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I live in the country with the most expensive Apple products on the planet

vaghetti.dev

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Re: I live in the country with the most expensive Apple products on the planet

#11

Post by dhosek »

dylan604 wrote: post #7
teaearlgraycold wrote: post #5

Won't this soon be Russia now that Apple has cut all sales with the country?

Russia will be the new Cuba with phone tech 50 years old instead of cars. Or, they'll just keep supplying from China and not really notice

That assumes that the situation will last 50 years. Cuba has been embargoed by the US for so long because its oligarchs all moved to Florida and Texas and took their money with them and have bought themselves some American democracy with it. My cynical side thinks that the worst case scenario (short of nukes or full-scale WWIII) where Russia essentially annexes Ukraine like China did Tibet will eventually lead to roughly the same consequences for Russia that the Chinese annexation of Tibet did for China.

Re: I live in the country with the most expensive Apple products on the planet

#13

Post by wtmt »

A few comments on this from an Indian perspective. Apple products are quite expensive here too, when compared against U.S. prices (plus sales tax). It may seem as if this is because of customs duties, but that’s not the entire story.

Many companies tend to have geographically differentiated pricing to expand their market and make more money. Even if the prices aren’t completely matching the local currency equivalent (with respect to USD) and local conditions, they would have some compensation applied.

Apple has historically been against differentiated pricing, especially for its hardware. It also focuses heavily on retaining its 35% (approx.) profit margins. Only on a few services has Apple reduced pricing in the recent years in some countries (for example, in India, Apple Arcade, Apple TV+ and Apple Music are priced at nearly one fourth of the U.S. prices, but iCloud is priced the same as in the U.S.).

I’m not saying that all Apple hardware products are sold at the USD price plus local customs duties and taxes in other regions, but almost all of them are. What’s more ridiculous is that the prices don’t go down much even when Apple is assembling products locally and doesn’t have to pay as much in duties (a few iPhone models are assembled in India).

Since Apple has this business model, people in India who do know of someone coming from the U.S. or Dubai or another country/location where these are cheaper ask them to purchase those there and bring them down. There are several “Bring me this from there (BMTFT)” groups on social media to connect people.

For individual travelers the duty free limit (legal) plus duty evasion (not legal) in certain cases offer big incentives not to buy locally. I’m sure there’s plenty of organized smuggling also going on.

Whatever metrics Apple is tracking on sales by country get skewed by this, tilting heavily towards U.S. and other countries and making them seem larger than they are, while also making the countries with typically weaker currencies and higher duties seem as smaller markets than they are. (I know Apple can get country wise usage numbers from its telemetry in iOS, the App Store and other Apple apps)

Re: I live in the country with the most expensive Apple products on the planet

#14

Post by gerikson »

dhosek wrote: post #11
dylan604 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russia will be the new Cuba with phone tech 50 years old instead of cars. Or, they'll just keep supplying from China and not really notice

That assumes that the situation will last 50 years. Cuba has been embargoed by the US for so long because its oligarchs all moved to Florida and Texas and took their money with them and have bought themselves some American democracy with it. My cynical side thinks that the worst case scenario (short of nukes or full-scale WWIII) where Russia essentially annexes Ukraine like China did Tibet will eventually lead to rou…

Except Ukraine has 10x the population of Tibet and a land border with EU countries...

Re: I live in the country with the most expensive Apple products on the planet

#15

Post by laurent92 »

dhosek wrote: post #11
dylan604 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russia will be the new Cuba with phone tech 50 years old instead of cars. Or, they'll just keep supplying from China and not really notice

That assumes that the situation will last 50 years. Cuba has been embargoed by the US for so long because its oligarchs all moved to Florida and Texas and took their money with them and have bought themselves some American democracy with it. My cynical side thinks that the worst case scenario (short of nukes or full-scale WWIII) where Russia essentially annexes Ukraine like China did Tibet will eventually lead to rou…

When industrial partnerships are broken, there is no incentive to go back. No trust either, neither from the two sides, neither from companies to government not to shut down the transaction again at the first whim.

Re: I live in the country with the most expensive Apple products on the planet

#16

Post by pmontra »

dhosek wrote: post #11
dylan604 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russia will be the new Cuba with phone tech 50 years old instead of cars. Or, they'll just keep supplying from China and not really notice

That assumes that the situation will last 50 years. Cuba has been embargoed by the US for so long because its oligarchs all moved to Florida and Texas and took their money with them and have bought themselves some American democracy with it. My cynical side thinks that the worst case scenario (short of nukes or full-scale WWIII) where Russia essentially annexes Ukraine like China did Tibet will eventually lead to rou…

My bet is that once Russia is on a black list for everything China is going to keep Russia on a leash. Buy enough from them in yuan to keep them alive, sell to them to get those yuans back, don't make them so rich to be able to rebuild a really worrisome army. And who'll be in the Cremlin will still rule over all of Russia and be rich and happy.

I'd like to hear from someone in Russia to understand if this is a credible endgame.

Re: I live in the country with the most expensive Apple products on the planet

#17

Post by wtmt »

dylan604 wrote: post #9
vaghetti wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://themacindex.com/variants/MKGT3/macbook-pro-14-inch-m... It can always get worse :)

I was thinking that a $3000+ anything from Apple just doesn't sound mind blowing. Then again, I'm always one to play the game of max everything out on Apple's new thing, and then think about how many other things that could buy. Regional differences apply, but you could easily buy a really decent car for some Apple gear maxed out (think MacPro) or just a daily beater for the price of a maxed out MBP laptop. The fact…

I find the comparison with a car a bit amusing, though I get your point. Usually, a car spends more than 95% of the time parked somewhere, whereas a smartphone or a computer are usually used for at least a few hours everyday. I’m not saying that cars are useless in comparison. It’s just that they’re not even near the same category on what they offer to the user.

Re: I live in the country with the most expensive Apple products on the planet

#18

Post by gnicholas »

I would imagine local laws regarding warranties would also affect pricing. For example, in the US you get one year of warranty, and that's it. In some other countries, there are longer mandatory warranty periods for expensive items. Presumably part of the reason Apple products are more expensive in those countries is that they are on the hook for more warranty service.

Interestingly, this means Apple might not care that foreign tourists snap up Apple products when visiting the US. They might claim that those products don't qualify for the enhanced local warranty when the tourists return to their home countries. /speculation

Re: I live in the country with the most expensive Apple products on the planet

#20

Post by stavros »

dhosek wrote: post #8

Even before I clicked the link, I was sure the answer was Brazil. It's not so much the taxes that raise the prices as the tariffs (which are kind of invisible taxes in that they are paid through higher prices rather than directly—which is part of what made a former president's boasting about raising tariffs somewhat absurd. It seemed he believed that the exporting country paid the price of the tariffs and not domesti…

> what made a former president's boasting about raising tariffs somewhat absurd

Wow, how does a president think this?

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