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srw985

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 13, 2010
16
0
£99 for a product that in the states costs $99 is nothing short of extortionate!
 
Before someone mentions taxes, compare it to the markup of othe apple proucts in the UK:

http://www.tuaw.com/2010/09/01/why-is-the-apple-tv-so-expensive-in-europe/
apple-pricing-comparison2.png
 
Have you even looked at the Apple UK product page that clearly shows the additional import duties and VAT added to the price?

The price is very fair.
 
Wow, we are only paying $129au here in Australia, ~ $115us. That includes 10% GST. If Apple can give us almost the exact same price as the US it seems outrageous you guys are paying so much.

And it's not just Apple, I've seen other products from other companies listed for the exact same amount in the US and EU. Don't people know the USD and the EU/GBP are different?
 
That's hardly Apple's fault because there is no UK equivalent to Netflix.

iPlayer, 4oD and ITV Player would be worthwhile additions though.

I was trying to justify the price. There are less features in the UK version. Anyway Lovefilm is similar to Netflix.
 
Have you got a link?

The new iPods all show the VAT & levies applied but I can't see that information on the Apple TV page.

I was wrong. It's not on the Apple TV page which is a curious decision I guess. But it's still an outstanding price for an outstanding product. Buy now! :apple:
 
That's hardly Apple's fault because there is no UK equivalent to Netflix.

iPlayer, 4oD and ITV Player would be worthwhile additions though.

I would point the finger at apple in this case, bbc iplayer is on the PS3... Sky is on Xbox 360.... the missed opportunity to add a similar to Netflix service in the UK is a big oversight by apple, or just plain lazyness... like they could care about the uk/euro users.... just look at the markup.
 
Wow, we are only paying $129au here in Australia, ~ $115us. That includes 10% GST. If Apple can give us almost the exact same price as the US it seems outrageous you guys are paying so much.

And it's not just Apple, I've seen other products from other companies listed for the exact same amount in the US and EU. Don't people know the USD and the EU/GBP are different?

I've asked this in another thread but it hasn't been answered yet...

There is no import duty on computers imported into the UK but both the Apple TV and new Mac mini have a similar high mark-up so I'm wondering if the addition of a HDMI port changes the classification of the product and means they are liable to import duty?
 
I was wrong. It's not on the Apple TV page which is a curious decision I guess. But it's still an outstanding price for an outstanding product. Buy now! :apple:

It's not though is it. It's a current Apple TV without a hard drive. In the UK we aren't getting Netflix nor are we getting the 99 cent downloads. So how is it any different to the current model?

You're still at 720p (not complaining though I'm still happy)
You don't get a hard drive
You've still got pretty much the same UI.

It feels like they didn't even try. 4oD, iPlayer, iTV Player, Spotify, LoveFilm player, Sky Player. You have all this great content available in the UK digitally and they still ignore it choosing to only go for NetFlix.
 
I'd forgot about Lovefilm. :eek:

That would be a good Netflix alternative for us.

I am going to wait and see what the ASUS O!Play HD2 has to offer when it comes out. As it stands my hacked 'old' Apple TV does exactly what I need at the moment. It also has an added benefit! I can cook an egg on it while watching a movie.
 
I was wrong. It's not on the Apple TV page which is a curious decision I guess. But it's still an outstanding price for an outstanding product. Buy now! :apple:

I've just found this, where Apple points out that the UK price includes approximately £23 VAT, duty, and levies.

So that puts the currency converted cost to £87 including VAT, duty, and levies, leaving £12 for Apple tax. ;)
 
There is no import duty on computers imported into the UK but both the Apple TV and new Mac mini have a similar high mark-up so I'm wondering if the addition of a HDMI port changes the classification of the product and means they are liable to import duty?

The Taric code for Apple TV is 8525.50.1000 I've not found any specific import duty info yet (what i've found so far it says 0% duty, but I don't think that's right).

I doubt the HDMI socket would change the definition from computer (in the case of the Mini). I think it's the usual case of Apple charging more for products in the EU.
 
bbc iplayer is also on the iphone...

Yes, but that is via a third party app rather than first party support from Apple.

To be honest i was expecting them to open it to applicaion devlopers, partially why i'm dissapointed by the ATV.

It would be nice if they open an SDK to content providers. I'd like my Revision3, Channel Awesome, Crunchyroll...

Frustratingly the Roku and Popbox are simply not avaliable in the UK ether.
 
I've just found this, where Apple points out that the UK price includes approximately £23 VAT, duty, and levies.

So that puts the currency converted cost to £87 including VAT, duty, and levies, leaving £12 for Apple tax. ;)

I keep swinging from being insulted about the fact that Apple thinks we couldn't work this out to thinking, it's beautiful and I want one. Then thinking that rentals will probably cost £0.99 (because the cost of piping electrons down cables is much higher outside of the US, obviously) and I'm locking myself into a proprietary system which clearly doesn't give a crap about international customers.

All in all - I'm veering wildly between a "screw you Apple" stance, and an "oh well, ok then" one. Either way - I'm definitely not loving it. I'm thinking about WD TV Live instead, as long as I could play ISOs of my DVD collection from an external drive rather than leave a computer on all the time. I got Ripit from the last macrumors bundle, and it seems to work well. Anyone got an experience with these?
 
£99 for a product that in the states costs $99 is nothing short of extortionate!

Tell me, do you know what the letters V, A and T are standing for?


I've just found this, where Apple points out that the UK price includes approximately £23 VAT, duty, and levies.

So that puts the currency converted cost to £87 including VAT, duty, and levies, leaving £12 for Apple tax. ;)

Can't say whether these numbers are right, but £99 - £23 = £76.
 
Why is it that when ever the US/UK prices differ so much, that the US people always seem to think that anyone who complains in the UK is just bitching for the sake of it and not taking into account VAT/Duty etc.

For one, it is a product made in China. So they're imported to the US and the UK. They're usually shipped direct from HK which, I understand is more expensive than the UK, but still we understand this is required and I don't think anyone has an issue with this.
As for VAT, again, we pay this on everything in the UK so although we may not like it. We accept it. This point is mute.

The issue I have with it is that, as others have pointed out, we (in the UK) are getting less functionality than the US version yet overall paying more for it. As others have pointed out, Apple could have made a deal with Sky, BBC, VM or any other companies here in the UK to allow us to get some kind of streaming content. The very least they could do is lower the price seeing as we will not get the same functionality out of it as the US customers.
Better yet, increase the US price then none of this would matter. More functionality, higher price. It generally makes sense.
 
Why is it that when ever the US/UK prices differ so much, that the US people always seem to think that anyone who complains in the UK is just bitching for the sake of it and not taking into account VAT/Duty etc.

For one, it is a product made in China. So they're imported to the US and the UK. They're usually shipped direct from HK which, I understand is more expensive than the UK, but still we understand this is required and I don't think anyone has an issue with this.
As for VAT, again, we pay this on everything in the UK so although we may not like it. We accept it. This point is mute.

The issue I have with it is that, as others have pointed out, we (in the UK) are getting less functionality than the US version yet overall paying more for it. As others have pointed out, Apple could have made a deal with Sky, BBC, VM or any other companies here in the UK to allow us to get some kind of streaming content. The very least they could do is lower the price seeing as we will not get the same functionality out of it as the US customers.
Better yet, increase the US price then none of this would matter. More functionality, higher price. It generally makes sense.

Frankly because every time a new product comes out many of the same UK users complain about the price differences. They are ignorant to the fact as to why - it isn't just about VAT, import duties, levies etc. The general cost of doing business in the UK is higher for Apple, and they chose to pass that cost on to the UK users. The new London store, with people, looks beautiful - but you think that cost to renovate, the permits and the bureaucracy to get it done etc. was free? The average cost to operate per retail store is much higher in the UK than the average cost of US stores.

As for your other complaint isn't like not putting on Netflix costs Apple any less. If anything it cost more since they have to have a special version without. And how do we know Apple didn't try to make a deal with others? Maybe the others didn't want to invest in the time to create an app, or wanted licensing fees (whereas Netflix doesn't charge any). Apple may even make money by putting on Netflix, money which they lose by not having it the UK version.
 
Still OTT

I presume that when VAT goes up to 20% at the end of the year the price will stay the same at £99 so that could explain why it is so high but it is still a rip off
 
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