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Apple Increases App Store Prices By 25% Following Brexit Vote (theguardian.com)
Following the UK's vote to leave the European Union last year, Apple is raising prices on its UK App Store by almost 25 percent to counter the depreciation of the pound. For example, an app that costs $0.99 in the U.S., and used to cost 0.79 British pounds, will now cost 0.99 British pounds. The Guardian reports: Apple announced the price rises in an email to app developers on Tuesday, and told them "when foreign exchange rates or taxation changes, we sometimes need to update prices on the App Store." It says the new prices will roll out over the next seven days, giving customers a short opportunity to beat the price increase. Similar price increases are expected to hit other Apple stores, including the iTunes Store for music and video and the iBooks Store. Britain isn't the only country experiencing price changes. India is seeing price increases due to changes in service taxes, while Turkish prices are also rising due to depreciation of the Turkish Lira. Since the vote to leave the European Union, the value of the pound has fallen by 18.5% against the U.S. dollar. In a statement, Apple said: "Price tiers on the App Store are set internationally on the basis of several factors, including currency exchange rates, business practices, taxes and the cost of doing business. These factors vary from region to region and over time."
The dollar is doing well. it would be much more honest to compare the pound to the euro in that not so subtle piece of advocacy.
What about In App Purchases. Will those rise too?
1 GBP - 20% VAT = 0.8GBP = 1USD
Apple and the developer get the same amount of money in each country. In GB, you also pay the government too.
but I can't imagine the folks who voted Brexit care. Apps, especially paid ones, are mostly a young person thing. As an old codger I've yet to pay for anything on my phone. Now, as a _reasonable_ old codger here in the colonies my heart goes out to those young people who just got driven off a cliff by Grandpa and Grandma. Sure, it's their fault for staying home on election day (just like Trump's our young folks fault for the exact same reason) but just like Trump nobody deserves what's to come.
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I should clarify my comment, on some purchases, for customers in some states, the company adds tax, generally around 8%. So US customers pay 99 cents PLUS tax.
When the company collects VAT, it's INCLUDED in the sticker price - it's illegal in the UK, I understand, to show customers who they are really paying by listing it as "+0.80 purchase price plus VAT".
Anyway, after the currency conversion, the company is charging the same amount. The extra that UK customers pay is the government charging higher taxes.
Actually, no it doesn't. It makes them about the same amount of money that they used to before the pound tanked after the Brexit vote (and even then, only the same amount if we assume that they'd have gotten just as many sales with the new higher pricetag, which they likely won't do.)
elected Trump. The 538 blog has a meticulously sourced article on it. Hilary didn't bother campaigning in the rust belt because she took them for granted (she always was an arrogant bitch) so they stayed home. It took a lot of other stuff (DNC hack, that assclown FBI director's Oct Surprise, Russian propaganda campaigns) but those were surmountable had Hilary fought in the swing states like she should have.
You're gonna get Globalism whether you like it or not. It benefits your ruling class, and you're in no position to do anything about your ruling class. You've got too many non-economic issues (guns, Abortion, Gay Rights, Religious freedom, Black Lives Matter, you name it). You get picked apart by them, which is why they're called Wedge Issues. They drive a wedge between the working class.You'll never stand up to the ruling class because every time you do they'll throw you a few bones on social issues and you'll fight amongst yourselves while they laugh all the way to the bank.
So, given that Globalism is basically inevitable what do you think is a better approach: throw up your hands and pretend it's not happening or take that bull by the horns and try to tame it. You just did the former. I wish I could stop and say: Let me know how that turns out for you, but, well, you dragged me into it to. Thanks. Thanks a million.
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It's possible, but if I'm not mistaken, that would take an almost 20% drop from where it stands now. Seems unlikely considering political fervor is one of the major forces behind the rising USD (and the decline of the GBP too--nothing has really changed as of right now), and that sort of thing typically doesn't last.
The others were (a) people who hate Hillary because she's a female Democrat and (b) people who love Trump because he's an asshole.
I won't pretend that anti-globalism wasn't a major driver in this election--please don't pretend that it was the only driver.
There are two issues at play here. It might be interesting to do an a-b specifically for prices that change day to day versus that magic 0.99 price point which has been tested and proven over and over again.
Not having done forex, my guess is that *most* of the time, the major currencies would drift within a few percentage points of each other week to week, so sticking with 0.99 would work better than 1.02 one day, 1.01 the next, then 0.98. 1 is psychological cut-off, going above that reduces sales.
I would further think that occasionally, major events such as Brexit may lead to wider differences. If significant lasting changes only happen every few years, it may make sense to include those in the price adjustments that companies already do every few years anyway.
Might make an interesting study that a major company would consider funding.
Apples stakeholders only care about themselves. Brexiters will hopefully see this as a good reason to move away from the "other" walled garden.
So what do you want, should Apple pay for that stupid decision you made?
You badly mischaracterize a supermajority of people if you think they hate Hillary because she's a woman. As long as leftists believe that sort of rubbish, they're not going to understand what drives politics in America.
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The British pound has been declining against the US dollar for decades. A century ago, a pound traded for US$4.70.
Long term, it's a question of economic strength and which country waters its currency more, and those things in turn depend on the mentality of the general public of each nation.
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The slashdot users know (mostly) how to fix it, but it ain't gonna happen. Take a look at which articles have the most comments, and which ones are almost ignored. Political flamewars draw attention, the tech that slashdot is supposedly based on doesn't. We lose.
As far as I'm aware, there's no social site with a moderating system as good as slashdot's, and a page format that's as good as slashdot's, that draws a good crowd and stays focused on tech.
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"Should" implies a goal of some sort. The goal implied by your plan is the poverty of every person on the planet.
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Hillary Clinton was held to an impossible standard, one that is never applied to any male candidate. Have you ever heard a man called "shrill"? Every single "scandal" was either completely overblown or just straight up manufactured. Trump's numerous scandals were just ignored. And I don't blame fake news, because there's always fake news. I blame every single voter who chose to believe complete bullshit because they WANTED to believe it.
If you don't think much of that double standard is because she is a woman then you are living in a make-believe world.
No, it absolutely wasn't the only reason she lost. She absolutely did ignore those left behind by globalism and that's the enduring message of this election.
He openly mocked a disabled reporter...in front of camera...while he was running for President. I'm not sure how to explain that to my disabled child. Any ideas?
He spent years claiming that President Obama was a Kenyan Muslim. The list goes on and on.
If you voted for Trump then you are an asshole, it's not anymore complicated than that.
Really, HAHA
The other side of the GBP depreciation: companies that make apps in UK and profit is calculated in GBP, are making more profits in overseas markets. The selling point of currency depreciation is boot to exports at the expense of import consumption. In other words, producers get richer and consumers — poorer. Unless the trickle down economics actually work.
I should clarify my comment, on some purchases, for customers in some states, the company adds tax, generally around 8%. So US customers pay 99 cents PLUS tax.
When the company collects VAT, it's INCLUDED in the sticker price - it's illegal in the UK, I understand, to show customers who they are really paying by listing it as "+0.80 purchase price plus VAT".
Anyway, after the currency conversion, the company is charging the same amount. The extra that UK customers pay is the government charging higher taxes.
Yes, you are right. But don't you think it's interesting that historically Apple products have cost more in the UK than in the US even after taking VAT into account. And why when the pound hit $2 in 2007 and 2008 didn't it lower prices? It seems that currency moves only cause Apply to raise prices, not to lower them.
Typically, when the price is highly visible to the consumer, certain price points work best: 0.99, 1.49, etc. You don't price an app or a hamburger at 1.82. To achieve that, you "bundle" your price increases.
A similar aesthetic could be achieved by showing the attractive USD price, and the converted price in a smaller font, or even on a different page/view/whatever (although that's kind of shitty). I've seen this approach in a few places.
Is this the daily "Let's all scream at Apple article?" Slashdot is becoming a fucking joke.
Yeah lets, put our prices up because we can. It's not like brexit is increasing the price it cost apple to run the store and deliver apps. They're just not making quite as much pure profit of that shit and we all know how tight apples margins are...
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The century-old pound was a different currency, literally. The current currency started in 1971 with decimalisation.
This article perfectly encapsulates the extent to which globalists are scared and their complete lack of denial on the inequalities globalism has created:
Davos Elite Fret About Inequality Over Vintage Wine and Canapes
Much of this year's Davos meetings have been globalist hand-wringing over the surge in populism and the rejection of globalism, and the majority of Davos speakers are rejecting any notion of increases in labor negotiating or doing anything substantive about reducing economic inequality.
The article author does a pretty good job in questioning why the Davos globalists are unwilling to do anything that directly addresses the issues that have substantially led to an increase in anti-globalist sentiment.
I think you can create all kinds of narratives about why Hillary lost, and Hillary's personality/image had a lot to do with it, but I think a lot of it had to do with the attitude that Hillary was a big corporation globalist at the end of the day.
No Brexit has reduced the price that Apple (and the developers) get for apps sold in the UK store because 79p is now significantly less than 99c once you subtract the 20% VAT that Apple has to give to the government for everything sold in the UK store. The pound loses value, so of course imports into the UK are going to cost more. Why is this even a thing?
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I know, that's what I said, apples margins are so tight and their costs so high that they can't afford not to jack the prices. They need the import fees and duty for the apps to be paid after all. It would probably be different if they were sitting on one of the largest piles of cash around and it's beyond the pale that individual developers could increase prices if they felt their apps were now undervalued. Nope, total across the board price increase is the right thing to do. I wonder, when the pound goes back up if they will reduce the prices. Somehow, I doubt it.
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> But don't you think it's interesting that historically Apple products have cost more in the UK than in the US even after taking VAT into account.
Not really, at least not "interesting" in any kind of mysterious way. Transportation costs are different, taxes are higher in the UK, etc. Since the US tax structure is different from every other country, technically Apple is supposed to pay taxes on UK revenue in both the UK AND the US. So just The tax differences alone could easily make a 10% difference in the total price paid (separate from being included vs being added in the advertised price).
The stuff the government pays for isn't "free", I'm not surprised it costs money.
> It seems that currency moves only cause Apply to raise prices, not to lower them.
Yeah nominal prices tend to go up over time, not down. That's inflation, and it's much better than the alternative, deflation. In theory, Apple could reduce prices on Tuesday due to exchange rates, after increasing them on Monday due to inflation, but that would be a bit silly since you end up with the same price by neither increasing it on Monday nor decreasing it on Tuesday. Instead, most retailers periodically increase nominal prices to reflect current costs, including inflation and all other factors.
Historically, over about the past decade up until the pound took a bath following the Brexit vote, Apple have charged very close to the same amount for their products in the UK as in the USA, once one takes VAT into account. The difference for most products has usually been within a few percentage points. Admittedly for some products the difference has been larger, but for their more expensive items the prices have tended to be close.
Occasionally currency fluctuations have meant that some Apple products have been cheaper in the UK than the USA (once VAT is considered) - that was the case when I bought my MacBook Pro a few years ago.
Apple tends to only very rarely adjust their pricing and will generally ride out currency fluctuations, preferring instead to maintain consistent pricing for their products. The adjustments they have made to GBP pricing were done many months after the pound had devalued. Typically their adjustments are done on much longer timescales (years) but as the pound dropped off a cliff it's not surprising they've made these adjustments faster.
In this particular case, this is an automatic re-pricing of apps so that developers around the world won't be taking a bath on product sales to the UK. Those developers can choose to re-price their product at a newly introduced lower price band to let said products continue to be priced at 79p in the UK should they choose to do so.
Sure, here's how to explain it. He appeared genuine, warts and all.
Genuine? He was caught on tape lying so many times I can't count. Constantly denied saying what he was on tape saying. I guess you mean he appeared to be a genuine LIAR.
When the company collects VAT, it's INCLUDED in the sticker price - it's illegal in the UK, I understand, to show customers who they are really paying by listing it as "+0.80 purchase price plus VAT".
It's not illegal to show the price before VAT in the UK. However, for goods aimed at consumers, the price you pay at the till (including any applicable taxes) must be the most prominently displayed price. My understanding is it's the opposite in the US, where it's common not to show customers how much they will be paying, by not including taxes, mail in rebates, service charges, etc. That seems bizarre to me.
Since we are going to stand on the trapdoor and invoke Article 50 in March, dropping to $1.10 by the end of the year is now a mainstream forecast, so a fall to parity isn't exactly an outrageous outlier.
'Sure, here's how to explain it. He appeared genuine, warts and all.'
Ok, a genuine racist, misogynistic asshole. Those who voted for him are enablers for his views.
At least the TPP is dead.
New Zealanders are well balanced with a chip on each shoulder. One represents Australia, the other the rest of the world
Immediately before he started pantomiming the reporters disability, he refers to the an article "written by a nice reporter" and then goes on to say "Now, the poor guy, you ought to see this guy, ‘Ah, I don’t know what I said, I don’t remember, I don’t remember, maybe that’s what I said.’”.
He is directly miming the reporter's disability while saying "the poor guy, you ought to see this guy". Watch the video--it doesn't pass the smell test.
This is a reporter who covered Trump directly for many years, interviewing him many times.