Why are Macs almost 2x price outside USA?

By nukenorman
in Apple (macOS)

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Grand Master

nukenorman

Posted
Posted

I have noticed that Apple computers are almost 2x the price outside the USA. Why is this? I know other countries have different tax laws but I dont think it would make it almost double the price.

I looked at Dells in other countries and other PC makers and they are almost the same price as the USA. So why the big difference for Apple?

They are makeing alot of markup on there products in the USA just think how much extra money they are making selling it outside the USA.

Grand Master

Xtreme $niper

Posted
Posted

Normally even Canada (who shares a border and has a free trade treaty with the US) usually ends up with some stupidly inflated prices once products cross the border... But lately the electronics companies have been narrowing that gap. Now a product from Apple doesn't usually cost more than $200 more than it does south of the border, and other items have no price difference at all. Big improvement.

But you didn't actually specify which country you're speaking of... If you're talking about something overseas, then yeah. You're going to have to factor in the extra cost of shipping to other locations.

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+Steve B Subscriber²

Posted
  • Subscriber²
Posted

Different taxation systems contribute a lot but even if you take this out Apple does still charge more to the non-US people.

Assuming the OP is talking about Europe then there is the VAT (value added tax) which the US does not have and I hope they never decide to get it.

Rookie

stoshrocket

Posted
Posted

Specifics? What apple products are you talking about and to what country? Checking out the difference between a 13" MBP w. 2.66GHz processor, 8GB of ram and a 500GB HDD comes to about $2,355.2 (with an estimate of 15% tax) and in the UK ?1,678.01 which is $2,581.61, which isn't that bad a price hike to be honest considering the market size of the UK vs USA.

Grand Master

Richard Hammond

Posted
Posted

Getting sick of this omg import duties and tax bullcrap that people try and pull.

US 27" Core i5 Mac = $1999 = ?1298

UK 27" Core i5 Mac = ?1649

?1298 + UK 17.5% VAT = ?1525

Where does the other ?124 come from?

Before you Apple apologists start banging on about omg import duties Apple imports hundreds and thousands of Macs, they dont import them one or two at a time so you spread the cost of import duties over thousands of machines and it still doesnt equal the ?124 difference.

Proficient

iKenndac

Posted
Posted

Looking at today's exchange rates...

Base iMac: US$1199. UK?999. $1199 exchanges to ?780. Add UK VAT, that's ?917.

Including VAT, there's a ?50 difference on the base iPad.

?15 on the base iPod touch.

?90 on the base Mac Pro.

?30 on the MacBook Air.

Now, there are things like the AppleTV where the prices aren't nearly the same. However, most of the time the prices aren't that much different once you take into account UK VAT. Plus, I'm taking today's exchange rate ? they need a little bit of wiggle room to account for exchange rate fluctuations and such.

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rawr_boy81

Posted
Posted

Meh, in New Zealand the iMac's on average cost around $100 more than the US after taking taking GST into account - and in NZ we have no tariffs at all on imported computers. I'd probably say that a good amount of it is probably due to the fact that we have a fairly robust warranty legislation - that Apple advertises a 1 year warranty but by law in New Zealand they're actually bound to provide minimum of a 3 year warranty under the 'Consumers Guarantee Act' based on the Consumer Commissions definition of 'fear wear and tear'. I would say that there are going to be requirements that Apple need to conform to which makes the cost of doing business outside of the US a lot more expensive than in the US.

Grand Master

Vice

Posted
Posted

Apples website for the USA does not include Sales Tax but some states in the USA do require Sales tax, thus if you order it from Apple you will have a hidden charge to pay after receiving your item. Add that in and then the £124 difference becomes a lot less.

And the rest is probably just Apple price gauging.

Grand Master

PyX

Posted
Posted

The only thing I know is, taxes are not included here in the prices in the Apple Store, but in Europe taxes are included.

Is it really a law over there to include the taxes in the prices you see?

Because here you take like 3 things that cost 6 bucks, but you end up paying 20 bucks in the end instead of 18. It?s always a surprise when you go at the cash ^^

Grand Master

.Neo

Posted
Posted

Getting sick of this omg import duties and tax bullcrap that people try and pull.

US 27" Core i5 Mac = $1999 = £1298

UK 27" Core i5 Mac = £1649

£1298 + UK 17.5% VAT = £1525

Where does the other £124 come from?

Before you Apple apologists start banging on about omg import duties Apple imports hundreds and thousands of Macs, they dont import them one or two at a time so you spread the cost of import duties over thousands of machines and it still doesnt equal the £124 difference.

You are forgetting that the US online Apple Store doesn't show local taxes that can differ from state to sate. So that's probably where the £124 comes from or at least partially.

Edit Basically what Vice says.

Grand Master

Chicane-UK Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

As has been said, not only is it our VAT but (for the UK at least) the strength of the $ vs ?. The $ was really weak a few years ago and it made lots of things bought in from the USA seem quite cheap - I can only assume it skewed our sense of perspective on what some things actually cost.

As a bike enthusiast, been feeling similar levels of pain over the last few years. A lot of the big bike companies are American (Trek, Specialized, etc) and bikes have been going up in price quite significantly in the last 2-3 years.

It sucks but it's life.

Veteran

DomZ

Posted
Posted

Getting sick of this omg import duties and tax bullcrap that people try and pull.

US 27" Core i5 Mac = $1999 = ?1298

UK 27" Core i5 Mac = ?1649

?1298 + UK 17.5% VAT = ?1525

Where does the other ?124 come from?

Before you Apple apologists start banging on about omg import duties Apple imports hundreds and thousands of Macs, they dont import them one or two at a time so you spread the cost of import duties over thousands of machines and it still doesnt equal the ?124 difference.

It's a bit naive to think that you can just translate a products cost in one country and state it should be that in a different country. There's a lot more that goes into a "product" than just the cost of making it.

For a start Apple has to get those devices into the EU and UK (shipping costs). They have to be configured differently at the factories for each country (although there were some German iPads being sold in the UK because of the shortages). There's different plugs in the UK which means the packaging is probably slightly different and means the factories have to change the lines every now and then rather than having a continuous production line.

Apple's marketing activities will be different based on each country (might do more TV in the UK for example). Even if 2% of people bought an Apple product in the US and 1% bought an Apple product in the UK and the advertising/marketing spend was proportionally the same, the UK operation would have to absorb the extra 1% marketing spend. Then as someone else mentioned there's been a lot of fluctuations in the exchange rates over the last few years which means international companies are more cautious with their pricing. And finally they want a number that is marketable. 178.50 vs 199 is less marketable.

I think the fact that Apple's products are generally overpriced anyway means that even the smallest fluctuation from the US price makes the already expensive purchase seem super expensive.

Grand Master

PyX

Posted
Posted

I don't see how shipping Macs to the US would be less expensive than shipping them to Europe. Last time I checked Macs are designed in the US, however, they aren't build there.

+1. Same as I thought.

Or is really more expensive to import/export anything in Europe?

I?m familiar with importing/exporting from the USA, but Europe is still unknown to me :p

Community Regular

Gocom

Posted
Posted

Is it really a law over there to include the taxes in the prices you see?

In which country and in which context? Billing or what? Anyways, unlike states, every country has their own tax and don't need to care about state specific taxes. So, it's common to include the tax in the presented prices.

I’m familiar with importing/exporting from the USA, but Europe is still unknown to me :p

USA is country, Europe isn't. Every country has their own laws, taxes and such. And then there is EU (not europe) which changes few things. For example shipping within EU has no extra fees.

But is there a lot of extra costs compared to US? Not really in general. Altho, delivery might cost more, and the marketshare in some countries is really tiny. Or well, the total % in whole Europe might be high, but the actual units sold in each country isn't. And then the key factor, we earn more.

Grand Master

.Neo

Posted
Posted

+1. Same as I thought.

Or is really more expensive to import/export anything in Europe?

I’m familiar with importing/exporting from the USA, but Europe is still unknown to me :p

In many European countries citizens pay more sales tax / VAT, so that definitely has an impact. Maybe Apple has to pay import duties as well simply because it's an American company and not an European one. Not sure though.

But you're not going to tell me that the shipping itself from China to Amsterdam is that more expensive than shipping it from China to Chicago. That said, I noticed that my new 27-inch iMac is being shipped from Ireland (just around the corner basically) while my former 24-inch iMac was being shipped all the way from Shanghai.

Not sure where the OP gets the "2x price" from. Flair for the dramatic I guess...

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