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iPad UK Pricing Confirmed; Apple UK Tax Applied
The iPad will be available in the UK and eight other countries from 28 May 2010; both models will be available for pre-order on 10 May. Reader marcopolo007uk adds a note from iPad-Review.co.uk with pricing: "WiFi Models: 16GB / 32GB / 64GB — £429 / £499 / £599. 3G versions: 16GB / 32GB / 64GB — £529 / £599 / £699. These are a little higher than some had guessed... The Apple Tax stings the UK consumer again." At the current exchange rate, these prices are right around 150% of those offered in the US.
Another flamebait iPad post! Another chance for me to say iPads are a waste of money!
"Su-su-suck it, bitch!" -Jimmy
Living With a Nerd
If something is flying off the shelves faster than it can be produced it's probably underpriced. Hence Apple is raising the price at its first opportunity.
rooooar
"At the current exchange rate, these prices are right around 150% of those offered in the US.
If that was all to take into consideration, the article might have a point. It'it's not, and they don't.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I know it doesn't replace anything, and if I'm honest it is just because its a shiny new tech toy, but it's still less than a day's wages so I'll be plonking down £499 as soon as I can.
Do you really need those extra Us, and to throw away all your Zs without even using them? If you were a little better about your alphabet maybe it wouldn't be so expensive to support you...
Just how much do you love Steve Jobs, The Messiah?
Someone can't do math. The numbers are actually really close. Let's look at the base 16GB model. It's £429 in the UK, which equals about $630 according to xe.com. Take off the 17.5% VAT, and we get £353.93. That equals $520 US. What's the problem again???
I like Apple's products but this price is too high for what the iPad is. I recently bought a second hand Tablet PC (a Fujitsu Stylistic) for £180 and shoved Ubuntu Linux and an 8GB SSD in it. Sure, it's bulkier than an iPad but I don't regret my choice now I've seen the UK price. Screw them and their price mark up
What I don't get is the double standard some companies have on doing business in the US. Many of them state that the US is very expensive because of regulations we have for safety, environment and so on. If that is the case, than why is it almost always cheaper to buy such things in the states?
I've traveled overseas for work a few times and every time I did I absolutely avoided buying anything other than silly souvenirs because the cost differential was so great. The dollar may be at a historical low on the exchange rate, but it still doesn't come close to explaining the huge cost differentials.
So what makes up 50% extra or more, then?
Just to put the cheapest one into context:
* iPod Touch - £189
* Dell Laptop (Outlet) - £300
* Acer / Dell Laptops (Retail) - £400-450
* ePC "Netbook" - £200
* Dell "Netbook" - £139
* Sony "Netbook" - £399
So you could get two iPod Touches, or a Dell Laptop AND Dell Netbook, Sony Netbook, or two ePC Netbooks for this money?
Why the flamebait? What they are calling the "apple tax" is really the value add tax, which must be built into the price of all products sold. Why should products be priced identically across all countries anyway? Shouldn't companies maximize their profits by pricing their wares competitively with the local market?
Let me guess - in Europe, you'd pay exactly those prices listed? No sales tax added on?
So you'd pay £429 / £499 / £599 / £529 / £599 / £699 for an iPad and not a penny more in sales/VAT?
That's one thing we have in North America - the prices listed ($499/$599/$699/$629/$729/$829) are sans sales tax. So add anywhere from 0% (a few states), to 5-10% to the actual price that Americans pay. Or in Canada, anywhere from 5-15% in sales taxes.
In the UK, the prices tend to be all inclusive - you pay what you see, so all the hidden consumption taxes get built in. VAT of nearly 20%, plus other import taxes and duties and the like. I'm guessing the price gap is a lot smaller than you think.
It's just that governments have used built-in taxes to hide how much taxes are really on products. Happens on this side of the pond with stuff like gas when you actually break down the price.
For example, the 16GB WiFi iPad - £429 is around $630 US. $500 US for the same iPad, plus taxes will probably mean one pays $530-$550 in the US. If we assume the total tax load is (VAT+importation taxes plus duties) 20% for the UK, that $500 iPad becomes $600 instantly.
I agree, but then again, I don't need nor use a laptop, a mobile phone, and flash on the PC. I don't follow trends, I just use what I need. So to me, an ipad doesn't appear useful until I find a use for it :)
And related to this, my view on 'owning' is: The more stuff you own, the more stuff owns you...
BTW, The iPad does have to be tested for EU safety certification. This is a costly process as the standards are high (as is the mains voltage!). Maybe Apple are planning to recoup these costs with the higher price.
Of course, most sensible buyers will wait for the price to drop by a $100 or two, as is normal with Apple's marketing.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
In America the price was more than a netbook but not game breakingly more, in Britain the worst version of the iPad will be twice as expensive as a netbook.
Puzzle Daze is now my job
You did think Apple was going to pay for your UK socialism? ( or other companies )
Are the US and UK models different in any way other than price? If not, one might wonder how much getting a friend in the US to buy it and ship it FedEx vs. buying in the UK.
Some of the data plans.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
Nothing surprising in this at all. And this is true for almost any goods sold, apple's not special in this regards. Clothes, food, electronics of all sorts. But I do wish I lived in the UK and got those cheap prices. Instead I live in provincial Europe where prices are around 200-300% of what you have to pay in the states. Lots more than in the UK. So from my perspective the people in the UK are really lucky to get such low prices. Put that into your perspective.
Apple is glad to see such free advertising! This is consumerism crap, not slashdot-worthy "stuff that matters" content...
In the US an iPad is more than twice as expensive as a netbook. Netbooks start at $230, but the iPad Starts at $500.
My brother has an iPad, and it is nothing like a netbook, so I don't know why people compare them. Right now the iPad is in a class of it's own. Don't point me to some slate computer with a desktop OS. The iPad is built from the ground up to be what it is. That's true of no other tablet computing product on the market today.
£429/1.175=£365.11, which is approximately $537.80. The mark up from the US prices seems to be around 8%.
Unless you factor in that you have to pay sales tax in most places in the U.S - which coincidentally for my area is 8%, so basically the exact same price in the end.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
in Britain the worst version of the iPad will be twice as expensive as a netbook.
That "worst" version is a lot more usable than any netbook near the same price. Higher resolution and a better quality screen, for example.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Why can't /. correct its math--and take down this misguided post while they're at it?
Even with a casual glance, the calculation was so obviously flawed. Many people have wasted time repeating the calculation.
Just for your information, in Spain the prices (according to http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2010/05/07/navegante/1273236060.html) are 479, 579 and 679 euros (wifi) and 579, 679 and 779 euros (3G). All prices include VAT (I think it's 16% for this kind of thing).
In US$, those prices would be $610, $738, $859 and $738, $859, $993.
In pounds, £413, £499, £585, £499, £585, £676.
My guess, it won't sell much in Spain, with the crisis, and with the mean salary being something in the vicinity of 1,100 euros per month (although I'm sure some fanboys will be willing to starve to get it :P).
Fuck Apple.
It's not 150%, it's 126%. And the UK price includes 17.5% VAT which Apple would have to send straight to Gordon Brown's tax collectors if he hadn't just been thrown out (I think he is refusing to leave, but thank heavens he will), whereas the US price doesn't include US sales tax.
Having just been there, indeed, 13.25% in the Second City.
UK VAT (the equivalent of sales tax in the USA) is 17.5%
Removing the tax so we can compare fairly: £429 / 1.175 => £365.11
Converting pounds to dollars: £429 = $539.94 (currency rate is 1 GBP = 1.47884 USD)
So, the difference (before taking into account the import duties of ~10%) is $539.94 - $499.99 or ~$40.
Subtracting $53 (estimated) of import duty means Apple is charging less than they do in the USA.
Simon.
Physicists get Hadrons!
With a round-trip ticket from Heathrow to NYC going for under $500 (Virgin, leaving Heathrow Saturday, returning from NYC on Monday), how many iPads would a Londoner have to buy in the US to cover the airplane ticket with the money saved? Just a handfull or so?
Ken
They also announced the Canadian prices today:
http://www.apple.com/ca/pr/library/2010/05/07ipad.html
Looks like we'll be paying $50 more if we want one. On the plus side, the iBook application was also announced for us and up to this point it wasn't clear if we would be getting it.
Well, it has never been successfully tested.
They don't? Round up.
The iPad (and iPhone, and iPod) charge on 5 volts DC from the USB connector (which is sort of a defacto international standard for charging portable devices). It doesn't care whether you have 110V/60Hz AC or 220V/50Hz AC mains; your computer (or wall wart) takes care of that.
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
So don't %#!$ing buy it.
If you didn't bend over and keep asking for it, the prices would come down.
Fanboys (Apple or otherwise) get ripped because they let themselves get ripped. Case closed.
Stupid, sexy Flanders.
Everything is more expensive in the UK than the US. Have you priced out a car there recently? 17.5% VAT is one reason, and a market that is willing to pay more is another. A third (probable) reason is that Apple would want a nice round number, not something like £437.13.
Funny that Slashdotters can complain about an "Apple Tax" quicker than a real tax.
So let them whine and let it be louder, sweet music to my ears. I say, iTunes DJ, put that music on heavy rotation! I'm feeling Magical!
As you were.
-- How I want a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics.
Flamebait
Dude, I can't believe people will fork over so much dough for a computer that doesnt have hard drive space. I mean 16-32-64 GB models only? Nothing over 100GB? What about a terabyte model? Seriously, apple is rippin u off.
nm
statistics please with references to prove better or worse care.
So you could get two iPod Touches, or a Dell Laptop AND Dell Netbook, Sony Netbook, or two ePC Netbooks for this money?
I can tell you from personal experience that even keeping *one* EeePC netbook happy in the long run is more than I'm willing to take for a device for browsing the web and checking my mail and reading books and watching a movie.
Mind you, I'm *not* getting an iPad (yet), I have enough devices to use. But I can fully understand everyone who does. If you're not a programmer or a computer enthusiast (whatever this is) an iPad is an obvious choice. Everyone who doesn't understand this is an idiot. It gives you 95% of whatever you may need for 0% of the effort and your valuable time. If this isn't a good deal, I don't know.
It's not an Apple Tax, it's a UK Tax. It pays for all kinds of things you take for granted in the UK that simply don't exist here in the US.
Here is an example of how it works for the terminally stupid:
* in the US, Joe walks down to his local Apple Store and buys an iPad for US$499, then on his way back home, while stepping over a family of homeless people who are dying on the sidewalk, Joe falls and breaks his leg. A passerby calls 911 and Joe is taken by ambulance to the nearest hospital, who refuses to treat him because he doesn't have insurance, even though he works 40 hours per week at a profitable multinational company for 3 years, he is still considered a temp and he cannot afford the cost of buying his own healthcare, which is 50% of his annual salary. So back in the ambulance and over to the worst hospital in town, still without so much as a pain killer to ease his suffering, where his leg is set by a disinterested doctor and he is billed $15,000. Total cost of iPad: US$15,499.
* In the UK, Simon walks down to his local Apple Store and buys an iPad for £429, then on his way back home, while stepping over a government surveillance camera that has fallen onto the sidewalk, Simon falls and breaks his leg. A passerby calls 999 and Simon is taken by ambulance to the nearest hospital, who treat him and bill him nothing. Total cost of iPad: £429.
So STFU. Apple tax! What a fucking asshole.
Then there will be price parity.
When I can get a 3G USB stick for $60 or so. Surely the factory/board costs would be 50% of that like $30.
The 3G price difference should be $50 at most.
And also why are the differences between the 16gig wifi/3G different to a 64gig wifi/3G if the only difference is 3G.
Then the difference in price should be equal.
Talk about 'pricing based on perceived usefullness' , not cost.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
We were wandering around the big computer mall in Kuala Lumpur yesterday and found several shops selling 32GB wifi iPads for MYR2900 (USD950). At that price someone would have to be pretty desperate to show off.
"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." -- GBS
It's worth pointing out that the pound is at an almost one year low against the dollar, and is sitting below it's natural level against the dollar and has been for months because of the political uncertainty.
Should we get a coalition government or similar that takes decisive action in cutting the UK's deficit which has been put off in the run up to the electon, you can add a good 10% minimum onto those percentages as the pound returns back up towards it's natural level against the dollar over the next 6 months to a year.
The fact that there's a markup at all when the pound is so weak against the dollar is quite inexcusable particularly as Apple has a history of taking years to rectify pricing issues by which time they've usually gotten away with it even when they accept that it's wrong in the face of an anti-trust case such that it's too late, and a few percent adds up to a notable chunk of money on not exactly cheap devices like this. Make no mistake, ripping off British consumers has long been part of Apple's business model.
It's worth pointing out of course that it's not just Apple that does this, however there are some notable exceptions, from places we perhaps least expect them. Microsoft points for XBox Live / Games for Windows Live are actually cheaper in the UK than the US thanks to current exchange rates when you factor in VAT for example, however they certainly weren't when things were riding at $2 USD to £1 GBP. Microsoft puts a massive markup on other goods too however such as Windows, Office and so forth but it's commendable they haven't used it as an excuse to up prices like some companies.
Companies upping costs in the face of weakened exchange rates is fine normally, but when we already pay much more to start with? They can fuck off, I wont buy anything that's severely marked up. To give some examples of when the pound was strong, I bought a Nintendo DS for my girlfriend and an iPod nano for myself, but I didn't buy them in the UK where they were both around the £120 mark, I bought them when we went to Canada where they were the equivalent of £65- almost half price. It was around $2.10 USD and $2.30 CAD to £1 GBP at the time. That's why I have little sympathy for companies that raise prices when the pound is weak, because they're more than happy to charge us nearly double rather than reduce prices when it's strong.