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

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

#81

Post by pcardoso »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #68
ZYinMD wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the same when you try to buy a house in the US and you have to pay a realtor to represent you, who takes 3% of sell price as commission. You'd then bargain "I already found the house myself, I just need you to draft the offer, can you do it for less", and they'll reply "no, but don't worry, you only pay for the house, and our commission is paid by the seller".

The way houses in the US are sold looks insane from outside. When I last sold a house in the UK I paid the estate agent 1.5%, there were no buyers fees.

I sold my house without any agents in Portugal. They are common and people use their services frequently, but I figured I could do it by myself and pocket the fees.

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

#82

Post by tpmx »

MthN wrote: post #79
wtmt wrote: post #13

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…

cost from apple.com/uk/in/us store macbook air US - $999 India - ₹92,900 ≅ $1,213 India(without GST) = ₹78,728 ≅ $1027 UK - £999 ≅ $1316 UK(without VAT) - £832.5 ≅ $1,096 iPhone 13 US - $799 India - ₹79,900 ≅ $1,043 India(without GST) - ₹67,711 ≅ $884 UK - £779 ≅ $1,025 UK(without VAT) - £649 ≅ $854

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/cons-products/...

With effect from April 1, 2021, BCD on import of printed circuit board assembly (PCBA), camera modules and connectors will be raised to 2.5%. For PCBA and moulded plastic for manufacture of charger or adapter, duty will go up from existing 10% to 15%. Whereas, other inputs and parts of chargers will attract 10% duty.

Completely built-up units (CBUs) of battery chargers attract 15-20% customs duty while handsets attract 22.5%. Certain sub-assemblies of phones such as display panels, printed circuit boards, mechanics and die cut parts are also liable for 10% duty to encourage greater value addition in India.

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

#83

Post by gambiting »

laurencerowe wrote: post #43
gnicholas wrote: post #18

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 t…

I don't think better warranties explain it. In Europe where 2 year warranties are mandated UK prices for a MacBook Pro 14 base model (after excluding 20% VAT) are only 3.6% higher than the US price while German prices (after excluding 19% VAT) are 14% lower at current exchange rates. The Brazilian cash price (10% less than the headline price which includes financing on the Apple store) seems to be 25% higher than the…

>> In Europe where 2 year warranties are mandated UK prices for a MacBook Pro 14 base model

In UK all Apple products come with a 1 year warranty. Yes the consumer rights act gives you the right to have a product repaired or replaced(by the seller) if it becomes faulty due to manufacturing defects in 2 years after purchase....but after the initial 6 months it's the consumer who has to demonstrate that the fault is a result of manufacturing defect. If you can't demonstrate that then the seller doesn't have to repair your product.

It's absolutely not the same as a warranty.

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

#84

Post by bigDinosaur »

gambiting wrote: post #83
laurencerowe wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think better warranties explain it. In Europe where 2 year warranties are mandated UK prices for a MacBook Pro 14 base model (after excluding 20% VAT) are only 3.6% higher than the US price while German prices (after excluding 19% VAT) are 14% lower at current exchange rates. The Brazilian cash price (10% less than the headline price which includes financing on the Apple store) seems to be 25% higher than the…

>> In Europe where 2 year warranties are mandated UK prices for a MacBook Pro 14 base model In UK all Apple products come with a 1 year warranty. Yes the consumer rights act gives you the right to have a product repaired or replaced(by the seller) if it becomes faulty due to manufacturing defects in 2 years after purchase....but after the initial 6 months it's the consumer who has to demonstrate that the fault is a r…

One must remember that Apple is notorious for refusing to repair certain defects within their one year warranty until the relevant class action or sufficient media coverage occurs, so the extent to which their warranty is a 'real' warranty can be somewhat debated.

Anyway, it's absolutely known as a 'statutory warranty' in places like Australia https://www.apple.com/au/legal/statutory-warranty/au/ and people certainly get things repaired based on an expectation for the lifetime of a product, without having to prove that it was a manufacturing defect.

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

#85

Post by chupasaurus »

pmontra wrote: post #16
dhosek wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 credi…

Russian here. IMO that's the most probable outcome in the short term, and this process started long before recent events.

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

#86

Post by dmurray »

lordnacho wrote: post #31
stavros wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> what made a former president's boasting about raising tariffs somewhat absurd Wow, how does a president think this?

IME this is one of the most common economic misconceptions that people have, to think that the economic cost of a tax is borne by whoever nominally pays it. Most people with no economics background will for example think that it's just companies that pay salary related taxes, or consumers who pay VAT. Those are both true in the accounting sense that the money is paid by those respective parties to the government but…

> Those are both true in the accounting sense that the money is paid by those respective parties to the government

Where do you live that this is true of VAT? Everywhere I know of, the retailer is responsible for paying VAT on the products they sell to consumers.

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

#87

Post by chupasaurus »

2143 wrote: post #69
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

Or maybe the Russians might invent something of their own? They did have those space programs which were a big deal at the time.

If we count China out, the all-Russian phone would be in a suitcase form-factor. The best tech process for chip making in Russia is 110nm, even though 90nm was bought a decade ago.

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

#88

Post by Bilal_io »

dagw wrote: post #74
tonyedgecombe wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm guessing they don't want a situation where a $200 iPhone sold in India doesn't end up back in the US undercutting their $400 model.

I would be ecstatic if I could buy a "$400 iPhone" for only $400. Apple prices tend to be higher, not only in absolute terms, but also relative to their competitors. A Samsung phone that sells for $800 in the US might cost $900, while an Apple phone that sells for $800 in the US will cost over $1000.

The new iphone SE starts at $429.00

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

#89

Post by lordnacho »

dmurray wrote: post #86
lordnacho wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IME this is one of the most common economic misconceptions that people have, to think that the economic cost of a tax is borne by whoever nominally pays it. Most people with no economics background will for example think that it's just companies that pay salary related taxes, or consumers who pay VAT. Those are both true in the accounting sense that the money is paid by those respective parties to the government but…

> Those are both true in the accounting sense that the money is paid by those respective parties to the government Where do you live that this is true of VAT? Everywhere I know of, the retailer is responsible for paying VAT on the products they sell to consumers.

Yes this is true. I thought about this when I wrote it, and the explanation is that as the retailer you just subtract the VAT off your books, and the customer is the one who "paid", all you're doing as the business is counting the money and sending it through to government. So in your accounts you just have this VAT number that appears to be the customer paying the government, but economically it's not quite like that.

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

#90

Post by [deleted] »

low_tech_love wrote: post #24

There is one other important factor that is seldom discussed: inequality. Even being so expensive, they still sell enough to make good profits, because there is enough rich people in Brazil to buy them once a year. Brazil has one of the higher inequalities in the world and while it’s common to say Brazil is poor, the truth is that there is a shitload of very rich people too (it’s more than 200M people after all). I’m…

[deleted]
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