[CUBE] Apple int'l pricing

[Erik Ableson]

It's not just Apple - a Dell X200 starts at 1,699 USD from their US 
online store and starts at 2 032 € in the store in France.

Unfortunately that's largely due to (mostly) hidden consumer taxes and 
import duties required on foreign goods entering other countries. This 
is further complicated by all of the arcane import/export duties where 
certain components fall into particular taxation categories which 
brings the prices up considerably even when they are included in an 
assembled system.  The other factor which isn't often considered is the 
fact that there are a lot of post-sticker sales taxes in the US applied 
by state, county and city governments which can add up to an additional 
15% in some cases. I still get a little confused when I'm at a cash 
register in France and the total of my purchase is exactly what is 
listed on the sticker.

Apple's not the culprit here since they are playing by the rules 
required by other countries, which is partially why the prices are 
inflated in most european countries.  That combined with the cost of 
doing business in these countries which is usually higher due to all of 
the hidden overhead costs of paying for social programs for their local 
employees etc. as well as having to have anything they sell locally 
certified to meet the local standards for electronic interference and 
such-like. That and the requirements to run and tailor advertising for 
these markets adds up quickly.

There used to be a huge 'grey-market' out there for stuff purchased in 
the US and Canada shipped back and forth across the borders as well as 
being shipped overseas, but in the long run this actually hurts Apple's 
ability to properly service these markets since they are not seeing the 
revenues realized in these zones where they are absorbing the higher 
cost of doing business.

Although with the Euro having overtaken the USD in value I'd really 
like to start seeing that reflected in the international pricing.

Cheers,

Erik Ableson

On Monday, February 3, 2003, at 09:53 PM, Richard Clark wrote:

> because anything bought in Italy costs ten times the price probably 9 
> out of that ten goes into the pockets of the Mafia. Just an example 
> when i bought my 5gig ipod it was 399 in the states here i paid almost 
> 1000 for it so i ask you Laurie would you buy it from Italy??
> On Monday, Feb 3, 2003, at 21:38 Europe/Rome, Laurie A Duncan wrote:
>> On 2/3/03 3:20 PM, mawgadog at tin.it typeth:
>>> seem to be very nice and cool people but they said Apple won't let 
>>> them
>>> sell any Apple products outside the US. God knows why? I'm a US 
>>> citizen
>>> living in Italy and can't order a pair of headphones for my IPOD what
>>> strange rules Apple has.
>> That's a standard Apple policy.