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Why Is Apple Australia So Expensive?
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.
9 comments
Gz
But we have an online trader we buy our Mac's from and he's always cheaper, faster and has a full warranty service.
Sure beats going to the Glass House :)
Gz
pay here in aus $629 for a 32gb Itouch and then you
have to pay for a software update. Dont get me wrong
i like apple but its about time consumers voted with
their wallets, well credit cards. dont buy it and
see the price come down. shareholders want people
to buy thats how they make their money.
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© Wow Factor 2008
Although I have to say Apple itself are one of the few companies that do charge about the same in the US and Canada, or in some cases less. I bought a friend an ipod touch in Toronto from a chain store for $350, the same ipod in the same chain in the US is $400.