Last Wednesdsay, we all know, Steve Jobs has made his last appearance “on stage” to present the biggest evolution ever in the iPods lineup. He also presented the latest evolution of the Apple TV, the new iOS 4.1 and the forthcoming iOS 4.2 for iPads.
But, the online Apple Store showed some little changes too. For the new iPods, on the European Apple sites you can read the actual product price, and also the taxes amount paid for that product. As an example, if you go to the spanish Apple Store and look for an iPod shuffle, you will see that its price is € 49, which includes € 11 for “VAT, duty and levies”. Same story for the italian store, the french one, the english one, etc.
Some bloggers around the world, here and there, started comparing prices between the european stores and the american one, using the prices that Jobs kindly exposed to us. I too tried to make the same. Here is how, and later come the results.
Mean fee % estimation
I compared the prices of all the products, starting from the new prices of the iPod family. These products are the only ones for which we have the real price and the “real” fees. Starting from these ones I tried to calculate a mean fee percentage, which I will use in later comparisons. All the prices have been normalized, using the current EUR/USD, GBP/USD and CHF/USD changes, as shown on Google. I chose to compare prices from: Italy, France, Germany, UK, Spain and Switzerland. This is the result:
Estimated mean fees %
The calculus is really simple: the fee % is computed as: (fee / price) * 100. Then I made a mean over the 6 different fees percentages, one for each new iPod product. As we can see, France and Italy lead the group having the highest fees, while Switzerland has the lowest one. Not so much time ago we noted that Switzerland has also one of the lowest iPhone 4 prices on Earth …
iPod margin gain
I wanted to know how much Apple is gaining selling products in Europe instead of selling them in the USA. If you take the (let’s say) italian price for an iPod touch and convert it in USD, you will see a huge difference. An iPod touch 8GB costs in Italy € 239,00, which is approximately $308.00; but in the US the same iPod costs $229. That’s a +34,5%! But, we now know that in Italy we are paying € 47 in VAT etc. for that iPod. This lowers the “crude” price to € 192,00, which is approximately $247. A more convenient +7,86%. So apparently Apple is gaining at least a 7% selling an iPod touch in Italy instead of selling it at home. Now, if you repeat this reasoning for all the iPods and all the countries, you get the following:
Margin gain for iPods
As we can see, Apple is gaining really well selling products in Europe, having a mean +7% gain. Also strange is the fact that Apple seems to be losing something in Spain, selling the iPod shuffles. -0,12%. That’s a really small difference, but makes us smile for a while. (And makes me think that Apple is not being that fair with those numbers shown on the Apple Store).
Comparing the hot product: iPads
We can now go further. I used the approach described for calculating gains and the approach for calculating fees % combined together. This way I hope to be able to compute an estimated gain referred to the latest Apple’s jewel: the iPad. This is what I got:
Margin gain for iPads
Apparently, this whole estimation approach is somewhat wrong. I strongly believe that Apple has pumped the prices on the Apple Store in a non linear manner. I hope that they will show in future the level of detail shown for iPods also for all the other products. Just to know what Apple is doing in the European Market.
Probably I will extend this post comparing the remaining products: iMacs, Mac Pros and MacBook (Pros). Keep in touch!
WOW just what I was searching for. Came here by searching for
freestanding fridge freezer
Heya i am for the first time here. I found this board and I find It
really useful & it helped me out a lot. I hope to give something back and help others such as you aided me.
Howdy! This is my first visit to your blog!
We are a group of volunteers and starting a new initiative in a community in the same niche.
Your blog provided us useful information to work on. You
have done a wonderful job!
I enjoy what you guys are usually up too. This type
of clever work and coverage! Keep up the wonderful works
guys I’ve incorporated you guys to blogroll.
I think this is one of the most significant information for me.
And i’m glad reading your article. But want to remark on few general things, The site style
is ideal, the articles is really great : D. Good job, cheers
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I truly appreciate
your efforts and I am waiting for your further write
ups thank you once again.
What’s up, its fastidious piece of writing about media print, we all be aware of media is a great source of data.
Right here is the right website for anyone who wishes to find out about this topic.
You know so much its almost tough to argue with you (not that I
really will need to…HaHa). You certainly put a fresh spin on a topic that has been discussed
for years. Great stuff, just wonderful!
Yes! Finally something about cbd gummies for anxiety uk.
Nice post. I was checking constantly this weblog and I
am impressed! Extremely helpful information specifically the final section :
) I care for such information a lot. I used to be seeking this certain info for a
very long time. Thanks and good luck.
Hey I am so glad I found your webpage, I really found you by mistake, while I was looking on Yahoo for something else, Anyhow I
am here now and would just like to say thank you for a remarkable post and a all round
entertaining blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to go through it all at the minute but I have bookmarked
it and also added in your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back
to read more, Please do keep up the excellent job.
I love reading a post that can make people think. Also, many thanks for allowing me to comment!
Hey! I’m at work browsing your blog from my new apple iphone!
Just wanted to say I love reading your blog and look forward to
all your posts! Carry on the superb work!
This is a topic which is close to my heart… Take care!
Exactly where are your contact details though?
I’m not that much of a online reader to be honest but your blogs really nice, keep it up!
I’ll go ahead and bookmark your site to come back
in the future. Many thanks
Heya i am for the first time here. I came across this board and I to find It really helpful & it helped me
out much. I’m hoping to offer one thing back and aid others
such as you aided me.
Hi there, this weekend is good in support of me, for the reason that this moment i am reading this fantastic
informative piece of writing here at my residence.
It’s an amazing piece of writing designed for all the online people;
they will get advantage from it I am sure.