Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

iPhone 12 Pro so costly in India, you can fly to Dubai to buy it and save money

indiatoday.in

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 259 posts

Re: iPhone 12 Pro so costly in India, you can fly to Dubai to buy it and save money

#231

Post by smabie »

frutiger wrote: post #227
smabie wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

illegal doesn't mean very much when customs is about shaking you down, stealing your stuff, and making you pay bribes. Every time I've traveled to Africa for example, I've had to give customs officers some stuff and money. It got so bad that I was buying Bluetooth speakers and duty free gin just for them.

What’s the lesson here? That when the rule of law is weak we should all steal what we can?

Unless you are willing to get arrested or beat up, or worse, for your beliefs, then yes.

If you are not willing to play the game, you will not just be systematically disadvantaged, you will be crushed.

In such a situation, you play the game. You play it because you have no choice.

I've been kidnapped by the police, I've bribed perhaps dozens or even hundreds of people. I've paid off government officials, I've gotten offers to kill my enemies (haven't crossed that line fortunately), etc etc. When the inmates run the asylum, you have no choice in becoming crazy.

Re: iPhone 12 Pro so costly in India, you can fly to Dubai to buy it and save money

#232

Post by hannofcart »

908B64B197 wrote: post #209
hannofcart wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt that the taxes from import of electronics is significant enough for it to be a 'great deal' for the Indian Government. I think their intended purpose is to promote/protect local manufacturing.

I get the protectionist aspect, but are they re-investing the money from this tax to make manufacturing desirable in the country? We're talking logistics improvement, stable electric grid, infrastructure and training programs to get an educated workforce. Or is it just contributing to some bureaucrat's pension fund? In the same vein, I 100% agree with fuel taxes and green taxes... if the government can demonstrate 10…

To be clear, I was just pointing out what the intention behind the taxes were.

I was not voicing an opinion on whether such protectionist policies actually work. (They seldom do).

Re: iPhone 12 Pro so costly in India, you can fly to Dubai to buy it and save money

#233

Post by hannofcart »

fomine3 wrote: post #226
908B64B197 wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get the protectionist aspect, but are they re-investing the money from this tax to make manufacturing desirable in the country? We're talking logistics improvement, stable electric grid, infrastructure and training programs to get an educated workforce. Or is it just contributing to some bureaucrat's pension fund? In the same vein, I 100% agree with fuel taxes and green taxes... if the government can demonstrate 10…

Anyway India market is huge so big corps want to sell products. Apple ordered ODMs to build factory in India. The tax works.

So does this mean that presumably, going forward, when the factory starts working at full capacity, the taxes imposed will be lower, and hence Apple products will be cheaper in India?

Re: iPhone 12 Pro so costly in India, you can fly to Dubai to buy it and save money

#234

Post by ksec »

quaffapint wrote: post #113
acwan93 wrote: post #92

On a much smaller scale, this is achieved in the US by going to a no sales tax state like Oregon or Delaware. With the sales tax in Los Angeles at 10.25%, I’ve ended up queuing up large purchases together, buying a round trip ticket to Portland ($200-300) and hitting up the Apple Store, Target, Best Buy there. And get a free trip to Portland! I’ve read the Christiana Mall in Delaware is especially popular for people…

People will actually fly in from China to go to that mall in Delaware and buy cases of phones. They used to pay local college kids to go get them (because there was a limit), but then the store just got rid of the middle man and allowed them to buy in bulk.

Yes. But Is this still happening though. Apple has lowered iPhone prices in China, so that if you exclude any sales tax and import tax, China now has the cheapest iPhone 12. ( Or Apple is making less money per iPhone sold in China )

Part of the reason why Apple is protecting its Services Revenue.

Re: iPhone 12 Pro so costly in India, you can fly to Dubai to buy it and save money

#235

Post by frutiger »

smabie wrote: post #231
frutiger wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s the lesson here? That when the rule of law is weak we should all steal what we can?

Unless you are willing to get arrested or beat up, or worse, for your beliefs, then yes. If you are not willing to play the game, you will not just be systematically disadvantaged, you will be crushed. In such a situation, you play the game. You play it because you have no choice. I've been kidnapped by the police, I've bribed perhaps dozens or even hundreds of people. I've paid off government officials, I've gotten…

You are very woke. Carry on.

Re: iPhone 12 Pro so costly in India, you can fly to Dubai to buy it and save money

#236

Post by ericmay »

torgian wrote: post #229
ericmay wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But wouldn't you be sudamericano? America isn't a continent. We have North America and South America. We typically refer to the grouping of those two continents as 'The Americas', but not America. At least not that I've ever seen. On a side note - maybe it depends on if you are taught a different number of continents? ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent ) In the U.S. we do 7. Maybe in Venezuela or Brasil they d…

In East Asia, but especially in Taiwan, Japan and China, people from the USA are usually called American. Normally, when asked, I state I’m from California or the US. I think it’s just a language thing here. It’s easier to say America than it is to say USA or United States. I’m sure Canadians and others get quite annoyed from that.

I usually say the same. I’m from X or I’m from the United States.

If you’re Canadian you’d say I’m from North America, not America. If you’re from Brazil you’d say you’re from South America. The same would be true of Americans. You’d say you’re from North America. That’s the continent. If you are going to go down that route.

Do Mexicans, Canadians, Brazilians, and others really consider themselves of the region of the Americas and not from one of the two continents? I just don’t get the organizational structure that’s used. You wouldn’t say you’re American, that’s for sure. You’d say you’re north or South American.

Re: iPhone 12 Pro so costly in India, you can fly to Dubai to buy it and save money

#237

Post by aranelsurion »

Marciplan wrote: post #224
aranelsurion wrote: post #223

This one hits me close to home, it was the same way back then in Turkey. To describe how bad it is: Recently a popular politican tweeted Playstation 5 costs 8299₺ in Turkey, which is more expensive than booking a flight to Bulgaria, having a modest stay and buying Playstation there. This is a country where minimum wage is 2300₺ ($290) and around half the country is being paid that amount. iPhone 12 Pro? Base model ru…

From what I can see online the Turkish and USD prices are quite similar?

I'm sorry, which one do you mean? If iPhone:

iPhone 12 Pro 128GB (base) model is $999 in USA, rumored to be 15000₺ ($1900) in Turkey.

iPhone 11 Pro 64GB doesn't seem to be offered in USA anymore (by Apple or Amazon), it's $1410 in Turkey.

iPhone 11 64GB is $599 in USA, $929 in Turkey.

Turkish prices gathered from Hepsiburada.com, one of the largest retailers in Turkey.

All in all it seems like there's 1.5x to 2x price difference depending on the model.

Trivia: There's also a government-enforced IMEI blocking scheme there, to prevent people from evading the taxes by buying it somewhere else.

Re: iPhone 12 Pro so costly in India, you can fly to Dubai to buy it and save money

#238

Post by ericol »

Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #128
ericol wrote: post #124

Dude. Hold my beer. In Argentina, pre pandemic there were people that actually went shopping to Miami, because getting anything Apple - be it an iPhone or a laptop - was cheaper that way. The iPhone 12 is not for sale here, but let's use the iPhone 11 as an example. In the only "official" store I could find it [0], the price is 184.299 pesos (yes, 184 thousand). If you check the "official" US dolar rate [1] it is aro…

I have often heard the anecdote of Argentinians flying to North America for shopping. But why is Chile not used for these purposes? Chile doesn’t have the import-substitution policies of Argentina, and in my visits to Chile I didn't feel that the country was not significantly more expensive than the USA.

AS pradn stated, there was as well "shopping turism" going to Chile. Actually I just did a cursory search, and there was something posted an hour ago [0] about this.

[0] https://www.infobae.com/economia/2020/10/23/compras-en-chile...

Re: iPhone 12 Pro so costly in India, you can fly to Dubai to buy it and save money

#239

Post by ericol »

bigdollopenergy wrote: post #146
ericol wrote: post #124

Dude. Hold my beer. In Argentina, pre pandemic there were people that actually went shopping to Miami, because getting anything Apple - be it an iPhone or a laptop - was cheaper that way. The iPhone 12 is not for sale here, but let's use the iPhone 11 as an example. In the only "official" store I could find it [0], the price is 184.299 pesos (yes, 184 thousand). If you check the "official" US dolar rate [1] it is aro…

Does this tax work actually work? Surely the amount of people who actually pay the tax is near 0 and they'd get far more tax revenue from a lower tax rate right? I'd actually bet that this tax in particular not only doesn't raise money, but is a net-negative tax-wise as you're forcing people to spend their incomes on flights/hotels out of the country they otherwise wouldn't and they probably buy other things on their…

I think taxes are utterly broken in this country. For starters this one "supposedly" is a tax for a special group of people (That is, those that for whatever reason spend money in foreign countries) but the reality is that a large group of Argentinians do shop outside of the country.

Besides that there's a huge discussions since a lot of years ago, because the amount of money you have to earn in order to start paying taxes is rather low, and they don't get updated often. Add to that inflation and the end result is a lot of people paying a lot of taxes (And the government being very lazy catching up updating those taxes).

Re: iPhone 12 Pro so costly in India, you can fly to Dubai to buy it and save money

#240

Post by FR10 »

ericmay wrote: post #213
MaurizioPz wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well I for one (born in Venezuela and moved to Italy) used to be mildly annoyed when italians used the term "americano" to refer people from USA, and used to tell them "I'm also american". In Venezuela I used "estadounidense" [1] and in italian it would be "statunintense" the proper form, but almost nobody uses it. Now I'm used to it and don't mind it anymore and this is the first time I've heard of the term USAian a…

But wouldn't you be sudamericano? America isn't a continent. We have North America and South America. We typically refer to the grouping of those two continents as 'The Americas', but not America. At least not that I've ever seen. On a side note - maybe it depends on if you are taught a different number of continents? ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent ) In the U.S. we do 7. Maybe in Venezuela or Brasil they d…

Yes, in my Latam country they taught us there were 5 continents: America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania. However, we call ourselves latinos or something else, really.
Post reply on HN