iPad 2 here on Friday

[Tick]

Can we really just compare prices like that considering the different incomes and standards of living in other countries?

Yes. BUT, prices are affected locally by:
1. Market conditions such as how much competition is there in a country, can customers easily get it elsewhere, "what the market will bear", "are customers used to cheap prices (Asia) or to being ripped off (SA)"
2. Local taxes and customs
3. Actual physical geographic factors like shipping costs
4. Actual local economic cost factors like cost of labor, minimum wage, marketing costs etc. for local middle-men and local support systems etc.
5. Relative risk margins (e.g. exchange rate fluctuations)
6. Local market size (economies of scale)

Other than these, production costs (minus shipping) are basically identical for all countries. It has zero to do with "income" or "standards of living" though in a country (except to the extent that helps determine 'what the market will bear' after competition is factored in), it has to do with the above. In South Africa, there is one distributor with an effective monopoly on distribution (Core Group), so there is no competition. Profit maximization models are then used to determine pricing. Also if your market happily bend over and say "it's about the same as Europe so hey, we'll pay up", and local sites like MyBB claim that the prices are "competitive" and people believe it, then prices WILL be set high.

 

[milomak]

I did check the UK pricing, and it is higher in the UK (though very close), but as I pointed out, UK has a 20% VAT rate - so actually, it's still a fair bit more expensive here.

when you compare the US price, it implies an exchange rate of something around 9.10. xe.com has USDZAR at around 6.60. You have to be adding some serious margin and taxes to equate the two prices.

 

[Tick]

when you compare the US price, it implies an exchange rate of something around 9.10. xe.com has USDZAR at around 6.60. You have to be adding some serious margin and taxes to equate the two prices.

?? What are you talking about? (I used current exchange rates from Google, for the record, and I don't think I claimed anywhere that the exchange rate is 9.10 .. let me check .. according to my spreadsheet, 6.652) .. I think you are confused about what column is what, or something.

 

[milomak]

?? What are you talking about? (I used current exchange rates from Google, for the record, and I don't think I claimed anywhere that the exchange rate is 9.10 .. let me check .. according to my spreadsheet, 6.652) .. I think you are confused about what column is what.

talking about the top end wifi+3g. SA price = R7599. US Price = $829. Implied exchange rate = 9.16

Which equates (roughly) to your 40% I think it was - (7599/(829*6.60))-1 = 38.9%

 

[Nissan23]

Is the Cell C Usb Data Speedstick Compatible with the new Ipad2 ?

I got my iPad 2 in London last month. I have the cell C 5Gb speedstick. You can go to Cell C and buy a Huawei wifi router for R599. Apparently they sell now from their head office in Sandton. But you can come off the street and get it. Really cheap at R599. I plug the speed stick into the router and turn on wifi on my iPad and use it like that. Really quick and really easy. I'm actually using it right now. Cheapest way to surf on your iPad. I also have a Vodacom micro sim inserted for when I'm away from home and don't feel like taking the router.

 

[Tick]

talking about the top end wifi+3g. SA price = R7599. US Price = $829. Implied exchange rate = 9.16

Which equates (roughly) to your 40% I think it was - (7599/(829*6.60))-1 = 38.9%

Huh? WTF ... that just doesn't make sense. You can't divide the ZAR retail price by the USD retail price and get an exchange rate, nor did I ever claim you could do anything that strange, assuming that's what you're accusing me of. The price difference is not from an exchange rate, that was the whole point. (Edit: Or are you talking about when I mentioned "exchange rate fluctuations"? That has nothing to do with anything, that is something else entirely, and does NOT explain the difference, since there is no way Core Group are expecting ZAR/USD to hit 9 in the next month ... what I mean is that if today's rate is say 6.0 but the average recent historic volatility per week (I'm simplifying) is say 0.5 either way then when Core is taking orders they have to price at current + 0.5 ... which is nowhere NEAR 9, and in any case, the USD is on a weakening trend)

 

[Anony-mousse]

Just having a look at a few other countries, for interest:

http://store.apple.com/cn/browse/home/shop_ipad/family/ipad

The low-end iPad in China starts at 2888 Chinese Yuan = R2950.73 (compared to our price of R 4 399.00) .. interesting, so it's even cheaper in China than in the US.

It's possible they're assembled or shipped regionally, lowering shipping costs, but I suspect it's more likely mainly that competition is heavier in China from lots of other cheap electronics, and the Chinese are a frugal bunch that know the actual meaning of the phrase 'competitive pricing' (hint, MyBroadband, THAT is what "competitive pricing" means, please stop using the phrase in the South African corporate context where it means "very high prices").

On the other end, Apple Brazil sells the 32GB model (R5399 here) for 1699 Brazil reais which if I am not mistaken (? I might be, as this seems very high) is R7208.40.

*Edit* Apple Mexico sells the 16GB basic model for R4015.24 (6999 Mexican pesos) (slightly cheaper than our R4399).
*Edit2* Apple Canada, R3 566.63
*Edit3* Apple Malaysia R2 678.47
*Edit4* Apple Australia R4 155.77
*Edit5* Apple Taiwan R2 974.13

Brazil has 50% import tax on electronics


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[milomak]

Huh? WTF ... that just doesn't make sense. You can't divide the ZAR retail price by the USD retail price and get an exchange rate, nor did I ever claim you could do anything that strange, assuming that's what you're accusing me of. The price difference is not from an exchange rate, that was the whole point. (Edit: Or are you talking about when I mentioned "exchange rate fluctuations"? That has nothing to do with anything, that is something else entirely, and does NOT explain the difference, since there is no way Core Group are expecting ZAR/USD to hit 9 in the next month ... what I mean is that if today's rate is say 6.0 but the average recent historic volatility per week (I'm simplifying) is say 0.5 either way then when Core is taking orders they have to price at current + 0.5 ... which is nowhere NEAR 9, and in any case, the USD is on a weakening trend)

whoa calm your horses fella. i didn't accuse you of anything.

you are failing to grasp how a concept can be expressed in one or more different forms.

you say that 64GB Wifi+3G is 40% more expensive than the US version (let's assume you said it was 40% in your workings - too lazy to go back).

so the apple.com US page lists that at USD829. You change that to ZAR using 6.652 means a Rand price of ZAR5,514.51. To get to the core price of ZAR7,599, one would need to add 37.8%.

Now look at this, what happens when you add 37.8% to 6.652? You get 9.16 (6.652 x 1.378).

Or to put it in another manner. For USD829 and ZAR7,599 to be equal, the exchange rate would have to be? you guessed it; 9,16.

The same thing. Said in a different manner. Much like 4x4 can be expressed as 8x2 but yet it is one and the same thing.

 

[mcryan]

The HTC Sensation looks sensational with the higher screen res. Will become a best seller very quickly.

Fully agreed!

 

[zaidmo]

whoa calm your horses fella. i didn't accuse you of anything.

you are failing to grasp how a concept can be expressed in one or more different forms.

you say that 64GB Wifi+3G is 40% more expensive than the US version (let's assume you said it was 40% in your workings - too lazy to go back).

so the apple.com US page lists that at USD829. You change that to ZAR using 6.652 means a Rand price of ZAR5,514.51. To get to the core price of ZAR7,599, one would need to add 37.8%.

Now look at this, what happens when you add 37.8% to 6.652? You get 9.16 (6.652 x 1.378).

Or to put it in another manner. For USD829 and ZAR7,599 to be equal, the exchange rate would have to be? you guessed it; 9,16.

The same thing. Said in a different manner. Much like 4x4 can be expressed as 8x2 but yet it is one and the same thing.

More like 1 + 50% (2/1) * (0.25 *4) instead of 1 + 1.
very confusing!

 

[MonTage]

I did check the UK pricing, and it is higher in the UK (though very close), but as I pointed out, UK has a 20% VAT rate - so actually, it's still a fair bit more expensive here.

iPad 2 Wifi 16Gb - R4,404.70(UK) - R4,399(SA)
iPad 2 Wifi 32Gb - R5,287.71(UK) - R5,399(SA)
iPad 2 Wifi 64Gb - R6,170.21(UK) - R6,399(SA)

Ok i just did the wifi only model pricing comparison between the UK and South African Pricing and TBH, Not much difference.
Unless you call +-R230 (at the most) a lot more. Then yes i can definitely see how we are getting ripped off.
We will NEVER get the same pricing as in the States, so get over it, or move over there.

 

[taajir]

well done
prices are good
i never thought it would be so fast

 

[mfumbesi]

The Galaxy Tab (the old 7" that is) price should come down to around R2500.

 

[Anony-mousse]

We will NEVER get the same pricing as in the States, so get over it, or move over there.

+1

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[Speedster]

Anyone have a first edition iPad they want to give away now?

 

[fwwwn]

At the high end, that's almost 40% higher. MyBB - "competitive"? Really? That looks like about the same markup Core Group have always charged.

Keep in mind Core Group pay LESS than the US retail prices.

The US prices don't have sales tax applied to them. And SA falls under the European distribution, i.e. we get our Apple stock from the UK. Also, while I don't particularly like Core, they are a middleman - they need to make some money somewhere as well... Can't expect them to sell products for the same price they buy them and still stay in business. Nevermind the duty that has to be paid on imports. And even if Apple had an official presence in SA, the prices might not be significantly cheaper. They have an official presence in the UK, and our prices are pretty much the same. The difference would be 7% at most (20% UK VAT - 14% SA VAT). When you take all this into account, the SA iPad prices are fairly decent.

 

[Speedster]

The US prices don't have sales tax applied to them. And SA falls under the European distribution, i.e. we get our Apple stock from the UK. Also, while I don't particularly like Core, they are a middleman - they need to make some money somewhere as well... Can't expect them to sell products for the same price they buy them and still stay in business. Nevermind the duty that has to be paid on imports. And even if Apple had an official presence in SA, the prices might not be significantly cheaper. They have an official presence in the UK, and our prices are pretty much the same. The difference would be 7% at most (20% UK VAT - 14% SA VAT). When you take all this into account, the SA iPad prices are fairly decent.

There aren't any duties to pay - laptops etc are duty free. They only have to pay VAT on the imports.

 

[simbao53]

iPad 2 Wifi 16Gb - R4,404.70(UK) - R4,399(SA)
iPad 2 Wifi 32Gb - R5,287.71(UK) - R5,399(SA)
iPad 2 Wifi 64Gb - R6,170.21(UK) - R6,399(SA)

Ok i just did the wifi only model pricing comparison between the UK and South African Pricing and TBH, Not much difference.
Unless you call +-R230 (at the most) a lot more. Then yes i can definitely see how we are getting ripped off.
We will NEVER get the same pricing as in the States, so get over it, or move over there.

+1

 

[iEverything]

Hi,

Tried calling a few stores and they don't even have stock yet and 'hope' to get this aft

If anyone 'hears' of stock being sold somewhere pls let us know.

Thanks

 

[milomak]

More like 1 + 50% (2/1) * (0.25 *4) instead of 1 + 1.
very confusing!

Some people will see the price competitiveness better if the price difference is expressed in exchange rate terms.

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