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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.
Update: Peter Murphy's fantastic Panorama of the store opening.
View in QuickTime or Flash
WOW! What a loveley looking store, the floors from here, the glass is from there and the stainless steel from somewehere else, great but we actually want to look at the goods and have them cheaper and we really don't care about the floor and what its made from ;) Classy looking bulding though don't you think?
Gz
Gz
The building is a statement, that's for sure.
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 :)
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 :)
Comment by Peter Murphy on 21 June 08 @ 16:13
My Gosh ! That's a lot of people waiting to go in. That 360 shot is awesome, love it.
Gz
Gz
You think you have it bad, in Canada we are zero miles away from the US and pay the same kind of mark-up you do on just about everything despite, like you, the Canuck dollar being close to parity with the US.
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.
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.
I'm looking forward to the price tag they will hang on an iPhone in Aus.
Comment by Patrick on 25 July 08 @ 01:48
What is even more intolerable is the fact that you
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.
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.
Comment by Damon Perucich on 21 November 08 @ 01:32
Apple cannot justify their proces, even when the Australian dollar was trading near a ration of 1:1 with the US dollar. Just don't buy them, I certainly will not until it goes down 50 percent in price. Power to the people. You are an idiot if you purchase one before mid to late 2009.
Comment by alano on 20 April 09 @ 15:59
Australia is expensive than USA in all aspects.... particularly in electronics.
a 42" plasma TV in Aus will cost you more than $1300, but in USA its $800.... despite having same amount of land and 20 times less people than USA, Australian homes are 40% more expensive to buy.
All this after Australians are paid LESS than Americans on an average. Although, tradies (plumbers, plasterers etc) get paid very well in Australia, Its just not the place for professionals...... Good for people who are mediocre in nature and don't want to work hard to get the best out of themselves
Comment by juzano on 14 July 09 @ 08:55
Alano is right, Australia in general is a more expensive place to live with the purchasing price of modern retail goods (such as ipod nano) way above other first world countries. Couple that with excessive housing prices in the cities (Sydney, Melbourne, even Perth now...) and poor, highly priced, services (tradesmen cost a mint to hire) and you have a terrible place to live.
I live in Australia and wish to move overseas, but need to work up some qualifications and obtain a working visa.
Do not even think of living in Australia.
It's a hole.
I live in Australia and wish to move overseas, but need to work up some qualifications and obtain a working visa.
Do not even think of living in Australia.
It's a hole.
Man, I thought this was an Apple effort... now it's turned into an Aus bash.
As the girl said to the sailor, if you don't like it, leave!
As the girl said to the sailor, if you don't like it, leave!
Comment by kenneth bailey on 28 July 09 @ 14:43
Apple Products are not the only thing that are more expensive here people. In Australia, prices on EVERYTHING are dam near twice as expensive than in the USA. Rent, Clothing, Food, Electronics etc. You name it. Its way more expensive. You'd think you landed in a country made of gold with the prices the way they are. Ive never seen anything so bassackwards than coming to Australia to work and be shocked at the rediculous prices on everything.
Cell phone and any communication services are so overly expensive that you'd find yourself either laughing in hesterics or wanting to kick someone ass that is causing this or just not having a phone or a TV etc. They literally charge you 20 dollars pre MB to download anything on your cell phone. Have you ever heard of anything so retarded? They literally charge you per 30 secs on a phone and per KB on data exchange on your cell. Same goes with internet at home. They will cap you and charge you per MB and if yuo go over your internet gets smacked down to a whopping 56k till the month is over. You buy a MB package here. Not a speed package.
The government here owns all the communication lines, cables etc. You would think that this would make it cheaper since they pay such high taxes here. However, its more than twice as expansive than in the USA by far. The Australian Government is majorly ripping off there citizens beyound anything Ive ever seen before.
Now an argument has come up on many occasions when I question this with people selling good to me. They say we,, there are allot more people in the USA therefore they have more buying power lol. I laugh and say. What about the Philippines? They have less of a population than Australia yet they are extremely cheaper than the USA and other countries I go to. So you can not argue the amount of a population in this issue.
Australian dollas are worth less than the US Dollar and they are being hit by the massive global depression that is hitting everyone and employement is dropping daily here. Regardless of that happening, the prices stay the same and keep going up. I see allot of that happening in the USA as well lol.
If you notice all the sales in the Malls? They say 50 to 70% off sale. Yet you go in and look and they were marked up and then reduced in price so there in fact is no sale at all. Problem is, the stupid public falls for it. I don't know what's worse. The public stupidity or the governmet and coorperate business taking complete advantage of everyone day after day.
Its all sickening to me.
Cell phone and any communication services are so overly expensive that you'd find yourself either laughing in hesterics or wanting to kick someone ass that is causing this or just not having a phone or a TV etc. They literally charge you 20 dollars pre MB to download anything on your cell phone. Have you ever heard of anything so retarded? They literally charge you per 30 secs on a phone and per KB on data exchange on your cell. Same goes with internet at home. They will cap you and charge you per MB and if yuo go over your internet gets smacked down to a whopping 56k till the month is over. You buy a MB package here. Not a speed package.
The government here owns all the communication lines, cables etc. You would think that this would make it cheaper since they pay such high taxes here. However, its more than twice as expansive than in the USA by far. The Australian Government is majorly ripping off there citizens beyound anything Ive ever seen before.
Now an argument has come up on many occasions when I question this with people selling good to me. They say we,, there are allot more people in the USA therefore they have more buying power lol. I laugh and say. What about the Philippines? They have less of a population than Australia yet they are extremely cheaper than the USA and other countries I go to. So you can not argue the amount of a population in this issue.
Australian dollas are worth less than the US Dollar and they are being hit by the massive global depression that is hitting everyone and employement is dropping daily here. Regardless of that happening, the prices stay the same and keep going up. I see allot of that happening in the USA as well lol.
If you notice all the sales in the Malls? They say 50 to 70% off sale. Yet you go in and look and they were marked up and then reduced in price so there in fact is no sale at all. Problem is, the stupid public falls for it. I don't know what's worse. The public stupidity or the governmet and coorperate business taking complete advantage of everyone day after day.
Its all sickening to me.
Comment by kenneth bailey on 28 July 09 @ 14:52
You can do what I did lol. When I bought the new IPHONE 3Gs. I paid for it through my american bank account. final cost was in the US600 dollar range. So if you can take the time to figure some things out and manuver a little , you can get a better deal. However, not everyone would have a bank account in america to do such things
@Kenneth
No they don't. Telstra owns the most of it and other Telcos etc own the rest. Remember Little Johnny Howard "privatised" the national teleco, sold it to Telstra.
The government here owns all the communication lines, cables etc
No they don't. Telstra owns the most of it and other Telcos etc own the rest. Remember Little Johnny Howard "privatised" the national teleco, sold it to Telstra.
Comment by ken bailey on 28 July 09 @ 18:30
so why are all the cell phone carriers and tv companies etc. tell me that the gov. owns it and that it was attempted to be privatived but didnt work out so it stayed in the gov.? That is what I was told by all of these companies along with telstra employees? All I can do is relay the info Ive been given this past month.
Telstra was owned 100% by the Australian people.
Howard privatised it and put the funds into the Future Fund and paid off some Gov.debt.
Telstra is a private company that owns most of the infrastructure.
It is not owned by the Government, hasn't been for years.
http://www.aph.gov.au/library/Pubs/chron/2003-04/04chr03.htm
Howard privatised it and put the funds into the Future Fund and paid off some Gov.debt.
Telstra is a private company that owns most of the infrastructure.
It is not owned by the Government, hasn't been for years.
http://www.aph.gov.au/library/Pubs/chron/2003-04/04chr03.htm
Comment by kenneth bailey on 28 July 09 @ 19:03
okay I just spoke to some people here at work and they explained it better. You are correct , so in fact telstra is simply gouging the hell out of you all then. simple as that. Believe me when I tell you that in America you would pay less than half what you [pay here for all your communications, food, clothing and just about anything else for that matter. something are half, some things are more than half but none ever go below a 1/3 markup here in Australia. It just amazes me. A shirt is 79 dollars here in Australia. I was looking at clothes at lunch. That same t-shit ( a nice one with print etc ) would be about half the price in th USA. I saw baseball caps (stylish) for 45 and 50 AU$. You'd pay maybe 25 or 35 tops in America. amazing. I make more money in America to so how does this happen you may wonder? well, so do I?
Yep, it's a tough country to be out of your luck in.
However, Australia, at app 22 million, is most likely a smaller market than California.
It's far less competitive in Food retail, Petrol retail Banking, Clothing, Telecommunications etc etc than the USA and a fraction of the population...
The good news is we don't have Birthers, Madoffs ( well maybe some mini Madoffs ), Bill O'Rielly or AT&T :)
However, Australia, at app 22 million, is most likely a smaller market than California.
It's far less competitive in Food retail, Petrol retail Banking, Clothing, Telecommunications etc etc than the USA and a fraction of the population...
The good news is we don't have Birthers, Madoffs ( well maybe some mini Madoffs ), Bill O'Rielly or AT&T :)
Comment by Michael on 18 August 09 @ 09:37
Apple Australia is GREEDY!!! That's the bare fact. Let's screw the consumer because they don't have a choice. Well we do! Why would anyone buy an Apple device unless its comparatively priced to competitor's products?
Wake up Apple. Your sales would probably double if you lowered your greedy margins a fraction. Or is market share not important?
Anyway, people don't have to buy Apple devices from the States, Singapore is closer and cheaper than Australia too(although not as cheap as in the USA). Have a look at apple.com.sg. The Sing dollar is 20% cheaper too.
Better still, vote with your wallet and buy a Sony VAIO or similar. A much better looking and better specced machine and the new Windows 7 is amazing! Don't hope and wish for the things MAC OS can do, when you can have them in a Windows Machine NOW!
Wake up Apple. Your sales would probably double if you lowered your greedy margins a fraction. Or is market share not important?
Anyway, people don't have to buy Apple devices from the States, Singapore is closer and cheaper than Australia too(although not as cheap as in the USA). Have a look at apple.com.sg. The Sing dollar is 20% cheaper too.
Better still, vote with your wallet and buy a Sony VAIO or similar. A much better looking and better specced machine and the new Windows 7 is amazing! Don't hope and wish for the things MAC OS can do, when you can have them in a Windows Machine NOW!
Comment by tired-of-fruity-fanboys on 27 November 09 @ 12:04
Hi fruit-fanboy(John), complaining about Apple's high prices in Aus and stating a personal view on another brand/OS is not being a fanboy. On the other hand, Such a knee-jerk defence of ones fruit is.
Comment by Carl on 06 January 10 @ 23:51
In response to Michael's comments:
Hi, I'm from Singapore and in a months time I'll be going to Australia for university. Before that I'm going to buy a Macbook pro to use there.
I'll convert everything into Singapore dollars (S$)
A Macbook pro 2.53 15" in the US(as unveiled at WWDC 2009) costs $1699, or $1599 with a student discount. That's is about S$2230.
In Australia the same WITH STUDENT DISCOUNT costs S$2741, or at least S$500 more.
In Singapore with student discount it's S$2648, but after combing tech stores here over 2 days I managed to find one for S$2550. Still S$320 more than the US price. In other words, Singapore is about S$200 cheaper than Aussie, but US is still $320 cheaper than Singapore. That's enough to buy an iPod touch.
I guess Australian prices are high because of the labour-cost. In Singapore a better-than-average part-time wage is $7. In Australia the minimum is about A$17? (S$22)
At least Australia has much nicer weather than here, and cheaper education than in the US (which is why I'm going there!)
Hi, I'm from Singapore and in a months time I'll be going to Australia for university. Before that I'm going to buy a Macbook pro to use there.
I'll convert everything into Singapore dollars (S$)
A Macbook pro 2.53 15" in the US(as unveiled at WWDC 2009) costs $1699, or $1599 with a student discount. That's is about S$2230.
In Australia the same WITH STUDENT DISCOUNT costs S$2741, or at least S$500 more.
In Singapore with student discount it's S$2648, but after combing tech stores here over 2 days I managed to find one for S$2550. Still S$320 more than the US price. In other words, Singapore is about S$200 cheaper than Aussie, but US is still $320 cheaper than Singapore. That's enough to buy an iPod touch.
I guess Australian prices are high because of the labour-cost. In Singapore a better-than-average part-time wage is $7. In Australia the minimum is about A$17? (S$22)
At least Australia has much nicer weather than here, and cheaper education than in the US (which is why I'm going there!)
Comment by Gadgets Review on 27 January 10 @ 21:37
Many people have same opinion for iPhone in Australia that why iPhone is so expensive there. I think Apple should make the price reasonable so that every one can afford world's stylish handset.
Recently (26.01.10) TechGlobeX wrote PlayStation 3 Firmware Cracks by iPhone Hacker at Gadgets Review's web. Check it out!
Comment by Dibs on 09 February 10 @ 19:15
I was born in Australia (lived there for 30+ years) and left 12 years ago, I went to live in Japan and then Ecuador, I have now lived in Washington DC for 9 years.
You are all missing the one point that explains it all....USA has a population of 320 million, Australia 22 million. Its easy to figure out.
Also the Aussie government has one of the highest import taxes in the world.
You are all missing the one point that explains it all....USA has a population of 320 million, Australia 22 million. Its easy to figure out.
Also the Aussie government has one of the highest import taxes in the world.
Comment by kenneth Bailey on 09 February 10 @ 23:35
Philippines has less people than oz and there goods are cheaper than in oz by far. Now what's your excuse other than rap the population.
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