Hi all,

Prices for the iPad Mini in different regions:

Hong Kong: 2588 HKD (252 euro)
USA: $329 (249 euro)
China: 2498 RMB (299 euro)
Europe: 339 euro

I have the misfortune of living in Europe and thus have to put up with a 90 euro ($119) higher price tag than those living in the USA. I will be in Beijing for Chinese New Year so I could purchase one there. However, having to pay 50 euro ($66) more than people living in the aforementioned regions would still be a bitter pill to swallow.

Why is hardware that is built in China not only released later in China but also more expensive than elsewhere? And is there any way to circumvent this (besides taking a day trip to HK)?

Hej,

the prices refer almost exactly to the PPP (purchasing power parity) and to the empirical evaluated willingness to pay for apple-products.

An internal slogan of apple "We rip them off, and they are happy about it!"

Amazing marketing-department! ;-)

TMellahn, I always thought the price was cheaper in HK due to their much lower VAT rate (If they have VAT at all). After all China is apples second largest market and growing way faster than anywhere else, there products sell out faster and have much higher rates of stock shortfall. Electronic goods are taxed quite high in China probably due to them trying to discourage poor children's minds being melted by those products. The difference is not really that considerable between Europe and china but if you can wait, go for it. Likewise if you plan to go HK buy it there but it's not worth going out of your way. The other option is to buy second hand.

I think I may wait for next year's iPad Mini. Probably with Retina screen, which Skritter will hopefully be glorious on by then. As I understand it, there still is no re-sizable writing area, nor example sentence system (both present in the web version) at this point in time. Hopefully the Skritter team will make good on their promise to make the iOS experience one that is at least as good as the web version.

As mentioned above, some countries bury sales taxes into the sticker price, unlike the USA. Sometimes when you buy things abroad, you are supposed to pay the sales tax when you return to your home country.

Also, there are costs other than for the hardware itself. The retail stores, back offices, and marketing all have local costs and taxes on top of this overhead.

Apple certainly charges as much as it thinks it can get away with, but it is not the only profit-maximizing company in the world.

One other thing to consider - ipad mini has had some wifi problems. I know because I bought one and have fought the wifi probs. so if you get one away from home, make sure you have time to really check it out in case you need to take it back.

That said, I love skritter on the ipad, but sometimes other games and this forum distract me from actually drawing characters!

I have to say apple have a great returns service. All my apple products have been bought in HK and I have had to return my iPhones twice. No problem with it being bought abroad, had a new phone in a couple of days and old one collected.