The "Apple Tax" in Ireland

[tongodeon]

waider has recently complained that a significant Apple Tax exists in Ireland when comparing Apple to Dell. He said that Apple sells their MacBook Pro for €2,399.00 while a Dell Precision M4300 costs only €1279.00 - an 87% increase. I was a little dubious of these numbers, so I configured an M4300 at the Dell Online Store and came up with

Comments

[sambushell]

The Apple prices in both places are marked to be slightly below a multiple of 100.

[tongodeon]

It's still a little weird that Apple lists the European prices with VAT and the American prices without. Dell lists its prices without VAT which has led at least one Irishman to conclude that Apple products are significantly more expensive.

I think it's easy and cool that Apple prices its products in round numbers. I think it's easy and cool that Apple cites "out the door" prices. But I also see occasions where this causes misperceptions that can be harmful to Apple's sales.

[sambushell]

I don't know about standard practices in the Land of Ire, but in Australia, listed prices always include sales tax. Omitting tax would be viewed as fraud. This means, for example, that it's practical to keep exact mental track of the cost of what's in your cart while you shop for groceries, excluding stuff that needs to be weighed. So I suspect Apple is just following the standard practice in the target market.

Not to diminish the value of your efforts to compare the sum of the parts, but the customer who makes their computer purchase choice based on a 2% price difference and discounts all other differences between a Dell and a Mac... is ignoring some things I think are pretty important.

[tongodeon]

Not to diminish the value of your efforts to compare the sum of the parts, but the customer who makes their computer purchase choice based on a 2% price difference and discounts all other differences between a Dell and a Mac... is ignoring some things I think are pretty important.

Indeed. When someone says "Macs are more expensive" I like to be able to say "Yes, they are *2%* more expensive. Big whoop."

[haineux]

For many years people bitched at me that Apple computers were more expensive in Europe than in America. This was blamed on Apple, of course, with all available bluster and indignant outrage.

There is still, obviously, a big markup for buying a Mac in Ireland as opposed to the US, even though Apple is selling direct as opposed to through a distributor.

HOWEVER The Apple "Ireland Tax" seems to be about 41%, whereas the Dell "Ireland Tax" seems to be about 36% (ie, divide Ireland price in euros by America price in euros -- I'm not sufficiently encaffeinated to decide if the America price difference should be factored in).

In any case, the "Apple Ireland Tax" is not a LOT worse than the "Dell Ireland Tax".