back to article Brits are Europe's biggest gadget buyers - official

Brits spent so much of their cash on electronics last year that the total amount of discretionary income splurged on technology in the UK ranked worldwide second only to the US. gadget_spend_map The UK loves its gadgets According to figures released by market watcher Euromonitor, the UK’s gadget-obsessed masses spent $44. …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ripoff Britain ?

    The article fails to take into account the fact that we pay 50% more for our Technology items than other countries. Everything is marked up a premium here... No suprise we end up spending more!

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Seems to me...

    ...that this doesn't show who buys the most gadgets, rather it shows a combination of who buys the most and where its more expensive. USA probably spend more money by buying a lot of gadgets rather than by paying more for gadgets. While in the UK you probably only need to buy half the amount of gadgets to spend the same amount of money as in the US.

    I'd like to see tables showing both these factors - cost and amount of gadgets - shown separately.

    Paris coz; exactly what type of gadgets are included in this survey?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Spend?

    I note that this says the amount spent - would that not mean countries with higher tax rates would effectively spend more on the same number of items? Also, if items cost more in one country wouldn't that skew the figures?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The amount the good stuff costs in Britain....

    ...spending more doesn't necessarily mean getting more.

  5. Peter Labrow

    According to my wife....

    I'm the one who is skewing that statistics in favour of the UK. Well, they put so much effort into making these things that it seems almost rude not to buy them.

  6. Jeff Clarke
    Thumb Up

    all rather pointless...

    ...without populations taken into account...he types on his new all singing all dancing iphone-alike gadget(omnia i900), which wouldn't even count...

  7. Chris
    Paris Hilton

    Yeah but...

    I'ts all on the never-never and that is why we are leading the recession too.

    Paris, because I never blow my load on gadgets

  8. Liam

    most money spent != biggest gadget buyers

    all this means is that we are being more ripped off than most people.

    for example why we can buy the same devices for the same £ as $ - double the price!

    look at all consoles and it equipment.

    look at how much more gadgets cost to us that in asia...

    its just confirming ripoff britain

  9. Lee Fear

    Second Class

    So we buy more stuff than anywhere else other then the US yet the tech companies still treat us a second class! Later releases, more expensive products.................

    In fact thinking about it we probably buy half of the gadgets that Japan buy, but as ours are 4 times the price we end up spending more....

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Meaningless

    What are the per capita figures?

  11. David Evans

    dubious stats

    Erm, does this account for exchange rates? I've a sneaking suspicion that the actual amount of physical kit bought per head in the UK is a fair bit lower than the US, even if we spend more money per head in dollar terms.

  12. Ad Fundum
    Unhappy

    Well duh!

    Of course we spent more than anyone else - everything costs more here!

  13. Mike Crawshaw
    Coat

    Fags and Booze FTW!!!

    The gov should also be celebrating £34bn on these, as that's probably worth at least £10-15bn in tax revenue (depending on the fags/booze split). Bastards.

    <-the one with a pack of Marlboros and a bottle of Jack.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    According to my trusty envelope-back...

    540 or so bucks per Amerkin versus 730 bucks per Engerlander.

    We have a new winner!

  15. Pete Randall
    Coat

    Not surprising...

    ...considering the cost of the bleedin' stuff. Drop the UK prices to US price levels and our spending would nearly halve.

    Mines the one with the PS3 in the pocket

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    I wonder..

    How much is spent state by state in the US.

    Because if you average it out amoung all 50 states, its just over 3bn each.. the cheap Alan B*Stard's. *lol*

    j/k - sorry most American seem to like boasting how big they are.. how each one of their states is about the size of a european country etc, so I often like whinding them up with dumb stuff like this. ;)

    *\. Mines the one with the American lock on the wallet coz I aint spending anythign either :p

  17. Jason Togneri
    Alert

    Or, to put it into perspective,

    USA: 162 USDbn / pop. 303.8 = 0.53 USD/person

    UK: 44.3 USDbn / pop. 60.9m = 0.73 USD/person

    Source: CIA World Factbook

    So, we can take one of two things from this. Either Brits spend more, per capita*, than Americans... or Brits pay 25% more for electronics. You choose.

    * yes I know that these are bad statistics, because the population figures include the young, the very old, and other marginal groups who aren't big technology spenders. But we all KNOW that we get roylly fucked for technology prices in the UK, so stick with the spirit of the thing, okay?

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Per capita?

    Has anyone got the time to work these totals out per capita? Would the ranking be any different, or would we then be seen to spoil ourselves even more than the Yanks?

    Oh, I'll do it. USA 300M retards, UK 60M pompous limeys = USA $540 and UK $738. Oh, we're the biggest money-wasters then. I think I'll put that second UMPC on hold...

  19. rory alsop

    @AC -

    the per capita figures are indicated by the colour.

    Still - it would be nice to have the numbers

  20. This post has been deleted by its author

  21. Alan Riaso
    Unhappy

    Rip-off UK

    The survey says the UK spent more on gadgets than any other country except for the US. This doesn't meant they bought more gadgets, just that they paid more for them. The UK is a rip-off for tech goods. On units sold I think we both know Japan and maybe China would come before the UK.

  22. Dr. Mouse

    @ Alan Riaso

    "I think we both know Japan and maybe China would come before the UK"

    Yeah, they have no stamina in east asia... :D

    And I agree about the prices, we pay FAR too much for things in the UK. However, I personaly doubt our spend would decrease if costs came down. We would just buy more.

  23. Jason

    i wonder...

    "the British spent more than electronics: good old fags and booze, on which we spent a mighty $60bn (£34bn/€43bn)"

    I wonder how much we spend on "controlled substances", which are, in some cases, far easier to get than beer and fags!

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    Whingers...

    ...not that I don't like paying less for my goods but to tell you the truth, we aren't the most ripped off in Europe. I travel to Spain quite a lot (other half is Spanish) and there they don't really have *national* electrical chains. That might seem like more competition but what actually happens is that they don't have the buying power, or don't stock what you want (have to order it), so they have little incentive to discount.

    Couple to this that the Spanish earn less yet pay EXACTLY the same RRP as the UK (in Euros) and Spanish electronics are pretty expensive. Thank the lord for sites like Ebuyer, Dabs and Play etc. ;-)

    That's my 2p.

  25. GrahamT
    Boffin

    If you look at the graph...

    Some un-named Scandinavian country (Sweden?) spends more than $1000 per head, so they are the winners on per-capita spending.

    So, if we are being ripped off, they are being royally ripped off.

  26. Ascylto

    @ Or, to put it into perspective

    You believe statistics from the CIA?

    There's a job for you in government!

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