Apple price scam in the UK

[The Space Cowboy]

Ah fair nuff then cos i was a lil shocked at that ;x Still tho at the diff ;/

[MikeRox]

aye as much as I don't like apple overcharging, they hardly started the trend. Other than books, wtf can u get cheaper over here compared with US? (excluding things like Cadbury Dairy Milk, which'll set u back like $2-3 in the states coz they're imported )

[gossi the dog]

In addition to VAT all computers imported into the EU are taxed. So unless Apple decide to manufacture them within the EU they'll have to pay this levy. If they do manufacture within the EU chances are they'll have to pay higher wages and have higher costs due to less flexible labour practices. Other reasons are a weak dollar and the fact that relatively speaking things are generally more expensive over here.

[Super Stu]

Hmm. I just made equivalent Dell Inspiron 9200 notebooks, US/UK. Same spec Centrino 1.6ghz yadda.

$1495
?1245



Great for importing, **** for buying at home :/

[Crossed fingers]

It's called price discrimination, they mark up the price for reasons other than costs. They do it because people in the u.k are willing to pay higher prices, and its difficult to import it from places such as America

Our petrol is higher than most places in the world because of taxes in various forms

[Super Stu]

But petrol is comparable across Europe, as are other bits and bobs.

[electric_warrior]

They just change the $ sign for a ? sign when it comes to guitars, it's infuriating seeing how much better a guitar you could get if you lived over there. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[demon9k]

One of my mates is always complaining about guitar prices in this country, I just tell him to forget about it and just save up

[Leon Retro]

In this world each country pays different prices for things.

If you look at cars, one country like Albania will pay ?7000 for a car which costs ?12000 in the UK. I don't know why different countries should get the same item at a different price?

Is there anything in the U.K that is cheaper than in Europe or America?

I have seen many shocking reports which show that the U.K does get ripped off big time, I have no idea why though.

British people are taken advange of imo, I won't analyse why we accept it, but we do.

[Super Stu]

GDP Capita 2002:

Albania $4400
UK $26k
US $36k

That explains cheap Albanian cars, anyway. Heh.

[Leon Retro]

I can't remember what make the car was, could of been a Mondeo. We pay many thousands pounds more in Britain.

If Albanian's average income is 4400 a year, that doesn't mean that just because the British get 3 times as much they should pay double for a car.

If everything was like this, it wouldn't matter if we got more income.

Does anyone know why we pay more, and how the companies get away with it.

Rip off Britain; thats a term I have heard a lot over the years.

[Super Stu]

Companies surely charge what the market supports. How many folk are rushing out to buy expensive PStwo bundles? From all accounts, they appear to be selling well.

Said Albanians could never afford to pay, say, ~?15k (~$30k) for a TDi Mondeo, so perhaps Ford elect to make less profit there in order to foster a market. Certainly we as gamers should understand that business model, as it mirrors console hardware.

Perhaps GDP / Capita was a poor statistic to call upon (I'm no economist), it probably unfairly takes into account the immense wealth that America is capable of generating. I suspect average income would be a more accurate reflection of money distribution. I gather the UK average is, what, ~?20k? That's higher than the US GDP/Capita for starters.

Still, we can waffle all we want; as you say, we accept these prices and things are probably too far entrenched to ever change. Surely if prices were suddenly brought in line with other countries we'd see a big increase in public spending and inflation would have to go up (I gather that's how it works?)

[gossi the dog]

Learnt this for an exam: A monoplists ability to extract consumer surplus is directly related to it's ability to price discriminate. So yeah they're price discriminating according to where people live. Can you blame them though?

[mid]

Apple UK just recently reduced almost across the board. Everything has gone down apart from iPods, which they didn't reduce because they're already selling as fast as they make them. The Powerbooks are down about ?100 each.

edit - to take the 17", the US charge $2799, which is ?1479 today, while the UK charge ?1616 + VAT now. So it's still more expensive, but not as bad.

[Lebowski]

where did all the mac haters come from teh be honest you could say we get ripped off on a lot of things seems a bit unfair to single one company out.