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The iPod International Currency Index
Snad writes "The BBC is reporting that an Australian bank has adopted the price of Apple's iPod as a means of tracking international currency values. Similar to The Economist's Big Mac index, this 'iPod index' tracks the price of a 2-GB iPod Nano around the globe and uses purchasing power parity to determine relative currency value. A sample quote: '"The index suggests that the US dollar has potential to appreciate against a range of major currencies, with the Australian dollar about 15% overvalued against the greenback," said Craig James, Commonwealth Securities' head economist.' The cheapest place to buy an iPod is Canada — $144 (but Hong Kong and Japan are almost as cheap); the most expensive is Brazil — $327."
Just because 'Apple is cool', doesn't mean that you can make everything cool by jut mentioning Apple.
I'd like to introduce a new scale, the apple scale, where 0 apple is not hyped, and 10 apple is cnn/fox/interwebs hype.
IANAE but there's a crucial difference with other pertinent indices. Bic Macs as are consumed. Oil, by way of another example, is also consumed. Apple's portable music players (ffs) are sold (or given away) and then just used like any other non-consumable, non-disposable commodity. I really can't see how this is anything other than a gimmick.
The index computation does not seem to take into account the taxes (for the local **AA) that some countries are levying on MP3 players.
Have you read TFA??! This has nothing to do with the iPod as a music player. O why am I even responding.
-- Cheers!
This does not take price gouging in some countries into effect, so that greedy local Apple dealers and undervalued currency have the same effect.
I prefer a product that's less "cool", like milk or bigmacs.
In the 80s the price of a mars bar was used as a method of measuring relative costs.
The cost of a mars bar reflects raw material costs, energy costs, labour costs, transport costs and local taxation.
It's a good yardstick to measure prices between places and over time.
Sounds like the same principle is being applied with iPods, with the added advantage that the mention of the word ipod guarantees coverage, more so than something as mundane as the price of a mars bar
echo $SIGNATURE
The Big Mac index is so good because the price of the Big Mac involves a little bit of everything: tradable products (meat, bread, etc), labor, services, rental, etc. It is cheap, and usually not subject to any special taxes. The iPod is an imported luxury good, and thus its price is subject to arbitrary decisions by dealers and governments. No good.
Unless you consider a Big Mac to be fine cuisine, and American Idol to be the most insightful television show available, sales aren't really a good indicator of quality.
The reasoning behind the Big Mac index is that for the most part, McDonalds tries to produce the burgers using the cheapest available inputs. Thus, the Big Mac index is representative of the cost of a bundle of food-related inputs. Much of the time, this means locally produced inputs. A country with low cost beef and wheat will have relatively cheaper Big Macs, whereas countries with expensive beef and wheat (or high input tariffs) will have relatively more expensive Big Macs. In the long run, a country with cheap inputs will tend to export to countries with expensive inputs, thus weakening the currency of the importing nation and strengthening the currency of the exporting nation.
The idea of an iPod index makes no economic sense. The reason that an iPod is expensive in Brazil, India, and Thailand isn't because labor, LCDs, and Flash Memory are expensive in those countries. An iPod costs the same to produce no matter where it is sold. The only main difference is in import duties and sales taxes. Import duties and sales taxes have nothing to do with the long-term direction of a country's currency. This index is a waste of time.
Yeah, the ipod is just a friging mp3 or other stuff player with DRM, for god's sake don't make a hype out of it, stylish hardware shouldn't be the standard for mass acquiring stuff.
Copyright infringement is "piracy" in the same way DRM is "consumer rape"
...which are usually not made by Apple at all.
This is kind of a silly correlation. Market competition also plays a factor in price. Without having done any formal research, I'm guessing iPod's are cheap in Japan and HongKong because there's an abundance of "alternative goods" (econ 101 anybody?) available in those tech-savvy markets, and the iPod's market share is much more vulnerable. Peace Out.
"The primary reason it has sold so many units is because they managed to make it a fashion statement and people love to feed their Egos & have status amongst their peer groups."
Back when I was shopping for mp3-players, I did look around. Creative and other felt flimsy and cheap. iPod Mini felt like a hi-quality piece of equipment. I had no special interest to buy an Apple-product, I wanted the best possible product. And the iPod simply felt better than the competition did. The iPod was the only one that seemed like it was actually Designed, as opposed to being "designed".
"Did you know that ipods only support 2 video formats (both of them MAC formats) and that you have to shove every video you want to load on a 80 GB hard drive into a single folder without the ability to create sub-folders?"
Oh the humanity! Those sub-folders really are a must-thing to have! Apple is DOOMED!
Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.