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Apple increases UK prices again

chscag

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A jump in price for the Mac Pro of £500 is absolutely ridiculous! First, I personally don't think the latest iteration of the Mac Pro is worth what Apple is asking for it here in the US let alone the price in the UK. Hopefully when things settle down from Brexit, the British £ will regain from its losses.
 
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It is price gouging. The base iMac sells for US$1099.00 and on today's exchange this is AUD$1,452.00. Why then does Apple charge AUD$1,699.00?
 

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It is price gouging. The base iMac sells for US$1099.00 and on today's exchange this is AUD$1,452.00. Why then does Apple charge AUD$1,699.00?
That's likely a consequence of import/customs fees/duties and the price being adjusted at some point where that made more sense. However, I'm no economist so I could be wrong.

Take here for example - a non-Touch Bar MBP is $1500 USD but $1900 CAD which is actually better than the exchange rate. I imagine that the pricing is a consequence of low to no cost duties/import fees and an adjustment on prices that is more closely aligned with the exchange rate.
 

chscag

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I honestly don't know how Apple determines their off shore prices? I can understand local VAT and taxes, but that does not account for the markup in the UK and Australia. The example of AUD $1452.00 (official exchange rate) to AUD $1699.00 is a AUD $247 markup.
 
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Charlie, don't forget those import duties. That can add a lot to the final price. Shipping also adds some, but I suspect not much as most of it is shipped from China anyway. But the taxes and duties can add up pretty quickly. For example, I think VAT in UK is now 20%, so a $1500 USD MBP would be £1209.26, then the VAT would add £2241.85, making the final cost £1451.11, plus whatever import duties Her Majesty's government adds on top of the VAT. That's how Apple makes it a $=£ equivalent right now. Similar math would apply to Australia pricing. Australia has a GST (Similar to VAT) of 10% on all goods. So in Oz, that USD $1500 would be AUD $1984.35 plus GST of AUD $198.44, plus import tax, or AUD $2182.79 plus import duties.

Now, whether or not the new MBPs are worth that much is a different topic, but I don't see much price gouging going on, given the strength of the USD right now.
 
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Ours are shipped from Singapore where they are assembled. Of course if you want to do the sums you have to deduct US Tax and State Tax, if applicable also.
 
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MacInWin

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But here in the US, the taxes are ADDED to the final price from Apple, so for example, here where I live the sales tax is 5.3%, making a $1500 machine be $1579.50. GST and VAT are, I believe, not added on at sale, but included in the sale price. Using your example of AUD$1452.00 for the price, adding GST makes it AUD$1597.20. Now there is a difference of AUD$100 between that and the AUD$1699 you quoted, but that's a lot less than the AUD$247. The difference could be import tax in addition to GST. According to one online duty calculator, Australia adds AUD$50 to any import valued at AUD$1,000 to AUD$10,000. So that makes the difference even smaller.

I'm not defending Apple's pricing, it certainly makes a metric crap-ton of money every year, but the pricing for products is remarkably consistent world wide, at least based on where I've seen it and been able to consider the factors.
 
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Import should be cheaper from Singapore Jake, surely and prices quoted on Apple US would be in CA with 7.25% tax which should be deducted?
 
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Harry, that is not how it works in the US. Here, the tax is a sales tax, added at the time of the sale. So, a $1000 system in California actually costs $1072.50 to the buyer but that same system in my city in Virginia costs $1053.00 with 5% State sales tax and 0.3% local city sales tax. Unlike GST or VAT, it is added to the manufacturer's price. And it varies from state to state and city to city.

As for importation, the shipping from Singapore may be cheaper to Australia, but the import duties (before GST is added) is that flat $50 for any item imported in that value range. Electronics are exempt from the other Australian import duties and tariffs.
 
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I noticed a while back that Apple are showing the VAT component on their UK website. Prices there have to include tax by law, presumably so that Joe Public is not so aware of how much his government is skimming off.

In fairness, the taxation system in the U.K. was changed, beginning under Thatcher, to lower income tax and higher purchase tax, supposedly to allow people to keep more of their earnings. I remember the mutterings at the time claiming that it shifted the tax burden onto the less well off. VAT increased from 8% to 15% while income tax was steadily reduced, from about 33% to nearer 20%. I was living there at the time, and didn't feel particularly well off under either system.

I was reading on an audio forum that some dealers in eastern Canada display their prices in US dollars to get away from the ups and downs of the currency markets.
 
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It's apps that are going up, not hardware.
 

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I was reading on an audio forum that some dealers in eastern Canada display their prices in US dollars to get away from the ups and downs of the currency markets.
Where in eastern Canada are you talking about (just curious)? That may be the case but that doesn't make any sense as no one uses American currency for purchases or, if they do, it's only because they order from an American store that ships here but doesn't do conversion for the customer.

I suspect that a lot of the price differences ultimately come down to exchange differences and trade/import politics.
 
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Where in eastern Canada are you talking about (just curious)? That may be the case but that doesn't make any sense as no one uses American currency for purchases or, if they do, it's only because they order from an American store that ships here but doesn't do conversion for the customer.

I suspect that a lot of the price differences ultimately come down to exchange differences and trade/import politics.

No idea. I didn't take too much notice of the thread when I read it. I assume that the dealers concerned calculate the exchange rate at the time of purchase. We are talking about very high end gear where exchange rate fluctuations can make quite a large difference in an industry where margins are already tight.

The thread was on CanuckAudioMart a month or so back.
 
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This thread is 18 months old!
 
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Larocque said:
Is it because of the tariff ?
If you mean the current "tariff wars" then no. This thread started in 2017.
 

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