I wrote a post about the UK pricing of Leopard the other day, complaining that the price of £85 was way above the $129 being charged in the US. Since writing that, I’ve read in a number of places the argument along the lines of “the £85 includes VAT (sales tax) but the $129 doesn’t, so when you factor that in, it’s the same price”.
On the face of it, this seems like a fair argument but the numbers don’t really work out. At today’s exchange rate, $129 is £62.87. VAT (sales tax) runs at 17.5% in the UK, which is £11, making a total of £73.87. So, £11.13 cheaper than the £85 RRP, which is an extra 15%. OK, so it’s only £11 but why does it have to be even £1 more expensive?
Of course, this is all probably just sour grapes because I’ve had to spend the money I was hoping to spend on Leopard on getting my bike fixed instead and I feel like I’m missing out!
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All opinions in this blog are either my own or else they’re made up just to get a rise out of you and make you angry. Either way, they’re probably not very well thought out or expressed so do yourself a favour and don’t take the world so seriously.
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26 October, 2007 at 20:00
You’re assuming that the cost of producing a box, and the cost of burning a CD is the same in both territories. Apple EU have their CD’s burned in Ireland, they don’t import them.
You’re also assuming the cost of shipping from the plant to the stores is identical, and you’re assuming wages paid to the people involved in that whole process are identical.
bits on cds in boxes on trucks is a very different model to bits on the iTunes music store where shipping, packaging, regulatory conformance etc are almost non-issues.
26 October, 2007 at 20:00
Granted. And as I said, it’s probably just sour grapes ‘cos I can’t afford it at the moment.
But at the same time, this is SOFTware. Why do I need to buy a physical package at all? Why can’t I just download it and burn my own DVD? Broadband and download managers have really removed the restrictions for doing that.
How about an iTunes Store Leopard download for $100? I’d buy that.. if it was that price in all territories.
28 October, 2007 at 12:00
Hello, sorry not to be responding to your entry, but I have a different sort of question for you. I saw that you posted on the WordPress FAQ about line breaks disappearing from posts after saving (Aug. 20th, 2007).
I have the same problem. You do the coding, you press save, and both the line breaks in the textbox and the coding are gone.
I am on a PC using Firefox and used to be on Firefox with a Mac when this did not happen. Did you ever get a good response or find a proper solution to this issue?
Thanks in advance,
Maya Norton
The New Jew: Blogging Jewish Philanthropy
http://www.TheNewJew.wordpress.com
28 October, 2007 at 12:00
The response I got was that the problem was caused by the beta version of Safari 3. This certainly seemed to be the case for me, as I’ve subsequently used Firefox (and Firefox-based browsers Bon Echo and Camino) and don’t have the same problems. I’m hoping that the Safari issue has been fixed with the full release in Leopard.
When I was using a PC to write my entries, Firefox was my browser of choice and I successfully used it to write entries. I also used IE6 and IE7 without problems. But if you’re using a Windows PC to write your entries I’d recommend using an offline editor like BlogDesk or Windows Live Writer. I’ve used both and found them to be much easier than using the online WordPress editor.
Hope this helps.
Also, have you checked out this forum thread: http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic.php?id=16087&page&replies=23
(BTW, just checked out your site and the link to your blog is wrong: it wants to go to http://www.thenewjew.org/www.thenewjew.wordpress.com when it just needs to go to http://thenewjew.wordpress.com.)