Re: I don't understand
Surely the cost in GBP (before taxes) should be the SAME as the cost in USD (before taxes), otherwise it would just be a case of the manufacturer ripping us off. Oh.
Err, no... I'll agree with the thrust of the article, but it does over simplifiy things.
If you do manufacture everything in the one factory, you have the shipping costs to the other countries.
If you don't, you'll have a different cost of manufacture. (Labour cost differences, tax differences (Not just on the VAT/sales tax) and local subsidies, for example)
Certification costs may be different for different countries, but that'll probably be put as part of the R&D budget for the product and shared across the different countries.
Also, some countries may need different versions of or extra components to comply with local regulations. (These are tablets and it shouldn't be the case but - for instance - mobile phones have different radio standards to deal with, set top boxes have different tuners standards and the PS3 had a hardware PS2 support in the states and a cheaper software emulation solution in Europe - because of the guaranteed life time of the chips for the US solution)
I've even heard of phones, for instance,sharing a schematic, the software and a case that have different PCB layouts depending on the site doing the final part of production. IIRC, this was all for the same sales region. (In which case if you got one from one site, it'd be fine - if you got one from another, it may be problematic due to the different layout - I don't know why you'd do that, though)
The difference of 97 euroes does seem to be "a bit high". (And we should be comparing the UK/Europe prices - similar or same regulations and certification processes, probably the same factories being used, shipping cost differences should be minimal)