Apple in developing countries

[Max on Macs]

Hi guys,

As some of you know I've been in Costa Rica for the last 10 days. While I was there I went all over the place including to see how some of the small communities in Costa Rica live, how people work, etc. On my visits to various places in the last 10 days I only saw 7 computers (5 laptops and 2 desktops) but they were all macs - iBooks and iMacs - so I'm just wondering if there is any incentives for developing countries to buy mac over anything else, considering the price? When I asked about this they simply said that they preferred the macs (those who knew enough English to understand what I was asking, one old lady said they only eat pineapple and melon )

Thanks

 

[Cloudgazer]

In the late 80s and early 90s Apple had a decent presence in South Africa.
Then they all but disappeared.
Only the creative industries (film, advertising, publishing) used Macs.

In recent years (since the launch of iPod) Apple has started making its presence felt again.
Bigger and better than before.

I know they do offer student discounts, at some universities anyway, but they don't offer or even support AppleCare in this country.
The resellers also get a bit snotty if you take your mac to them for repairs or upgrades if you didn't buy it from them.

Apple products here are also pretty expensive.
As an example:
In the US the 1.83 macbook costs $1999 (R12,793)
Here in SA the same machine goes for R17,075 ($2668)
Thats almost $700 more!!!!!

Getting software is the biggest issue. Games especially.
Currently Neverwinter Nights costs R700 ($110) - and the game is over 3 years old.

 

[Lollypop]

Im with cloudgazer, there really isnt much of a insentive for developing coutries to use macs, they are in general more expensive in terms of hardware and software. Up to recently they also didnt offer very easy integration with excisting systems. In SA schools novel was very popular, making it very hard for macs to be used as a replacements in schools.

 

[Cloudgazer]

Another thing:

The resllers usually claim that thier products are more expensive because of import duties/taxes, etc.

But in recent years SA dropped its import duties on electronic items.
Yet the prices of such goods (esp Apple) remain ridiculously high.

Apple should come up with some sort of pricing structure for developing countries.
Especially in the education field. Like lollypop mentioned Novell used to be popular at schools, but now our government is very supportive of open source inititiatives.
If Apple tried hard enough I'm sure they could make inroads at our schools.

 

[generik]

That kind of pricing is really brutal, and ironically these people truly deserve the better pricing more. I can't imagine most people making US$1700 in SA, let alone US$2600 to buy a MBP (and who on earth with a family anyway can shell out a month's pay for a computer? It's unpossible!)

 

[Lollypop]

Another thing:

The resllers usually claim that thier products are more expensive because of import duties/taxes, etc.

But in recent years SA dropped its import duties on electronic items.
Yet the prices of such goods (esp Apple) remain ridiculously high.

Apple should come up with some sort of pricing structure for developing countries.
Especially in the education field. Like lollypop mentioned Novell used to be popular at schools, but now our government is very supportive of open source inititiatives.
If Apple tried hard enough I'm sure they could make inroads at our schools.

I agree, if Core (the SA importer) made a little more effort they could make a lot of progress in SA. Especially now that the mac platoform can run windows. Not only can they capture potential windows switchers but the semi opensource nature of the Mac can also be leveraged where companies have considered going opensource.

Also a big thing is the lack of advertisement. To date I have not seen a single mac or ipod add over here on TV, Core could really capatalize on the halo effect.

I had to contact them to find out that they do offer educational discounts, but if they advertise it im sure more students will consider a mac.