I'm not really sure how much Apple sells in Brazil. Companies like this tend to ignore "smaller" markets, disregarding them as "too small", or, sell their product as a very expensive niche product.
In Argentina this is the situation with Apple (they only sell through "importers", with no support from Apple directly). XBOX/PS are in the same idea. Microsoft has been in Argentina for over 25 years, they export services, etc. But they don't officially sell XBOX360 or games. These are sold through importers, and with a credit card from Argentina, you can't access XBOX Live (not even to install the Netflix app).
I call bullshit on the "rights" thing fanboys use to justify that (blah blah they could get in trouble for selling stuff through live if other company has distribution rights). Netflix has had NO issues in LATAM since they released their service here.
Apple DOES NOT sell their phones "officially" in Brazil or Argentina (and most of latin america).
In fact, Apple only sells to US/Can/EU/AUS/JP (and counted exceptions) and pretty much that. Even if you had the money to buy an iphone here, you wouldn't be able to, since apple just does not want your filthy drug-tainted thrid world money. Or maybe they see it as a too small market.
The only way to get an iphone 5 here is to buy a bootlegged one, for an astonishing 2500 US dollars.
BTW: The iphone 3GS was sold officially for a while. It sold like hot cakes, everyone wanted one, and you were lucky to get one.
My dad has a shop authorized by Philips. Not even fucking PHILIPS can get the parts. Nowadays if it's too complicated, you get a replacement. They don't stock parts, which is unveliebably stupid: a TV has 4 parts: the case, the panel, the PSU and the main board. it's always the PSU. but they won't stock PSUs, so, you get a new tv for a blown power transistor. For SOME models they do have parts (if the failure rate is too high, or if the problem has been identified and it's simple as replacing a transistor or photo-coupler)
One time we asked why.. off the record? Philips TV business is no longer based in Holland, it's now China. New policy from china: replace tv under warranty, FUCK the customer when warranty ends.
Here (Argentina) I can get a sim, like, anywhere. All small drugstores carry them and they cost less than USD 2. I just need to have money (no ID required). They are usually pre-activated and the phone number is in a label on it.
I can either do a "virtual recharge" (where you pay there and they instantly recharge whatever amount you want), or get a scratchable card.
The prices suck, though. I think it's about USD 0,30/min for calls and 0,10 per sms. Internet is not that bad, it's USD 0,20 a day "unlimited (limited to 10MB unlimited, then limited to 64kbps after that, but for 0,20 again you can "unlimit" it again - you know how the fine prints work, with their own definition of unlimited). Unlimited internet is artificially limited to 5Mbit for the "white" sims, and it's faster for "red" sim cards (not prepaid) and unlimited for the "black" sim cards (data only).
Lil nitpick: Máxima's father is not a "war" criminal since Argentina wasn't in a war at the time. Left-wing activists claim the man is a "represor" as they call them here. "Represores" were people in Argentina's last military governemnt who actively participated in the "forced disappearance" of dissidents.
The man was Minister of Agriculture. The trend nowadays is to tag anyone who worked at the government at the time to be a "represor". By that measure, my mother must have been one, since she was a high school teacher (a state employee).
You have to understand that Argentina is now under a "regime" of former leftist-revolutionaries. Most high profile government officials (even the president herself) have been part of the group known as Montoneros (a communist/anarchist revolutionary group known for bombing the restaurant of the police headquarter's, killing only policemen children and wives; and for kidnaping a plane, forcing it down in Formosa, and take a military base at 6 AM killing all soldiers -in training- while they were waking up or showering - poor soldiers no older than 20 who traded their day off with richer kids for a few pesos).
Our minister of defense is a woman who was in the higher ranks of Montoneros, and photos of her in the jungle carrying an assault rifle have appeared and she hasn't denied. They failed in taking down the military at the time, so they're destroying it from inside now (look at the news of ships sinking IN THE PORT).
So anything you hear from Argentina, take it with much care. This isn't a government of communists. This is a government of TERRORISTS.
Yes, and I could write down "these things were bought by a girl that looked about 15". And the time and date. And all other data.
In japan, for example, "convenience stores" keep track of as many factors as possible. They are the extreme of JIT (just-in-time). Tiny shops but restocked several times a day. Even weather is taken into account (is it going to rain? Stock the shops with umbrellas). But the interesting part is that each store is customized to deliver the maximum efficiency in sales. All stores have "pretty much the same" , but each one has more of this and less of that.
Data is amazing when you look at it and see trends you don't see by loosely writing down sales. If you have a facebook account, try Wolfram Alpha's new facebook analyzer thing. It's amazing how much it can tell you about yourself.
I'm a small shop. I sell comic books. I'd love to track my customers purchases. I don't want to pin individuals, i just want to know what genres sell more, what age ranges am i targeting, and other things that will help me decide what and when to buy. I want to see the trends.
At what times do i sell more? Do i need to be open at 9AM or can i open at 11AM and not lose a significant amount of money? Publisher wants to release a new comic book - it's from author X, genre Y. Should I buy 10? 20? 100 units?
Really, tracking customers isn't evil. It's good for them (since i don't understock) and me (since i don't overstock). It has nothing to do with being an evil mastermind controlling sticking into the lives of people. I'm not interested in offering personalized attention like Amazon does.
Not all businesses are so large that cash is such a hassle. I run a small shop (not in US) and I'm pretty comfortable with cash. Yes, the only "issue" is depositing the money, but it's nothing i can't do after hours at any ATM. My store doesn't make "thousands" each day.
From my experience, even at big stores (supermarket with centralized CC systems instead of individual, dial-up POS), paying with CC takes a long time. Really long (over 1 minute of waiting between swipe, authorization, receipt print,etc . made even worse since they use the same printer for tickets and CC receipts. since tickets are legal documents here, you are supposed to store them for 10 years, so they have to be dot matrix and not thermal paper).
FWIW: the 15% margin comes from when you make a "ZERO INTEREST" promo. Visa charges the customer in fixed monthly payments of, say, $600 in 6 months, the customer sees $ 100/mo for every month. But they are a bank, and they need to get their interest from somewhere. So they charge the merchant a higher fee. It's all psychological.
Here in argentina you can't charge any "surcharges" for CC operations. But you can offer a "cash discount". You just have to say that with CC you pay a "list price" and in cash you pay "discount".
But... over here the CC charge is over 6%, Plus 0.16% tax on any "movement" of money (the government keeps.16% of any wire transfer or check). Plus you have to pay about $40/mo in "rental" of the CC terminal (you can't own it). And a lot of other bullshit: you have to ask the customer for ID or refuse to sell, you have to wait for the whole CC processing, wait for the receipt, have the customer sign it, keep the receipts. Some CC make the payout within 48 hours, others only once a month.
In short, CC operations are really a burden. Visa does not try to make it easy. You can only negotiate with them if you are huge (ONLY starbucks and mcdonalds let you pay with CC with no signature or ID).
Some types of business are required to operate with CC: clothing, shoes, electronics. Other kinds of businesses can do without. So far I (comic book store) have been CC-less but customers are pressuring me. I won't doubt about chargin extra, mind you. From the 30% fixed margin I get, I already have to pay for transportation, plastic bags (the kind i use is amazingly expensive at $0,10 per unit), losses (a lot of comic books come damaged). I really can't take a 6-15% hit in CC fees (effectively cutting my profit in 50%!!!!)
Yeah, one thing, the fact that you have a highly stay-at-home-doing-the-shopping-and-reading-online-reviews culture doesn't mean you're any more advanced than we are. While I'd like to have a local "amazon", the fact that there isn't one is simply a cultural thing. Even in 2013, people just don't like buying a fridge over the internet. they very much prefer going down to a big box store and get it there. It's their culture (I don't completely share it. I prefer online shopping, but then again, who am I to judge?).
It's also a culture of talking high, moving your hands a lot, and touching your conversational partner all the time - things that anglo-saxons think of as rude (simply because it's out of their comfort zone).
Again: it's a culture thing. Not a technological one.
I run a comic book shop, and I sell a lot more through facebook ads+physical store than I do over the web. In fact, the biggest problem for me isn't bandwidth or setting up a cart. It's the ridiculously lame commisions the cc processor has (over 15%) and shipping costs ($10 to ship a $3 magazine - and yes, I talked to a post sales rep. basically, they have no interest in my silly shop).
Sorry. Linux on the desktop is a failure both from a technical and political point of view. The fact that developers can't settle down on a single choice is what makes it fail every time.
Recently I got my hands on debian wheezy's default gnome desktop. What good is a desktop manager that tries too hard NOT to look like windows? Especially when in previous versions they did all in their power to be a Mac. Why is it that every window manager feels that the mac-style top bar IS the way to go? Why do gnome 3.4 devs think that no one should need a minimize or maximize button? WHY OH WHY is the clock in the center of the top bar? Why can't i change the position of that bar without a plugin? Why can't I even hide useless icons from the bar (I don't need the accessibility icon, thank you very much) without a plugin? Why is it that we STILL have two clipboards, the one that fucks everything in your copy buffer when you accidentally select something, and the other that needs ctrl-C/Ctrl-V, and doesn't quite work in every application (since some pure X11 apps don't honor gnome's clipboard). Why does it capture the screen to a file instead to the copy buffer, so i can paste straight to GIMP instead of having to open a file?
Sorry pal, the linux "desktop" is full of issues. When developers get their shit together, and start working in one direction together, it may work. But since everyone likes to do whatever the fuck they want, then we'll never get a real desktop.
The zune wasn't a failure. Its "failure" was the result of MS-hate from cocky web 2.0 apple bloggers. There is nothing technically wrong with it. It's just that no product, no matter how good it is, can stand the scoffing of turtleneck-wearing "journalists" who laugh at the choice of color. "DURRR WHO WOULD BUY A BROWN ZUNE?".
But it's perfectly ok to get a one-size-fits-all ipod.
*cue in "missing the point" zealots pointing out that ipod comes in several versions*
Low-end? More low end than the sub-$200 Galaxy Ace? More low end than even the sub-$100 (!) android phones all over Latin America?
sheesh. I like it when people from the "first world" opinates on "developing markets" and "low end". (don't take it personal, previous poster, but i mean the devs and stuff).
I live in latin america. you know why people get smartphones? cause they can't afford, or don't even want computers. and they want chat and facebook and a smartphone gives them what they need (it even works when either power is out, or where there is no fixed internet service like cable or dsl). yes, "most"people live within reach of fixed internet service. and almost everyone has wifi if they got that (from my house to the city center, in 10 blocks, i mapped over 400 wifi networks in range!)
but internet service is slow to get to the "fastest growing" areas: the "outskirts" of the cities. over there it's 3G all the way
you know which smartphones they get? Galaxy S2 and S3. Milestone/2/3. Razr. Razr I. (most of them assembled in Argentina). Myself? I got an HTC sensation. back in 2010 they projected sales of 25.000 units of Milestone in argentina. it sold over 100.000. you had to be in a waiting list. now almost every phone they offer is a smartphone. basic phones are difficult to find.
i can only speak from experience. I don't know how good or bad other countries are. some countries are supposedly better (Chile), others worse (Bolivia). but smartphones are by no means unseen things here.
the big exception is the iphone, since Apple is simply not interested in this market (no idea why. the iphone 3G was available and it was a huge success). You can buy an imported, no-warranty iphone, but you can't get a subsidized one from a telco.
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I'm not really sure how much Apple sells in Brazil.
Companies like this tend to ignore "smaller" markets, disregarding them as "too small", or, sell their product as a very expensive niche product.
In Argentina this is the situation with Apple (they only sell through "importers", with no support from Apple directly). XBOX/PS are in the same idea. Microsoft has been in Argentina for over 25 years, they export services, etc. But they don't officially sell XBOX360 or games. These are sold through importers, and with a credit card from Argentina, you can't access XBOX Live (not even to install the Netflix app).
I call bullshit on the "rights" thing fanboys use to justify that (blah blah they could get in trouble for selling stuff through live if other company has distribution rights). Netflix has had NO issues in LATAM since they released their service here.
Opel/Vauxhall and in latin america: Chevrolet.
My mom had a Chevrolet Meriva, while someone from the UK had a Vauxhall Meriva, and someone from europe had an Opel Meriva.
Apple DOES NOT sell their phones "officially" in Brazil or Argentina (and most of latin america).
In fact, Apple only sells to US/Can/EU/AUS/JP (and counted exceptions) and pretty much that. Even if you had the money to buy an iphone here, you wouldn't be able to, since apple just does not want your filthy drug-tainted thrid world money. Or maybe they see it as a too small market.
The only way to get an iphone 5 here is to buy a bootlegged one, for an astonishing 2500 US dollars.
BTW: The iphone 3GS was sold officially for a while. It sold like hot cakes, everyone wanted one, and you were lucky to get one.
My dad has a shop authorized by Philips. Not even fucking PHILIPS can get the parts. Nowadays if it's too complicated, you get a replacement. They don't stock parts, which is unveliebably stupid: a TV has 4 parts: the case, the panel, the PSU and the main board. it's always the PSU. but they won't stock PSUs, so, you get a new tv for a blown power transistor. For SOME models they do have parts (if the failure rate is too high, or if the problem has been identified and it's simple as replacing a transistor or photo-coupler)
One time we asked why.. off the record? Philips TV business is no longer based in Holland, it's now China. New policy from china: replace tv under warranty, FUCK the customer when warranty ends.
You just don't get it, do you? You don't get to tell me what fucking phone I can use.
Meh, AC, later i realized i could have said "You're missing THE POINT"
Here (Argentina) I can get a sim, like, anywhere. All small drugstores carry them and they cost less than USD 2. I just need to have money (no ID required). They are usually pre-activated and the phone number is in a label on it.
I can either do a "virtual recharge" (where you pay there and they instantly recharge whatever amount you want), or get a scratchable card.
The prices suck, though. I think it's about USD 0,30/min for calls and 0,10 per sms. Internet is not that bad, it's USD 0,20 a day "unlimited (limited to 10MB unlimited, then limited to 64kbps after that, but for 0,20 again you can "unlimit" it again - you know how the fine prints work, with their own definition of unlimited). Unlimited internet is artificially limited to 5Mbit for the "white" sims, and it's faster for "red" sim cards (not prepaid) and unlimited for the "black" sim cards (data only).
It's a one-size-fits-all contract. And all carriers have more or less the same terms.
You cannot negotiate the contract. If you don't like it, you're stuck with an old phone
another victory for 'MURICA FREEDOM.
you're missing a period.
Err, no
less glass = better picture.
that's why a prime lens (fixed focal distance) gives much better images than a zoom lens.
more glass = more tiny imperfections that amplify in the light's path.
of course, the convenience of zooms usually outweighs any gains in image quality (usually. not always.)
Lil nitpick: Máxima's father is not a "war" criminal since Argentina wasn't in a war at the time. Left-wing activists claim the man is a "represor" as they call them here. "Represores" were people in Argentina's last military governemnt who actively participated in the "forced disappearance" of dissidents.
The man was Minister of Agriculture. The trend nowadays is to tag anyone who worked at the government at the time to be a "represor". By that measure, my mother must have been one, since she was a high school teacher (a state employee).
You have to understand that Argentina is now under a "regime" of former leftist-revolutionaries. Most high profile government officials (even the president herself) have been part of the group known as Montoneros (a communist/anarchist revolutionary group known for bombing the restaurant of the police headquarter's, killing only policemen children and wives; and for kidnaping a plane, forcing it down in Formosa, and take a military base at 6 AM killing all soldiers -in training- while they were waking up or showering - poor soldiers no older than 20 who traded their day off with richer kids for a few pesos).
Our minister of defense is a woman who was in the higher ranks of Montoneros, and photos of her in the jungle carrying an assault rifle have appeared and she hasn't denied. They failed in taking down the military at the time, so they're destroying it from inside now (look at the news of ships sinking IN THE PORT).
So anything you hear from Argentina, take it with much care. This isn't a government of communists. This is a government of TERRORISTS.
Yes, and I could write down "these things were bought by a girl that looked about 15". And the time and date. And all other data.
In japan, for example, "convenience stores" keep track of as many factors as possible. They are the extreme of JIT (just-in-time). Tiny shops but restocked several times a day. Even weather is taken into account (is it going to rain? Stock the shops with umbrellas). But the interesting part is that each store is customized to deliver the maximum efficiency in sales. All stores have "pretty much the same" , but each one has more of this and less of that.
Data is amazing when you look at it and see trends you don't see by loosely writing down sales. If you have a facebook account, try Wolfram Alpha's new facebook analyzer thing. It's amazing how much it can tell you about yourself.
I'm a small shop. I sell comic books. I'd love to track my customers purchases. I don't want to pin individuals, i just want to know what genres sell more, what age ranges am i targeting, and other things that will help me decide what and when to buy. I want to see the trends.
At what times do i sell more? Do i need to be open at 9AM or can i open at 11AM and not lose a significant amount of money?
Publisher wants to release a new comic book - it's from author X, genre Y. Should I buy 10? 20? 100 units?
Really, tracking customers isn't evil. It's good for them (since i don't understock) and me (since i don't overstock). It has nothing to do with being an evil mastermind controlling sticking into the lives of people. I'm not interested in offering personalized attention like Amazon does.
Not all businesses are so large that cash is such a hassle. I run a small shop (not in US) and I'm pretty comfortable with cash. Yes, the only "issue" is depositing the money, but it's nothing i can't do after hours at any ATM. My store doesn't make "thousands" each day.
From my experience, even at big stores (supermarket with centralized CC systems instead of individual, dial-up POS), paying with CC takes a long time. Really long (over 1 minute of waiting between swipe, authorization, receipt print,etc . made even worse since they use the same printer for tickets and CC receipts. since tickets are legal documents here, you are supposed to store them for 10 years, so they have to be dot matrix and not thermal paper).
FWIW: the 15% margin comes from when you make a "ZERO INTEREST" promo. Visa charges the customer in fixed monthly payments of, say, $600 in 6 months, the customer sees $ 100/mo for every month. But they are a bank, and they need to get their interest from somewhere. So they charge the merchant a higher fee. It's all psychological.
Here in argentina you can't charge any "surcharges" for CC operations. But you can offer a "cash discount". You just have to say that with CC you pay a "list price" and in cash you pay "discount".
But... over here the CC charge is over 6%, Plus 0.16% tax on any "movement" of money (the government keeps .16% of any wire transfer or check). Plus you have to pay about $40/mo in "rental" of the CC terminal (you can't own it). And a lot of other bullshit: you have to ask the customer for ID or refuse to sell, you have to wait for the whole CC processing, wait for the receipt, have the customer sign it, keep the receipts.
Some CC make the payout within 48 hours, others only once a month.
In short, CC operations are really a burden. Visa does not try to make it easy. You can only negotiate with them if you are huge (ONLY starbucks and mcdonalds let you pay with CC with no signature or ID).
Some types of business are required to operate with CC: clothing, shoes, electronics. Other kinds of businesses can do without. So far I (comic book store) have been CC-less but customers are pressuring me. I won't doubt about chargin extra, mind you. From the 30% fixed margin I get, I already have to pay for transportation, plastic bags (the kind i use is amazingly expensive at $0,10 per unit), losses (a lot of comic books come damaged). I really can't take a 6-15% hit in CC fees (effectively cutting my profit in 50%!!!!)
No. It was brown but it wasn't an ipod.
Pretty sure if apple released a brown ipod it would be THE shit.
Yeah, one thing, the fact that you have a highly stay-at-home-doing-the-shopping-and-reading-online-reviews culture doesn't mean you're any more advanced than we are. While I'd like to have a local "amazon", the fact that there isn't one is simply a cultural thing. Even in 2013, people just don't like buying a fridge over the internet. they very much prefer going down to a big box store and get it there. It's their culture (I don't completely share it. I prefer online shopping, but then again, who am I to judge?).
It's also a culture of talking high, moving your hands a lot, and touching your conversational partner all the time - things that anglo-saxons think of as rude (simply because it's out of their comfort zone).
Again: it's a culture thing. Not a technological one.
I run a comic book shop, and I sell a lot more through facebook ads+physical store than I do over the web. In fact, the biggest problem for me isn't bandwidth or setting up a cart. It's the ridiculously lame commisions the cc processor has (over 15%) and shipping costs ($10 to ship a $3 magazine - and yes, I talked to a post sales rep. basically, they have no interest in my silly shop).
Not everyone is a geek like you.
Ah, good ol' AC with nothing to say. You forgot to specify which phone you bought.
So, Brazil isn't in LATAM, AC? RTFS.
Sorry. Linux on the desktop is a failure both from a technical and political point of view. The fact that developers can't settle down on a single choice is what makes it fail every time.
Recently I got my hands on debian wheezy's default gnome desktop. What good is a desktop manager that tries too hard NOT to look like windows? Especially when in previous versions they did all in their power to be a Mac.
Why is it that every window manager feels that the mac-style top bar IS the way to go? Why do gnome 3.4 devs think that no one should need a minimize or maximize button? WHY OH WHY is the clock in the center of the top bar? Why can't i change the position of that bar without a plugin? Why can't I even hide useless icons from the bar (I don't need the accessibility icon, thank you very much) without a plugin?
Why is it that we STILL have two clipboards, the one that fucks everything in your copy buffer when you accidentally select something, and the other that needs ctrl-C/Ctrl-V, and doesn't quite work in every application (since some pure X11 apps don't honor gnome's clipboard). Why does it capture the screen to a file instead to the copy buffer, so i can paste straight to GIMP instead of having to open a file?
Sorry pal, the linux "desktop" is full of issues. When developers get their shit together, and start working in one direction together, it may work. But since everyone likes to do whatever the fuck they want, then we'll never get a real desktop.
The zune wasn't a failure. Its "failure" was the result of MS-hate from cocky web 2.0 apple bloggers. There is nothing technically wrong with it. It's just that no product, no matter how good it is, can stand the scoffing of turtleneck-wearing "journalists" who laugh at the choice of color. "DURRR WHO WOULD BUY A BROWN ZUNE?".
But it's perfectly ok to get a one-size-fits-all ipod.
*cue in "missing the point" zealots pointing out that ipod comes in several versions*
Low-end? More low end than the sub-$200 Galaxy Ace? More low end than even the sub-$100 (!) android phones all over Latin America?
sheesh. I like it when people from the "first world" opinates on "developing markets" and "low end". (don't take it personal, previous poster, but i mean the devs and stuff).
I live in latin america. you know why people get smartphones? cause they can't afford, or don't even want computers. and they want chat and facebook and a smartphone gives them what they need (it even works when either power is out, or where there is no fixed internet service like cable or dsl). yes, "most"people live within reach of fixed internet service. and almost everyone has wifi if they got that (from my house to the city center, in 10 blocks, i mapped over 400 wifi networks in range!)
but internet service is slow to get to the "fastest growing" areas: the "outskirts" of the cities. over there it's 3G all the way
you know which smartphones they get? Galaxy S2 and S3. Milestone/2/3. Razr. Razr I. (most of them assembled in Argentina). Myself? I got an HTC sensation. back in 2010 they projected sales of 25.000 units of Milestone in argentina. it sold over 100.000. you had to be in a waiting list. now almost every phone they offer is a smartphone. basic phones are difficult to find.
i can only speak from experience. I don't know how good or bad other countries are. some countries are supposedly better (Chile), others worse (Bolivia). but smartphones are by no means unseen things here.
the big exception is the iphone, since Apple is simply not interested in this market (no idea why. the iphone 3G was available and it was a huge success). You can buy an imported, no-warranty iphone, but you can't get a subsidized one from a telco.
https://dx.com/p/android-4-0-mini-pc-google-tv-player-w-wifi-allwinner-a10-cortex-a8-tf-hdmi-white-4gb-137012
You were saying, anon?