wow factor

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.
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