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

Apple stopped sales in Turkey after the lira crashed 15% in a day

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 251 posts

Re: Apple stopped sales in Turkey after the lira crashed 15% in a day

#151

Post by AdamJacobMuller »

geoduck14 wrote: post #137
mrtksn wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The USD$ went from 9.50 to 12.50 in a month and I believe the last adjustment they did was at 8.5. Apple had 2 days of no online sales but the sales in the shops continued until the inventory depleted. I was also going to grab a Macbook Pro when the price dropped below the US price but I wasn't decisive enough and missed the opportunity. I bet a lot of people bought MacBooks just to re-sell. An interesting detail, in…

>Turkey even pioneered the IMEI registration process where you can't use foreign device for longer than a few month in Turkey. This is a cool fact!

I remember the process of getting a SIM in turkey was super annoying.

I had to physically go to a store where they needed BOTH of our passports and a second form of ID (so had to go back to the hotel and return with my traveling companion) and a decent 30 minute process of entering our information into databases and making copies of IDs. Compare that to most countries where I can either trivially pop into a local store and pick up a prepaid sim in a few minutes, or, for most of my travel I can have them shipped to me at home in advance so I can land in country with a local sim.

Istanbul was worth it though.

Re: Apple stopped sales in Turkey after the lira crashed 15% in a day

#152

Post by crate_barre »

rsj_hn wrote: post #131
mysecretaccount wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The value of the foreign assets seized by Venezuela far exceeds the value of Venezuelan foreign holdings seized in response. This sounds wrong. Do you have a source?

Why does it sound wrong? Just off the top of my head (not an exhaustive list), Venezuela was ordered to pay $1.6 Billion to compensate Exxon in 2007[1] (and that doesn't include Conoco-Phillips or other oil and gas companies). Of course that payment was never made, as Venezuela paid only $255 million. But that's just one case. Solely in Oil and Gas, Venezuela nationalized $30 Billion worth of investment in 2007, and…

Why is Venezuela using the dollar? Why’s it trying to use Bitcoin now? I don’t think they have a clue what to do, might be the simplest explanation.

Re: Apple stopped sales in Turkey after the lira crashed 15% in a day

#153

Post by mrighele »

mrtksn wrote: post #150
mrighele wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The parent was probably talking about not that single statue, but a whole theme park dedicated to dinosaurs, which costed 750M dollars, and opened only for a few months (1). But a bigger (albeit cheaper) wtf in my opinion is a village entirely made of castle-like houses (2) (1) https://www.duvarenglish.com/domestic/2020/06/25/ankara-them... (2) https://www.insider.com/turkey-abandoned-disney-castles-vill...

To be fair, the hilarious castle-like houses village is a private investment :)

You're right, I wasn't thinking about public sector only.

Re: Apple stopped sales in Turkey after the lira crashed 15% in a day

#154

Post by rsj_hn »

crate_barre wrote: post #152
rsj_hn wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does it sound wrong? Just off the top of my head (not an exhaustive list), Venezuela was ordered to pay $1.6 Billion to compensate Exxon in 2007[1] (and that doesn't include Conoco-Phillips or other oil and gas companies). Of course that payment was never made, as Venezuela paid only $255 million. But that's just one case. Solely in Oil and Gas, Venezuela nationalized $30 Billion worth of investment in 2007, and…

Why is Venezuela using the dollar? Why’s it trying to use Bitcoin now? I don’t think they have a clue what to do, might be the simplest explanation.

The dollar holdings that were seized were used by Venezuela for purpose of purchasing imports and also funds squirreled away by various government officials. My assumption is that it was the latter that was the main motivation as the U.S. is trying to squeeze the government. This is similar to freezing assets of certain Russian officials.

Venezuela has shifted to a semi-barter system sending oil to Cuba in exchange for doctors and military personnel/secret police who can fight the domestic rebels - even the enforcement of authoritarianism is being outsourced to more competent nations.

Venezuela is a poster boy for technical incompetence - a warning lesson to any nation that thinks they can eliminate their professional and managerial classes while still remaining a functional society. This should serve as a warning sign to many (myself included) who think the PMC class is the heart of our current troubles.

Cuba, on the other hand, still maintains technical expertise in several areas. They still have a functioning medical/biotech/military complex, at least when it comes to small arms and intelligence. They can still provide electricity, roads, schools, and they are not starving, either.

Yet Cuba has been the subject of much greater boycotts than Venezuela, so it really does boil down to human capital and effective administration. Cuba still has some, but Venezuela no longer does. I think understanding this difference is very important.

Re: Apple stopped sales in Turkey after the lira crashed 15% in a day

#155

Post by mrtksn »

AdamJacobMuller wrote: post #151
geoduck14 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Turkey even pioneered the IMEI registration process where you can't use foreign device for longer than a few month in Turkey. This is a cool fact!

I remember the process of getting a SIM in turkey was super annoying. I had to physically go to a store where they needed BOTH of our passports and a second form of ID (so had to go back to the hotel and return with my traveling companion) and a decent 30 minute process of entering our information into databases and making copies of IDs. Compare that to most countries where I can either trivially pop into a local sto…

Devices, SIM cards and identities must be matched in Turkey, so that nobody does anything naughty. They also make the service providers keep tower signal logs worth of many years, so it's common to prove your whereabouts in courts by requesting these logs.

On the plus side, you can see and manage all your data from the government portal. It's rather convenient to be able to see all the subscriptions(GSM, TV and so on) on your name and cancel them from there if you wish. Totalitarian control has its perks.

Re: Apple stopped sales in Turkey after the lira crashed 15% in a day

#156

Post by bellyfullofbac »

Aperocky wrote: post #120
Zenst wrote: post #27

Question is - if/when the lira rises 15% (#1), will Apple respond as timely to adjust prices cheaper? Mindful that companies are quick to point to a reason to increase prices yet when that same reason goes the other way, not so quick (if ever) to adjust down. Is Black Friday sales a thing in Turkey? As can imagine many who would of banked to buy then, only to get hit with the polar opposite in this instance. #1 - (ma…

> if/when the lira rises 15% Turkey currently have negative forex, it won't happen. A fiat currency that have lost all market confidence, it's not going anywhere but down.

During the Asian economic crash from 1998s, things like PC parts were priced in USD, and to get the local price, the shopkeeper would multiply the day's USD rate with the gadget's price, and show you the price on her calculator... but 2 decades later the currencies of the region have stabilized enough that this is no longer the case.

Re: Apple stopped sales in Turkey after the lira crashed 15% in a day

#157

Post by throw3849 »

AdamJacobMuller wrote: post #151
geoduck14 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Turkey even pioneered the IMEI registration process where you can't use foreign device for longer than a few month in Turkey. This is a cool fact!

I remember the process of getting a SIM in turkey was super annoying. I had to physically go to a store where they needed BOTH of our passports and a second form of ID (so had to go back to the hotel and return with my traveling companion) and a decent 30 minute process of entering our information into databases and making copies of IDs. Compare that to most countries where I can either trivially pop into a local sto…

You have to buy sim at airport, there is an exception from this registration, it is easy.

Re: Apple stopped sales in Turkey after the lira crashed 15% in a day

#158

Post by ryanlol »

WanderPanda wrote: post #110
ryanlol wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Turkey is anything like eastern Europe, I’d be pretty confident that the people buying Apple stuff don’t have their salaries or bank accounts denominated in Lira. For example in Ukraine anything that matters is priced in USD

Even wages?

In countries where you can’t trust the local currency, this is normal, yeah. You wouldn’t want your work suddenly devalued by 15%

Re: Apple stopped sales in Turkey after the lira crashed 15% in a day

#159

Post by bellyfullofbac »

jeffbee wrote: post #6

The Turkish lira has been plunging vs. the US dollar for 14 years straight. It has fallen by 90% in dollar terms. All foreign retailers must be constantly readjusting prices, right?

After a while, prices will just be in USD and the local price depends on the day's USD rate: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29363260

Similar to this, in non-Euro Romania, apartment rent prices are given in Euro...

Re: Apple stopped sales in Turkey after the lira crashed 15% in a day

#160

Post by stjohnswarts »

AdamJacobMuller wrote: post #151
geoduck14 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Turkey even pioneered the IMEI registration process where you can't use foreign device for longer than a few month in Turkey. This is a cool fact!

I remember the process of getting a SIM in turkey was super annoying. I had to physically go to a store where they needed BOTH of our passports and a second form of ID (so had to go back to the hotel and return with my traveling companion) and a decent 30 minute process of entering our information into databases and making copies of IDs. Compare that to most countries where I can either trivially pop into a local sto…

I definitely like using turkey as an example of how quickly a relatively healthy democracy can turn into an opressive theocratic regime when pointing out how close the USA became a similar nation just this past year and warning friends to not be complacent in upcoming election cycles.
Post reply on HN