“Apple CEO Steve Jobs is making the rounds of European capitals announcing plans for a Nov. 9 overseas launch of the iPhone. As of this writing, he’s announced deals in Britain with O2, a division of Spain’s Telefonica, and in Germany with T-Mobile, a unit of Deutsche Telekom (DT). Rumors are rife that his next stop is France. Or maybe Spain,” Arik Hesseldahl reports for BusinessWeek.
“Wherever he lands next, Jobs is on a critical mission. The iPhone’s European tour has big implications not just for Apple’s new music-playing cell phone, but could also set the tone for Macintosh computer sales in markets where Apple has minimal share,” Hesseldahl reports.
“A key question for those who still care about Apple’s computer business is whether the iPhone, like the iPod before it, can help goose Mac sales abroad.Talk of an iPod Halo Effect—that interest in the iPod would lure buyers to the Mac as well—was initially dismissed but turned out to be real. Could an iPhone effect materialize in Europe and, in time, in Asia?” Hesseldahl asks.
Full article here.
If OS X becomes the dominant player in the mobile space, it’ll be a much easier sell for the desktop.
Just my opinion, but experience with one very good product suggests the quality of other products from the same maker. If that is true, then we can certainly expect a market share increase for the Mac in Europe. But … that’s just my opinion.
Dave
No one will buy the iPhone, because who would want to have the same phone for 18 months?!
At least here in Denmark, no one will. We only pay off for 6 months when buying a phone.
iMat,
I believe you’re in minority. Consumers don’t think about technology. Hype works. US is no exception. We’ll live to see this across Europe. We can all agree here that iPhone is revolutionary, a game changer. This is its most critical quality. Nothing else matters (3G vs. EDGE, etc.).
IPhone will sell in big numbers. It will also turn people’s heads towards Apple in general, and more specifically, Macs. This will definitely work in a similar way it worked in the US.
It’s good time to be a Mac user (and an AAPL stock holder…)!
iPhones will be sold primarily thought telecoms, not Apple Stores (at least in Germany). How is anyone going to see a Mac at a T-Mobile store?
The Halo Effect works in the States (and maybe England?) because of the Apple Stores. I don’t see how it could work anywhere else…
MacMan is absolutely correct.
The absence of Apple Stores in Europe is a crucial difference.
Mac mindshare is going up, but sloooowly.
Mac sales even more so.
Who needs to see the computers..you only have to see them on Apple.com to buy one.
Can Apple’s iPhone help boost Europe’s Mac sales?
Answer: Maybe a little bit, but nothing to get excited about.
Apple still has no Apple Stores in Germany.
Apple does not advertise its computers in Germany.
Other than the iPod, there is very little visibility or marketing for Apple computers in Germany.
With the release of the next version of OSX maybe Apple will allocate some of its profits to this market of nearly 90,000,000.
@Macaday – that´s
http://www.Apple.de for Germans.
Please note that there is currently not one Apple computer shown on the opening page of the Apple German website….
@ imat.
NO ONE???? That is a very sweeping statement from one who comes from a lovely country. For a start if someone did a survey of how long people keep their mobile phones before changing them, you will be surprised by the outcome.
Mobile phone providers usually offer upgrades for their contract subscribers roughly about annually to stop them from changing to another provider or just to keep them happy or upgrade their tarriffs to better their margins.
The iphone is sold with a life time of free upgrades! Because the UI is software driven, even the look of the iphone can be changed to make it personalised and even operate differently from other iphones. For example, you could in future set a default where email or SMS becomes your home screen because the phone will cut in what ever program you are using.
So do not think in terms of 1&1;/2 years of the same hard wired button controlled phone, but 1&1;/2 years of an evolving PDA.
Think Different!
Apple should open more stores in Europe.
It’s time to treat them as respectable Europeans and not ‘you’re a peons’.
To begin with, maybe Apple should start offering Macs with a decent price. The Euro is currently worth 1.4 US Dollar. If you take into consideration VAT, prices in Euro should still be lower than those in $.
Apple should also be more present in shopping areas, either with their own stores or with Apple corners at other retailers. Sure it’s beginning slowly but it should have started long ago…
Good luck to anyone trying to make a pc user switch in Europe. I hear Macs are competitively priced in the U.S. but here in Europe you still pay a big premium. Asking the same price in euros as in dollars when the ratio is 1,4 to 1 is not defendable. No tax increase or higher cost of conducting business in countries with multiple languages can add 40% to the price.
There is no better advertisement for a company than a well-designed, high-quality product that attracts reviews like honey attracts flies. I believe that the iPhone will have a positive effect on Mac sales, particularly if the price premium is reduced as noted by Jay.
However, the price difference is not 40%. The European price includes VAT (around 17-19%, last I heard). The USA cost does not include state and local sales taxes, which total 8.25% in my area. So the true price premium is closer to 15%, in my estimation, assuming the 1.4 exchange rate stated by Jay.
Apple® MacBook® Pro with 15.4″ Display
Apple Internet site Germany Price: Euro 2,015.97 (without added-value Tax) = $2,838.66
BestBuy store in Oregon price for same computer: $2,499.00 (no sales tax in Oregon).
Difference in price: $339.66 or 12% difference in price.
—–
Add in the German added value tax (which one must pay unless you have a business to write it off…) and the price goes up 19%! Ka-chingo!
Auf Wiedersehen!
Re: Jay-
Mac prices in the U.S. do NOT include sales tax (or, as it’s essentially called in Europe: VAT). While it’s true that the price is higher in Europe, so is the VAT.
For example, if you buy a Mac in N.Y which costs, say, $1000, one would actually pay $1,085 at the cash register. If that same Mac costs €1,000, then that’s $1,400, and the cost before VAT in Germany (where the VAT is 19%) is $1,176. So you’re talking about an additional $90 net before VAT. However, if the exchange rate drops to 1.2 (which is was for a long time), then the Mac would cost $1008 net.
So, Apple has to cover itself. It can’t be raising and lowering prices based on the exchange rate and it doesn’t want to lose money because the rate changes against them.
I’m afraid that this is standard operating procedure for most international businesses. It’s not pretty, but it’s the way it works. The “good” news is that if the exchange rate stays high for a long time, they are likely to drop their prices accordingly. But, even at 1.4 today, the additional $90 is not outrageous (it would probably cost you that alone to ship a machine bought in the States).
If you’re upset that the price of Macs (or anything else, for that matter) in Europe is so high, you really need to complain to your Parliament members. If they would lower the VAT to something more reasonable (like 10%), you would see MUCH smaller differences between U.S. & European prices.
Don’t blame Apple for European politics.
thanks for the replies
It’s true, you have to take the VAT into account to make a fair comparison. Thanks for pointing that out. As a business I get the VAT back anyway.
In the Belgian Apple Store the 15″ Macbook Pro will set you back €1570. That’s without the VAT. At the current exchange rate that’s €2198. In the US Apple store it costs $1999.
That’s a $200 price difference that has nothing to do with national politics.
I will buy a Mac anyway, but it’s no secret windows users are often penny pinchers.
I really hope it does increse Mac sales for them. I bought a Mabook at the weekend and I asked the IT guys in college here in Dublin to help me configure it to the WIFI network. The first guy I went up to got a bit freaked out when I took it out of my bag and was like “I dont know anything about Macs”. Luckilly the next guy knew what to do. He also installed Sophos on my machine as they give it away for free. I told him that I’d take it but that there were no viruses as yet on OSX. He basically laughed at me as if I was an idiot and said “of course there are”. This place is supposed to be in the top 20 business schools in Europe and I found it outrageous that they didnt know any of this.
boost sales? how about boost deliveries ? we’re constantly suffering from slow deliveries here in Baltics – people are waiting for months sometimes. And this is not about warranties and spare parts which are like ‘patience ultimatum’
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I have never had anything but an excellent experience buying from the Apple online store in The Netherlands. Their help desk is equally helpful and courteous. As far as the price is concerned, yes, they are expensive. It is also true that over time they become cheap compared to the competition. As for the lack of an Apple store, they have excellent dedicated Apple dealers where you can try out their products.