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back to article 'Tax' relief for Apple’s Oz customers

Back in January, when Australian retailers were complaining about Australian shoppers (and the government), and Australian shoppers were fleeing retailers for theiInternet, El Reg looked at the way some products are marked up specifically for this territory, making it cheaper for the shopper to buy from international outlets and …

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  1. jay_nawaz

    really?

    you're being a little disingenuous here...apple is a company that is fairly good in terms of keeping forex differences low, given their relatively short and constrained product lifecycles. for example you're including the tax difference--in AU prices are shown inclusive of GST, whereas in the US its all excluding tax. That's 10% straight off the bat. Then you're assuming that their is just one exchange rate...what you'll need to use is what the bank is selling notes for (not what they're buying!)...as of today that's only 1.03 USD to 1 AUD so there's another few points. finally you're making the assumption that supply chain and sales channel costs in a country as small as Australia is the same as in the US.

    By my calculation, there's only a $13 difference on the 8GB iPod Touch or ~6%...

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Pre or post GST?

    I take it the Aussie prices you quote are pre-GST as the US ones will have their sales tax added later in the transaction?

    The pre-tax price in Australia for the ipod touch is then $235.45, a 10% markup over the FXed US one. It is not unusual for companies to leave headroom in the exchange rate for fluctuations and our retail protection may be better than in the US, costs higher etc which all come in that price headroom.

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  3. Patrick 8
    Mushroom

    Aussies slugged no matter what side of the currency equation they are on

    If you want to see a sneak at what Aussies are buying overseas check out priceusa website, started by a single mum she's cleaning up on ordering stuff overseas for Aussies and bypassing any "not allowed to ship to Australia" BS erm Business Policies in place by some brands overseas. You will see a lot of Apple product being bought as the real time updates to the last items purchased list refreshes on that web site.

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  4. Miek

    New word for Dictionary

    "theiInternet", or perhaps "the illternet"

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  5. hitmouse
    FAIL

    Digital commodities still overpriced

    The AUD is stronger than the USD and still Australians pay more in relative terms than in the USA for song tracks and apps. Apple can't even be bothered making a lot of song stock available in its Australian iTunes store.

    So many online vendors sell song tracks to anywhere in the world, but Apple's fixation on delivering bits to the country where your credit card number is domiciled is so dumb.

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  6. Head
    Thumb Down

    Hmmm

    Oh you think Apple is bad? (and it is)

    Check these out. Two Dell Latitude 6520 notebooks with virtually the same specs (ram, HDD, cpu, OS, cards, LCD). One is from Dell Aus, the other from Dell US.

    http://configure.ap.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=t720603au&c=au&l=en&s=bsd&cs=aubsd1&model_id=latitude-e6520 <--- Dell Aus: $1934.20c AUD

    http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=04&fb=1&l=en&model_id=latitude-e6520&oc=blct65m&s=bsd&vw=classic <-- Dell US: $1069.00 USD !!WITH!! An Inspiron Mini10!

    No wonder Dell Aus is the most profitable region for Dell global, per capita.

    And FYI, these two machines are built in the same factory in Malaysia with the same components made in China and elsewhere.

    So sure the apple tax is downright contemptable, but its sure not confined to Apple.

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