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Unbalanced prices between USA and Europe

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M

mma

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 8, 2007
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With a US Dollar Depreciation the prices of electronic equipment become very competitive in States.
Of course it also holds true for IMacs.
E.g. In Switzerland (apple.ch) the cost of 24-inch 2.8GHz IMac is CHF 3,199.00
In States the same machine costs: $2,299.00 =~ 2,600 CHF. So there is almost 600 CHF = 530 $ difference in the price!
I suspect that for Euroland this difference must be even bigger.
It become practically possible to buy a Mac in States and have it shipped to Europe (e.g. by family/friends) pay taxes and
still have a slightly better price then you will get in your own country!! I wonder what are the chances that prices of Macs can be decreased in Europe. Can Apple announce soon some changes in their pricing policy to balance the prices? I haven't done any deep analysis of prices of machines of other vendors but I can feel that e.g. laptops are now much cheaper then they used to be say a year ago. So I suppose that other vendors already dropped they prices. After all if they are making all financial operation in USD they are having the same profits and they used to have...
 
I dunno about Switzerland, but we pay 17.5% VAT, and that is included in the price, which makes up most of the difference.
 
Eraserhead said:
I dunno about Switzerland, but we pay 17.5% VAT, and that is included in the price, which makes up most of the difference.
Click to expand...

Well...

iMac USA= $1199

Converted to Sterling: £591

VAT added at 17.5%: £694

iMac UK= £799

Price difference: £105, $213.
Percentage overcharge: 15%
 
These threads pop up quite often. As consumers, we all want the lowest prices possible.

As a business person who does business in another country, I can't begin to tell you how expensive it is to set up shop in another country. We had to open an office, hire local people, deal with language issues, regulatory issues in another country, separate web site and all the expenses that come with opening a new office.

The rates we charge are based on our costs, not an exchange rate that fluctuates.
 
Almost everything is cheaper in the US. Why should Macs be any different?

The average wage in the UK is about £25k, about US$50k... land, energy, transport; all more expensive in the UK. Goods are priced to their local market. See the Big Mac Index.
 
rdowns said:
These threads pop up quite often. As consumers, we all want the lowest prices possible.

As a business person who does business in another country, I can't begin to tell you how expensive it is to set up shop in another country. We had to open an office, hire local people, deal with language issues, regulatory issues in another country, separate web site and all the expenses that come with opening a new office.

The rates we charge are based on our costs, not an exchange rate that fluctuates.
Click to expand...

Don't you have to pay the staff who work in your own country then? :rolleyes:

Initial start up costs are obviously high but Apple has been established in Europe for many, many years so this argument can't be dragged out for eternity. All the goods come from China these days so they can't even use the extra transport costs excuse.

Yes we have higher taxes, everyone knows that and exchange rates fluctuate. But Apple has managed to get away with charging us high prices for years and I'm sure they will carry on that way as long as we are buying their products.
 
Blue Velvet said:
Almost everything is cheaper in the US. Why should Macs be any different?

The average wage in the UK is about £25k, about US$50k... land, energy, transport; all more expensive in the UK. Goods are priced to their local market. See the Big Mac Index.
Click to expand...

The thing is that other products actually got cheaper (at least observing prices of laptops/english books) with deprecation of USD and prices of apple computers are rather constant. And those prices were set long time ago when USD was much more expensive.

Say that the cost of IMac was £500 a year ago. Now British reseller gets it for £400. The cost of transport etc has not changed. So it means that onthe same exact thing they are now making 100 £ profit more if they charge you the same price they used to charge a year ago.
 
rdowns said:
These threads pop up quite often. As consumers, we all want the lowest prices possible.

As a business person who does business in another country, I can't begin to tell you how expensive it is to set up shop in another country. We had to open an office, hire local people, deal with language issues, regulatory issues in another country, separate web site and all the expenses that come with opening a new office.

The rates we charge are based on our costs, not an exchange rate that fluctuates.
Click to expand...

Yes I can can understand your point. But my point is different: the price difference is getting that big that in same cases it will be actually cheaper, a least for IMacs to buy them in States and take care by yourself to import them to Europe. And I am sure that is something which Apple can do cheaper as they operate on much bigger scale.

Note also that if I am not mistaken Apple has a single European center in in Irleland/Cork and acutully all machines are shipped from there. And all offices for all countries are located there (hotlines,internet shops).
 
My iMac in Portugal- 1500€

My iMac in USA - $1500


1€ = $1.466

So, my Mac costed me around $2200 US Dollars which is almost the price of the flagship iMac.

This sucks a lot!!
 
PMR said:
My iMac in Portugal- 1500€

My iMac in USA - $1500


1€ = $1.466

So, my Mac costed me around $2200 US Dollars which is almost the price of the flagship iMac.

This sucks a lot!!
Click to expand...
Value Added Tax in Portugal is 21% isn't it?
 
Be happy to live in Switzerland. It is the least expensive country for devices because of their low VAT. I used to live there some time ago and now I am in Sweden. And all of a sudden I find Germany very cheap...
And yes, this discussion is very old. But if you want to be really shocked you better compare the english version of Adobe software with the english version sold in europe. THAT is a rip-off in my eyes.
 
Yuppi said:
And yes, this discussion is very old.
Click to expand...

One more time this disussion is not very old - The value of USD to CHF/EURO is dropping and is it setting new historical records. Dollar was never so cheap! And prices for Macs has been set few years ago in completely different economical situation when exchange ratio was very different.
That's why for example Air Bus is in troubles - their production cost is in Euros and they sell in Dollars. Every time dollars looses 5 euro cents it means for them 1 billion euro lost. That's why they started to talk to moving their production outside of Euro Zone. And it become that big issue only recently. But for Apple situation is exactly reversed!! So I supposed that they are making big benefits if they sell their stuff in most of other currencies then USD.
 
You guys must know the reason!

Isn't it obvious, were paying for the privalige of El Jobso!

You can't think Apple would actually expect Americans to actually have to pay a fair price for anything do you? Of course not, so they make the rest of the world make up for it, but screwing us over with the exorbitant prices.

Even with VAT considered, in the UK we are paying $500 more for the stock Mac Pro. You poor buggers in Portugal with 21% VAT.

The will come a time when Apple has to adjust it's prices or it will lose business. Unfortunately it will be at some rediculous point when the $ is even more worthless than it already is.

Oh Apple is making huge profirs at the minute, the Processor chips have halved in price over 12 months, yet Apple are still charging the same amount for the final products, with everything else - RAM and HD - also being so much cheaper now, they are making almost 100% more profit on iMacs and Mac Pro than they were 12 months ago, also we seemed to get charged that extra special Apple Tax for not living in the US.
 
mma said:
Note also that if I am not mistaken Apple has a single European center in in Irleland/Cork and acutully all machines are shipped from there. And all offices for all countries are located there (hotlines,internet shops).
Click to expand...

not really. i think they also heave some centers across europe since it wouldn't make sense to have a shipping center on an island ;)

i remember my BTO mac mini went directly from rotterdam to me and the keyboard came to me from czech republic
 
G4DP said:
Oh Apple is making huge profirs at the minute, the Processor chips have halved in price over 12 months, yet Apple are still charging the same amount for the final products, with everything else - RAM and HD - also being so much cheaper now, they are making almost 100% more profit on iMacs and Mac Pro than they were 12 months ago, also we seemed to get charged that extra special Apple Tax for not living in the US.
Click to expand...

This is all completely true, but don't expect much agreement. No matter how clear as day the evidence is, you'll still be bleated out by the "Apple is just; Apple is fair!" crowd.
 
The USA has no VAT, nor any national sales tax, but most (not all) states in the US have a Sales Tax, which is a consumption tax, a sort of value-added tax. It's typically between 4% - 7% and is charged at the point of sale. If you buy something from a store in a different state, such as online shopping, that vendor isn't usually subject to the laws of a different state and doesn't have to collect the tax. If that vendor has a retail presence in that state, then they do have to charge the tax. Online purchases from the Apple Store do include sales tax for the purchaser's home state in most cases because Apple has so many retail outlets around the country. If I physically go to the B&H Photo store in New York to buy a Mac, I'd have to pay New York sales tax. BUT, if I order that same computer from them online from my home state, the sales tax isn't charged. That has saved me over $1000 on Mac purchases over the last 6 months (MacPro, ACD30x2, MBP), not to mention sales tax on many, many photography purchases over the last few years. Technically, I'm supposed to declare those purchases and pay my home state the 6.5% sales/use tax, but there is no practical way to enforce that law in this state (and most others) for non-business consumers and so it isn't enforced. Saving that 6.5% is the reason I usually buy this kind of stuff online rather than walking into the store to buy it. Even if the MSRP is the same from B&H as it is from the Apple Store, as Apple computers are, I still save the 6.5%.
 
G4DP said:
Oh Apple is making huge profirs at the minute, the Processor chips have halved
in price over 12 months, yet Apple are still charging the same amount for the final
products, with everything else - RAM and HD - also being so much cheaper now...
Click to expand...
All very true, but Apple's goal is to sell products at the highest price the traffic will
bear. "Passing the savings on to you" is not considered a high priority in Cupertino.

Just curious: Have Dell, HP, and other PC suppliers adjusted their prices downwards in
step with the plunging value of the once-mighty US dollar? If not, neither will Apple.

...nothin' personal, eurodudes -- it's just bidness,

LK
 
The prices overseas have always been marked-up. It has nothing to do with the dollar devaluation.
 
They only speak one language in the US (English), whereas in Europe there are 23 official EU Languages:

http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/lang/languages/index_en.html said:
български (Bălgarski) - BG - Bulgarian
Čeština - CS - Czech
Dansk - DA - Danish
Deutsch - DE - German
Eesti - ET - Estonian
Elinika - EL - Greek
English - EN
Español - ES - Spanish
Français - FR - French
Gaeilge - GA - Irish
Italiano - IT - Italian
Latviesu valoda - LV - Latvian
Lietuviu kalba - LT - Lithuanian
Magyar - HU - Hungarian
Malti - MT - Maltese
Nederlands - NL - Dutch
Polski - PL - Polish
Português - PT - Portuguese
Română - RO - Romanian
Slovenčina - SK - Slovak
Slovenščina - SL - Slovene
Suomi - FI - Finnish
Svenska - SV - Swedish
Click to expand...

All of which probably have to be supported by Apple, and this requires a fair bit of extra work. Also many languages have different accents, and require different keyboard layouts which is also expensive to support.

Macs have come down in price in the EU though, my Macbook which I bought in 2005 cost £899, and the mid range model now is £829, which is a fair drop.
 
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