05/06/2008
How much does a macbook really cost ?
A friend of mine just ordered a macbook here in Greece. 2.4GHz CPU, 2Gb RAM, 160GB disk. No extras.
Looking at www.applestore.gr this macbook costs 1066E without tax. Tax here in Greece is 19% so the final price would be: 1294,72€
I decided to take a look at other applestores and compare the prices.
applestore.com lists it at 1299$. Using www.xe.com to convert that money to Euros: 843.403€ !! (there might be some kind of taxing missing from here. If you know something please correct me with a comment)
applestore.se lists it at SEK 11.795,00 with tax included. Using www.xe.com to convert that money to Euros: 1,266.38€
applestore.co.uk lists it at £829.00 with tax included. Using www.xe.com to convert that money to Euros: 1,049.31€
applestore.fr lists it at 1.199,00 € with tax included.
applestore.de lists it at 1.199,00 € with tax included.
applestore.it lists it at 1.199,00 € with tax included.
applestore.nl lists it at 1.199,00 € with tax included.
applestore.es lists is at 1.149,00 € with tax included.
applestore.pt lists it at 1.199,00 € with tax included.
applestore.no lists it at kr 10 390,00. Using www.xe.com to convert that money to Euros:1,304.20€
applestore.fi lists it at 1.199,00 € with tax included.
to summarize, from least expensive to most expensive (tax included):
US: 843€
UK:1049€
Spain: 1149€
Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal: 1199€
Sweden: 1266€
Greece: 1294€
Norway: 1304€
Now, should I be happy or sad that in my country it costs a lot more than most other European countries ? It surely costs more than any other country in the Euro zone. If someone takes into account that the minimal monthly payment here in Greece is at 600€, then this macbook here in Greece costs more than 2 months of work. Shouldn’t the price be exactly the same as all other countries in the Euro zone since we are using Euros (€)? What’s the big deal with Greece ? Even the site looks different than all others.. :S
Filed by kargig at 15:00 under General,Internet
5 Comments | 13,818 views
The sad thing being even the ‘applestore’ we have in Greece, is not actually an apple store, but a _hack_, but http://wewantapplegreece.com/ has this covered, too.
The “market” price for the macbook you’re describing in Greece right now is 1.254E by the way. Check http://www.skroutz.gr/c/25/laptop.html?keyphrase=macbook+2.4
I always thought that http://wewantapplegreece.com/ was against Rainbow’s (Apple’s main distributor in Greece) tactics, but when I go to their site I see a Rainbow ad banner. Am I the only one who finds that a bit weird ? If you take a look at the Questions section it’s almost clear, at least to me, that they are bashing Applestore.gr, which is of course managed by Rainbow.
I am pretty confused about this :S
When wewantapplegreece.com started out, I thought it a Good Thing and was in favour of it. After some while though it has just turned into yet another Mac news site, with the main interest being selling ads. It’s just not acceptable to run something like a “We Want Apple Greece” campaign with ads.
As for the topic: The price difference is indeed due to the importer not being really Apple itself, but a third party.
According to an Apple PR person I spoke to some years ago, prices in Europe are derived from
– starting price in $
– official conversion rate to Euro (which right now is probably totally out of whack with bank exchange rates)
– a (claimed to be small) increase in price to pay for translation, localization etc.
– VAT depending on country
Since most EU countries have almost the same VAT rate now (around 18-20%), this explains the similar prices you see. Maybe the UK has a special deal. Switzerland (which by Apple is handled similar to EU countries) has much less VAT (7.6% IIRC) and thus has lower end prices.
I think Apple is just putting the exchange difference which is currently in their favour in their own pockets. Since they sell good right now with these prices, they don’t see a reason to lower prices. As for Rainbow: They probably don’t think at all about that old price/demand thing.
OK, at least I am not the only one not liking it…that’s encouraging…
Is mainly because apple doesn’t care about customers.
If you analize carefuly, you’ll see that even in gas for the transportation, the price is inferior (Macs come from china).
Apple never took care about dolar – euro conversion. And now they’re paying the price when europeans go to USA and buy iphones and ipods as candies.
It’s true that in USA the most you’ll pay in taxes will be 9% over the price you see in the webpage. But even if you do that, the difference in price is big… and more big if you go to more expensive products. (Do not try to compare a mac pro or you’ll cry loud).
So when you buy a Mac, you have to suffer that “supperiority” behavior that apple has. For example, when apple introduced Leopard, it broke Photoshop… well, I believe that a huge amount of mac users are graphic designers and use photoshop. Well, almost one year later… they haven’t fixed anything. They just don’t care. (or don’t care much)