Apple: dollar = euro?

[McVenco]

I'm currently saving to buy a 24" iMac, which I'll buy (new) from a friend. He works at Apple and gets ~25% discount on store prices.

Just to be curious, I compared the US prices to the prices here in Holland, and apparently the prices are (almost) literally the same. A basic iMac costs 1199 dollars in the US, and 1199 Euros here in Holland (which is ~1675 dollars).

I understand the principles of profit/customs etc., but I think a 40% higher price is quite much. Even with the 25% discount I will pay the regular US price.

What could be the reason for this difference? A quick look on the different local Apple sites shows that almost all non-US prices are much higher than the domestic ones...

[motorollin]

It's a different market. The prices are bound to be different. You wouldn't expect to pay the same for a loaf of bread in the US as you do in your own country would you? :-)

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moto

[McVenco]

I wouldn't indeed... But the bread thing has got to do with way more things, like local costs of grain, personell and all other kinds of bakery costs.
AFAIK, all those iMacs are made in the same factory (or few factories), with the same costs of materials, so that 40% difference has got to be some other reason.
And for as far as I checked, ALL non-US prices (except for Canada perhaps) are quite a lot higher (with the EU as maximum - even in Japan they cost 200 dollars more), and I really doubt that all the money in that percentage is for costs like transport, customs etc.

[motorollin]

Cost of production is only one of many factors involved in deciding the price of an item. The manufacturer/retailer will not just arbitrarily add a markup to however much it costs to make the item. They will take things like the local economy and public demand in to consideration.

In a country like the US, there may be significantly higher demand for those items. High demand + high supply = low prices. In other countries there may be less demand but the same supply, which will increase the retail cost.

The perception of value of any given item will differ both within and between countries. Maybe Apple's market research has shown that people outside the US value their products more than those within the US, and so will be prepared to pay more for it.

If a country's economy is doing very well, IOW people are earning good money and have lots of disposable income, then vendors are bound to take advantage of that by raising their prices.

So as you see it's not as simply as the manufacturer saying "It costs us $x to produce this no matter where we sell it, so lets sell it for $x + our markup of $y". They are not that scrupulous. Any retailer/manufacturer will want to sell at the highest price they can to maximise their surplus (profit), and that is why they set the prices at different amounts for different countries.

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moto