of 2 CDs, two pieces of Wonder Bread, two pencils, etc.
See https://weightofstuff.com/things-that-weigh-1-ounce/
Now, had the new MBA weighed in at 2.3 pounds,
or a half pound less, that would have moved it into the wonderful 12” MacBook Retina realm… and, thus, would have been a HUGE factor to many!
Apple just don't do entry-level laptops.
If you look back over past prices, the base MBA has always bounced between $999 and $1199 as features have come and gone. The last Intel MBA at $999 was a feeble Intel i3 - first time a Retina display had been priced that low - that getting bumped to a far more powerful M1 for the same price was something of a steal.
The new $1199 starting price isn't great news, but it isn't unprecedented.
Absolutely love it. Will get the Midnight - it's a beauty. What a huge upgrade to an already amazing device (M1 MBA). It is rather expensive to spec up, though, I'll give you all that. As a photographer and as someone who uses my laptop professionally, I seriously don't get why people are so obsessed about the lack of ports. It's a non-issue for me. The only thing I need to connect is my camera, and that uses USB-C. Everything else is cloud-based or done wirelessly. Super excited about getting a better webcam as well as better screen and speakers.
The big issue for non-US customers is how that price translates into their country's currency. Mostly Apple used to swap the $ sign for £ or €, which was hard enough to bear anyway, but now they're no longer just doing that. If we convert the starting price for the MBA in the UK (£1249) to USD, you get $1560. Suddenly that's a massive difference compared to what US residents are paying and pushes it into the price US residents are paying for MBPs.
It's almost cheaper to fly to the States and smuggle one back, not that I'm advocating that, but then in the next breath companies are moaning about grey imports...
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This is exactly it. The prices in the USA are actually ok. Its people outside of the US that are getting totally screwed.