“Just a week ago, £2,499 ($3,039) was enough to buy a Brit a brand new Apple Mac Pro desktop machine,” Sara Sjolin reports for MarketWatch. “But overnight Thursday, Apple quietly raised the price to £2,999 for its British customers, marking a whopping 20% increase for a product that hasn’t been updated in years.”
“The price rise comes as a response to the almost 20% slide in the pound against the dollar since the U.K.’s Brexit vote in June, which has eaten into Apple’s British profits,” Sjolin reports. “And the tech giant isn’t alone in addressing the sterling plunge. Other international companies are also hiking prices in the U.K. and the moves are starting to squeeze British households and crush their optimism about the future.”
“Talks of a so-called hard Brexit — a deal in which the U.K. gives up access to the EU single market in return for complete immigration control — have seen the pound’s drop accelerate over the past month,” Sjolin reports. “The pound fall can be great news for big multinational companies that make most of their money overseas, but it’s bad news for local consumers as it makes imported products, such as food, clothes, fuel and electronics more expensive.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple, of course, adjusts prices in response to currency fluctuations.
Now, regarding this brand new Apple Mac Pro desktop machine: WTF is that and does it have anything to do with Phil Schiller’s ass?
SEE ALSO:
Apple increases prices in Europe, Canada due to strengthening U.S. dollar – May 19, 2015
Apple hikes iPhone prices in Russia 35% after ruble plunges – December 22, 2014
I’m gonna make some popcorn to watch this show as Apple starts losing customers left, right and center. Don’t say that I don’t know what I’m talking about, because I’ve been a Mac owner since 1997.
Apple needs to get rid of Tim Cook and Jony “Mr. Thinness” Ive now. Those two are destroying Apple without Microsoft’s help.
whats that got to do with the article?
You do understand that they hiked the prices because the British pound went DOWN in value and they need to make up the difference, right? Prices of any imports in the UK will cost more after the Brexit crash. It would happen if Jobs himself were still alive and head of Apple.
Although there have been a few recent product updates the issue becomes Apple often increases the price on outdated technology.
It really sucks for those of us outside the U.S.
ie. $3500 CAD for a base model Mac Pro that came out for $3000 3 years ago.
$1200 CAD for a (now discontinued Thunderbolt display) that came out in 2011 for $1000.
$1349 CAD for a mid 2012 13″ MBP that came out for $1200 4+ years ago.
And then even if the currency recovers in other countries the price remains at the inflated price sometimes for years.
It does not matter how much you want to explain – if the computers are too expensive then fewer customers will buy them. Previously, Apple has been happy at a certain segment of the market. Now, we will see how price elastic the computers are. I expect that Mac sales will continue to slow.
What are you talking about??? Pricing for Macs has always been the same, and for some models, it has been sliding down. There was a time, not too long ago, when you couldn’t buy a portable Mac for less than $1,100. And today, you have MBA for under $1,000 (and it’s a 13″ model). The original iMac went for $1,300; today’s base model is $1,100. And that is almost 20 years later.
You must be new to Apple. Apple NEVER chased the market share by lowering prices.
As for the pricing in the UK, this is the first tangible consequence of BREXIT. More are to come for sure; the price for going it alone is quite hefty.
“You must be new to Apple. Apple NEVER chased the market share by lowering prices.”
This isn’t at all true. Apple does this every time when new iOS devices come out. They keep the old models at and lower the price to gain market share from price conscious consumers.
Apple did the same thing with Apple TV by keeping the 3 when the 4 came out.
The iPhone SE was an example of a new product introduced at a low price point to gain/retain market share.
Apple certainly wanted to chase market share by seeking the ability to sell refurbished iPhones in India.
That’s all relative, when you look from the price point of $950 for an iPhone 7plus with 256GB. However, more than 90% of all smartphones are well below those $400 (the price of SE). An iPhone model that is three years old (iPhone 6) that sells for $400 is still considered a device well beyond reach of the vast majority of smartphone-buying population. Lowering prices on older models isn’t automatically considered market-share chasing, when those lowered prices are still high for all but the most affluent.
As for India, we can discuss semantics here, but the goal wasn’t really a significant market share (with iPhone, it is simply out of the question); it was just to enter the market. Even a negligible position on it would still translate into meaningful revenue from a country of over billion people.
Yet another reason not to buy a Mac Pro from Apple. Perhaps there’s a betting contest going on between Tim, Phil, Eddie & Jony about how long people will keep buying yesterday’s technology at tomorrow’s prices?
On top, of course, of their existing bet of how long, loud & suicidal pro’s get & can tolerate it until they return to the tower design for the Mac Pro and they all have a good laugh about it. (As in the movie TRADING PLACES the bet is only $1. Well $2 total.)
The price will likely drop for these countries if the US voters elect a certain candidate. Those of us in the rest of the world know which one that is. Beware of the outfall for electing the wrong candidate.
No. It’s not about which American is President of the US. This is a drop in the British pound due to the UK’s new financial reality Post Brexit. You may have a fantasy that electing Trump will fix world economies. It’s just not true. Neither is electing Clinton.
By “new financial reality” you mean punishment of the UK by globalist bankers right? Trump doesn’t need to fix world economies, just improve America’s, it’ll reverberate across the pond, believe me it will, believe me.
Nick – Trump is listed as the number six largest threat to the world economy. He proclaims he loves debt, isn’t afraid to declare bankruptcy, and thinks he can short change creditors who will be pleased just to make a deal with him. His (newly revamped) tax plan will add between 5 and 7 TRILLION dollars to the national debt over 10 years and will increase taxes most on the middle class, thus damaging the economic engine of the country in the same way the Bush administration did. He will eliminate affordable health care, with no plan to replace it, thus forcing more poorer families into bankruptcy, from which he will no doubt find a way to personally profit, just like he did the last time. And yet you think he can fix America’s economy???
Trump is the consummate bullsh*t artist who just says what he thinks people want to hear so that it makes him look good. He doesn’t have a single credible plan to deal with a singe issue facing this country at home or abroad. He even claims to know more about ISIS than all the US Generals put together do. The man has zero credibility in the world.
I think what Reality Check means is that if the US elects Trump, the US economy will suffer to the extent that the dollar slips against other currencies, meaning that US goods, including Apple, will be cheaper in those other countries. The same thing that is happening in the UK because of Brexit, but at the opposite end of the chain, will have the effect of cheapening US imports into other countries.
Wait until hyperinflation hits the United States. 9999.99 Macbook Pro anyone?
Rick, under what circumstances do you see the US experiencing hyperinflation, something that has NEVER happened in the United States?
Wow, babcock. You really are some kinda dumb, ain’t ya? Can’t see the forest for the trees. Can’t see the hyperinflation coming to shove itself like a hose up yo ass and the water turned on to full.
Be prepared, babcock. Be real prepared.
We’ve NEVER had hyperinflation in the US. It doesn’t happen in part due to the size of the US economy and in part due to the design of the central bank, The Fed. You could only call me dumb. You were apparently unable to cite how hyperinflation will happen in the United States because apparently you don’t understand what causes it or you’d be able to cite what factors you see that will trigger it.
you missed a 9 or two. $999,999.99
Some people just don’t understand value! /s
I just bought a Quad Core Mac Pro from Costco. Price inc VAT?
£1679.96
Bargain I think 🙂
‘Brexit’ of course is a study in perception. There has been no actual British exit from the European Union. The apparently dull-witted new Prime Minister added to the perception problem by promising to make Brexit for realz next March. Thus the resulting plummet of the £. Of course, businesses are forced to respond to the result of this perception crisis.
The bitching about it becomes relevant when considering that the price rises are higher than the actual present drop in the £. Perhaps its Apple’s ‘vote of no confidence’ in the current British Parliament. Would that the British Parliament itself would end the madness and sort out a compromise similar to its maintaining its own £ over the €. It could happen!
Apple is taking advice. The prediction is that the GBP could trade below the Euro within the next few months, at least temporarily. If you’re setting prices for the Christmas season you need to factor that sort of risk in.
At current exchange rates the UK price is still slightly cheaper than the price in France (both countries have the same sales tax rate 20%) by about 70€.
The new MacbookPro 15″ is cheaper in the UK by about €200.
Similar priced products, how do they work that one out.?
The pound is taking a beating. It is expected. The EU must show that leaving the EU is a very painful process. If they do not make it painful there would be a line of all the countries whose economies have yet to get messed up by the EU applying for exits.