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

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

vaghetti.dev

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 141 posts

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

#31

Post by lordnacho »

stavros wrote: post #20
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?

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 not in the economic sense of who would have the extra money if there were no tax.

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

#32

Post by tomxor »

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…

^this

In most countries Apple's market is the top 1%

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

#34

Post by vrdmn »

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…

> 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.

They can most likely see analytics on which country is using how many of their devices. Where the device was bought would be just one metric. Where the device is being mostly used would be the more important metric here.

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

#35

Post by dan-robertson »

tomxor wrote: post #32
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…

^this In most countries Apple's market is the top 1%

This sentence looks plausible, but easy to misinterpret by reading it incorrectly. For example, I think most Apple device users are middle-income Americans or middle-high income people from other developed countries.

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

#36

Post by stavros »

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…

My dad had the same reaction when I told him that we'd pay the extra credit card fees. He said "the merchant pays those" and didn't seem to get my "where do you think the merchant gets the money from?" reply.

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

#39

Post by afiori »

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…

the purpose of well-thought tariffs is tho incentivize local markets and production, that is how South Korean and Japanese car companies were able to exists.

The two cases where it is almost unconditionally stupid is if there is no chance to develop or grow a local market or if you are reliant on those same countries for your own export (they are most likely going to tariff your products back)

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

#40

Post by MaxikCZ »

windex wrote: post #29

Some parts of this price ecosystem would have looked different if Samsung had decided to straighten up their act and not shovel out crapware, adware, and nagware with their so called "Updates" for their lower end phones. It's a lost opportunity for Samsung. Apple gets to do this because their devices seem safer, easier, and faster to use right now.

I bought samsung earbuds. They worked flawlessly.

From time to time, a software update comes. Every single time I look into change log only to read "Improved stability and security".

Few updates ago, when I took out my buds, only one was playing. Till today I need to disconnect and connect my buds to make them both work.

If only they would just leave the things as they were, or gave me option to rollback.. So much for "Improved stability and security" I guess. I'll never buy a Samsung headphones again.

Post reply on HN