Ask Apple: Why is a Macbook 30.8% more expensive in the UK than the US?

Did Apple ever reply to you?

There are quite a few differences in economic systems between our countries which do not show up in direct price comparisons. I’m no expert and can’t quote anybody, but there is definitely more to the equation than VAT and currency exchange rates. On a visit in 2005, I noted that U.K. prices for almost everything were about 25% higher than in the U.S. - even more for electronic items - after adjusting for the exchange rate. So it seems unfair to single out Apple for criticism.

Environmental requirements for electronics manufacturers are more stringent outside the U.S. Recent new rules have American manufacturers scrambling to adapt to the new European standards regulating use of hazardous materials. Also, eventual disposal costs are generally factored into prices in the E.U. because that responsibility is deemed to be the manufacturer’s. Such costs are passed on to the European customer in the purchase price, whereas in the U.S., waste disposal is usually paid for by property taxes - a completely different system that disconnects price from true cost.

In the U.S., citizens in most municipalities have to pay extra fees to responsibly dispose of hazardous waste such as electronics. In the U.S. version of capitalism, corporations rule our economic and political systems, and corporations have more legal rights than human beings do. We have all kinds of hidden subsidies that amount to corporate welfare; our system allows costs to be reallocated and hidden in bizarre ways. But such shenanigans don’t cross the pond.

Because the total lifetime cost of a product isn’t paid up front in the U.S., lowest-price competition drives our marketplace. Some of that total-cost responsibility gets shifted back onto the consumer, or society as a whole, so those costs can be trimmed from initial purchase prices here. Our sales tax in the U.S. is not federal, it varies by state, therefore quoted prices don’t include 3-9% sales tax. Retailers can discount manufacturers’ suggested retail price a lot, or a little, or even sell products at a loss in order to gain a customer. There are also significant differences in employment laws and other aspects of manufacturing outside the U.S. (not everything is outsourced to China - isn’t there still an Apple manufacturing facility in Ireland?).

Such legal differences between countries must be monitored, adhered to, and paid for (the lawyers don’t work for free either) and the higher cost of doing business would naturally result in higher prices outside the U.S. We can only guess what these additional costs might add up to, but I’d bet Apple’s accountants have a pretty accurate idea. I’d also bet the amount is very close to the price difference you are complaining about (after accounting for the VAT/sales tax).

Not that you should expect Apple’s P.R. department to explain this in any detail, if at all. They may not know anything about these reasons themselves, especially if they are Americans!

Dumbass Maczealots will buy it anyways, why should Apple change the pricing.

geeeezzzzzz I see this all the time... whiney Euro’s crying about being treated unfairly. The price difference is because 2 main factors VAT Tax and Economy of Scale.
The Advertised price in the USA never includes Sales Tax (like a VAT Tax) so comparing the prices the way you did is completely wrong, you need to remove the VAT Tax from the UK MacBook first. I know Euro VAT taxes are high and in the comments somebody says 17.5% on a MacBook so that makes the MacBook cost $1223.50 which is $124.50 more than the USA Macbook. That is 11.32% no where near your claimed 30%.

OK your still paying a premium, why? While you make think the USA MacBook and the UK MacBook are the same they are not. And this is where economy of scale comes in. The UK MacBook includes UK specific items I believe the Operating System is localized to British English as is the shipping box and included paperwork. I have seen comments in other places about a difference in the keyboards also but I am not sure if that effects the MacBook. So now you say how could changes in spelling cost you so much money? Well they are a different SKU number (not sure if Apple uses SKU or an other system but it is a different stock or source number) therefore are shipped as different products (look at the sales ratings on Amazon they list each of the different colored Shuffles and Nanos as different products because each has a different stock number). Now if you sell 1 million of an item and need to box it and print manuals for it and ship it to a specific country you can get a good price and then you say ok now I need 100,000 with different boxes and manuals and shipped to another country - wham the price goes ways up. thats economy of scale - the more you buy of a specific items the cheaper it is and the more you ship to a specific location the cheaper it is.

Of course the weakening dollar is also an issue, a cost factor Apple needs to build into the price.

So you see it’s not so bad after all - simply get rid of the extremely high taxes you have by replacing your socialist cradle to the grave government care mentality. And replace all your local country governments with one EU government , get one language, one currency (the only one of these option being done), one set of rules and laws, thus making the EU a market of 500 million instead of a nightmare of a legal web to business in. Now the EU is not a huge market it is a place made up of 27 different markets each with there own laws, rules, standards, language (some are the same), currency (only thing changing) and government. But on top of the nightmare of sorting out your business to work in 27 different countries then you have this quasi-government of the EU which adds another layer of laws and rules and standards on.

Face it the EU is a nightmare for business - that is the reason you pay more.

As far as I’m concerned VAT isn’t a great excuse. You can’t tell me the margin on the Macbooks is too low to match the prices.

When I visited the UK about 5 years ago it seemed like everything was about 50% more expensive than in the US, so I don’t think Apple’s products are exceptional in that regard.

I bet they won’t reply. They never do.

Whenever I try this sort of thing I just get generic responses back without any meaningful information. I’d place money on that happening.