iPod Touch – pointless garbage
Posted by: David on: 5 Nov 2007
No, not the iPod Touch itself – its on my gadget list. No, having spent a few moments going round the world’s Apple stores (online) it appears that some countries are more of a rip off than others. Now I appreciated that it depends on how strong the currency is, so my conversions are done by taking the local price and converting to USD using xe.com:
iPod Touch 16GB, Apple Store Website
US = 400 USD (not incl. tax)
UK = 560 USD
France = 592 USD
Australia = 504 USD
Germany = 577 USD
Hong Kong = 412 USD
Singapore = 481 USD
Taiwan = 442 USD
Denmark = 582 USD
Czech Republic = 686 USD
Assuming you’d claim back the tax if you went on a trip to US then its around the cheapest. Inclusive of sales tax then off to Hong Kong it is. One place, for sure, I would not be buying it is here in Czech Republic. Yes, the beer is cheap, but if it wasn’t there really would be rioting in the streets.
So what was the point of doing this? (I have now found two points to this, so this post is no longer “pointless garbage” it was originally):
1. People in UK are not living in a “rip off” country like they think they are, its more like a somewhere-in-the-middle-of-the-list country with regards to being ripped off.
2. Those in the US that they can listen to their iPods with the satisfaction that everyone else is paying a huge bundle more for the same device. Does it deter the rest of us? No…but 286 USD more…argh!
3. If you travel with an iPod Touch then treat it with loving care and don’t lose lose it. You might find yourself having to part with bigger bundles of cash to replace it.
6 Responses to "iPod Touch – pointless garbage"
6 Nov 2007 at 15:10
There’d likely be an even bigger discrepancy if you also took into account the relative cost expressed as a portion of an average person’s income. In other words, is $400 for a US resident the same relative chunk of disposable income that $400 is for someone who lives elsewhere?
Ugh. And companies like Apple are just fueling this gap. Though I love Apple, don’t get me wrong, but hello, a little more democracy here would be nice and not so flagrantly US-centric.
Couldn’t agree more, these pricings obviously do not take into account the the relative chunk of disposable income for each of those countries. Certainly in Czech Republic the price we’d pay for such a device is at least a third of monthly net income. Ouch.
[...] Original post by david [...]
Leave a Reply
Site Stuff
5 Nov 2007 at 15:36
very good point!
i came to the same conclusion, so i took steps:
going to NYC last week of November, i will buy few of them and sell them here. will have mine for Free!
can’t do better.