I was shocked and appalled to see that the iPod Touch, in Canada, is going list for $329.99 for the 8GB unit. In the US, it's going for $299.99. That's $30.00 difference for being, at least in Ottawa, 45 minutes away.
Now I know you're thinking, 'Stop your whining, eh?' But seriously, our currencies are currently pretty much on par these days. One Canadian Dollar being, as of my checking for this note, equal to 0.9953 US Dollars.
So why the difference? Oh, it's all the usual! Different pricing at different times for different markets. I'm not going to depress myself and calculate the tax on not buying in the US for something larger like a MacPro or anything, but I'm almost positive it'll be equally annoying.
It's all about what the market will bear. Three years ago, a pack of cigarettes in the street markets of Kabul was going for about a quarter. In Canada at the time, a pack cost closer to $5.00. Same quality of product (this would be the lower 'bargain' brands), but a considerably different price. The average smoker in Canada then would have probably not had much of a problem paying $5.00 for a package of cigarettes. I guess the average smoker in Kabul could afford a quarter.
But there's also something related called the "Big Mac Index" that shows Purchasing Power Parity. A Big Mac in Kabul, if there were such a thing, would be considerably lower than a Big Mac in the Big Apple, for example. But I don't think that really comes into play here.
No, with two currencies on par in two countries basically buying and eating and wearing and watching the same stuff (Except for the Canadian comedy show, 'Corner Gas', which you all can't get it seems, but *can* see on broadband. CTV has all the episodes available on-line. Take a look. Consider it a free gift from me to you. It's hilarious and translates pretty well cross culturally.) PPP really doesn't work, at least to my limited understanding of it. It's really a case of pricing things as high as you can get away with and still sell things.
So, what does this mean as regards to future pricing for, like, say, the iPhone? With an 8GB iPhone costing $399.99 US now to anyone just walking into a US shop selling them, you can be sure a greater and greater pressure will exist to do one of two things, keep all prices everywhere more or less equal, as we can always mail things from one place to another for less and less money these days (in Canada, par example, there's a great big flood of cross-boarder Internet-based shopping going on. A CPAP mask that a distributor in Ottawa sells for $315 goes for only $65 if you look in the right US on-line stores. Who wouldn't buy that way?), or limit the products via technology in each market to work only for that market, and then charge the highest price each can afford. For the last point, think of DVD region codes.
My prediction then is that the iPod Touch pricing forebodes a higher, potentially much higher, price for iPhones in France and Germany and (maybe one day) Canada, and any other countries its released into. And Apple will be driven to produce tougher and tougher measures to prevent anyone in those other markets from buying phones from cheaper areas and using those. Full stop.
Be prepared everyone, everyone outside of the US, for far more expensive iPhones and an Apple driven to make sure you can't buy and use a cheaper one from anywhere else. I suspect that this 1.1.1 firmware update will only be the first act in a long play of cat and mouse. We're the mice, by the way, in case either you or Steve Jobs is still uncertain as to that point.
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