wow factor

I understand online Media sites are edited for clicks. It justifies them getting outfits like Microsoft to advertise IE8 on their front page. However, when they pick a US story from AP and don't identify it a such in their heading, they are playing games.

It's not until you click the story that you find it's under the World News section. The tragedy is not reduced because it occurred in Albuquerque's Alvarado Park, however it's a long way from NSW Australia, the SMH's home State, where close family and friends live. Editorial games like this are not appreciated.

Because they can be.

On the eve of opening the first Apple store in Australia, Stephen Hutcheon asks why Australians pays so much for Apple products.
Apple replies that their price is right.

Despite there being near parity in the $US-$A exchange rates since the start of the year, many Apple products in Australia - including iPods, MacBooks and iMac computers - sell for between 15 and 30-plus per cent more than they do in the US...

The index shows that Australia is the eighth cheapest place in the world to buy an iPod nano, but the US ranks as the second cheapest.

In a random sample of Apple products surveyed, we found one of the smallest products - a set of iPod earphones made in China - had one of the biggest price differences.

In the US, a set of these white headphones sells for $US29. That translates to $31, based on an exchange rate of 94 cents to $US1.

But in Australia, Apple sells the same headphones for $48 - a price difference of more than one-third, or 35 per cent to be exact.

I guess they have to pay for their $13 million glass box somehow.
Australian consumers don't question it, meanwhile corporations like Apple maximise exchange rates hourly and spend fortunes on price tolerance research.

Update: Peter Murphy's fantastic Panorama of the store opening.
View in QuickTime or Flash

SMH illustration by Alan Moir

Today, October 11, 2007, Asher Moses of the SMH rushes to press with...
Revealed: Apple's Sydney shopfront - Technology - smh.com.au

Apple's secretive plans for an official retail store in Sydney - understood to be the first in the southern hemisphere - have been revealed in council documents, which suggest it's unlikely the store will open for business before mid-2008.

Mr Moses either knows how to Google or he's very late to the story.

This was real news back in February...
Sydney and Melbourne Apple store plans thanks to Whirlpool Forums