I don’t get excited by the stock exchange or anything that involves banks.. unless it affects me directly, then I take an interest!
I mentioned Apple’s new toy earlier this evening, but I couldn’t access their web stores to check pricing. If I had done I’d have been able to report that, while the rest of us know that 1 euro != 1 dollar, Apple obviously missed that lesson.
They have somehow managed to do a direct one for one price conversion!
A $299 device in the US becomes a $400+ device in Ireland (according to xe.com’s rates)!!!!
So if you want to get one of the new toys you might as well fly to the US – you can have a nice weekend and pick one up at the same time. The money you save on the ipod will probably cover the flight! (well maybe not, but exagerration is fun)
The price isn’t quite the rip-off you think. They quote prices in the US without sales tax, where as our $399 price includes 21% VAT. If you want to compare apples with apples the Irish price is actually €329.75, which is only €30 over the US price.
Yup, the Yankie tax system makes everything look rosey before you get to the checkout.
Gary – that’s very true, but a lot of the Apple products end up costing a LOT more over here even after you factor in sales tax
Michele
I don’t know about that… Apple are selling the MacBook @ $1099/€1049, MacBook Pro @ $1999/€1899, and the Mac Pro @ $2499/€2549. Once you remove the VAT they’re an average of 10% dearer over here, which is a reasonable ammount to allow to cover yourself for currency fluctuations, especially as the US dollar has plummeted in value over the last couple of years.