“Belgians finally get the chance to buy one of Apple Inc.’s coveted iPhones on Friday — at the highest prices in the world,” Aoife White reports for The Associated Press.
“The 8-gigabyte iPhone will retail for 525 euros ($825) — more than four times the U.S. price of $199. The 16-gigabyte version costs 615 euros ($966). The same phone would cost $299 in the U.S.,” White reports. “Belgian Enterprise Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne blamed a local law that forbids companies subsidizing one product by charging more for something else.”
MacDailyNews Note: We covered this on Tuesday in Mobistar releases iPhone 3G plans in Belgium by publishing the following line in bold type: Belgian law also bars sales at a loss.
White continues, “Van Quickenborne will try to scrap this rule in September because it stops phone operators from selling handsets inexpensively along with fixed service contracts, as is common elsewhere… Mobistar, claims it isn’t worried that high prices will deter customers. It is expecting lines at stores in Brussels when the phones go on sale Friday.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Simon” for the heads up.]
As we’ve written in the past (example one, example 2): “Legislation often produces unintended consequences… We usually prefer the government to be hands-off wherever possible, Laissez-faire, except in cases where the free market obviously cannot adequately self-regulate (antitrust, for just one example). Regulations are static and the marketplace is fluid, so extensive regulations can have unintended, unforeseen results down the road.”
@Denny. ‘Why must they Osama Obama’s ugly face on this page?’
I use PithHelmet and see NO ads.
anyone who would vote for that inexperienced commie, OBAMA, has their head up their rear. that dope will ruin the country and destroy the economy. jimbo, you are out of your mind.
In France there is no such law, but after 2 years (iPhone + cost of plan), the total cost is the same.
Whish we had such a law in France…
why would you want to vote for Obama when he doesnt put his hand over his heart for the pledge and wont wear a flag on his coat?? thats pretty stupid right there to say your American yet do nothing to show love or support of it. Yah and Macain is no better so dont think Im a bush or mcain lover either. I think they all are stupid.
I come to read about the iPhone and get all this politcal garbage from both sides. Go to a political website to argue, not here.
Maybe somebody could explain how the free market system in prescription drugs is working well in the U.S. compared with the alternatives in every other industrialized country. Please include in your explanation what to do with the (quite reasonable) exclusivity (=monopoly) during the patent period, and, in particular, what to do to ensure reasonable pricing based on costs of R&D;, manufacture (NOT marketing), without regulation (=government intervention).
Next, please explain how the free market system in health care is working well in the U.S., again in contrast to every other major industrialized country. Please include in your explanation why the cost is roughly 50% higher, yet outcomes are worse.
Can I just say that, with their country’s banking sector having done all the spadework in facilitating a global credit crisis, there is a considerable amount of irony in the idea of the American armchair economists who post here lecturing the rest of the world on the dangers of over-regulation as a brake on the economy.
It’s like us Brits lecturing the world on the merits of good dentistry, the Greeks pontificating on how people should adopt vegetarianism or the G8 leaders saying that people should waste less food whilst eating an 18-course banquet.
@papsmack
Well said!l
Yes please remove Obama’s banners from this page and replace them with GWB banners. Like the one where he says “Saddam Hussein was responsible for the 9-11 terrorist attacks”. The then it switches to where he says, “Saddam Hussein had nothing to to with 9-11”.
Then there’s the one about WMDs – but we don’t want that one up.
Oh and then there is the great one where GWB says, “Bin Ladin – Dead or Alive- We’re going to Smoke em out.” That’s a great one. Then it switches to the one where he says “Bin Ladin? I hardly give him a second thought?”
Those are great GWB banners. Is he a comedian?
i can’t believe people actually think paying less upfront means you save money… it’s cheaper to buy an iPhone in Belgium than a 3 year subsidized iPhone in Canada. yay laissez-faire look how well it works for us!
Zip Ass,
You find Bush saying, “Saddam Hussein was responsible for the 9-11 terrorist attacks” & I’ll give you a $1,000 bucks. You moron!!
We now know part of the cost of running an iPhone in Belgium, but the purchase cost is only one aspect. The iPhone is useless unless you have a network to operate it on.
Does anybody know what Belgians might pay for a network connection if they want unlimited data use something like 500 mins per month ?
I’m not sure where you are residing, but if you are in the U.S. The original idea is that we have a Government of the People, By the People. So possibly YOU are the Dumb-ass that you are referring to.
Unless you are referring to the corporate government that is slowly replacing the original concept. We must never speak ill of the corporations, our saviors.
And I can definitely think of an area that the government has helped. Try – child labor laws – for a start.
iPhoneDailyNews ?
@jimbovonpussy, gas is over $4 per gallon, and our economy is in the shitter thanks to a Republican administration. And you think Obama is going to “ruin our economy”? Pull your head out.
@chrinist, please go to http://www.snopes.com and look up Obama. You’ll find that he does put his hand over his heart for the pledge. For the National Anthem, he stands at attention as we are supposed to. Were you mistaken that you are supposed to put your hand over your heart for the anthem? That’s probably because you heard the lies on Fox News.
Now that you know the truth, you have 2 choices: You can now consider yourself more informed, take the high road, and help dispel the lies that you’ve spread thus far, or you can be a coward, take the low road, and continue spreading the lies because you wish them to be true. The choice is yours. I’m not guessing that you’ll choose the high road, so we know what you are.
in 2003 “70 percent of Americans believed Mr. Hussein was “personally involved” in Sept. 11.”
Where did they get that far fetched idea???
“President Bush and members of his administration suggested a link between the two in the months before the war in Iraq. Claims of possible links have never been proven, however.”
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-09-06-poll-iraq_x.htm
Just watch the new iPhones coming from Belgium into eBay unlocked…is this not a hole in the dykes (double entendre?) of the master plan to shut out the great unlocked? Will the Chinese be able to buy another million via Belgium? Stay “tuned”.
In Belgium , law dictates that published prices have to include sales tax which is 21%
In the US the prices published are without this sales tax.
So the belgium prices without sales tax are :
8 gb iphone 434 eur
16 Gb iphone 508 eur
…
MDN, could you please remove any and all strictly political comments? Starting with the clown who thinks he can score points by using Obama’s middle name – as if his mother and/or father had a premonition that someone named “Osama” would be a war criminal forty years down the road – and ending with the latest argument in FAVOR of BARACK Obama.
While I find the blatant ignorance, the childish stupidity, of the former to be appalling, I find any entries with absolutely NO On Topic content to be out of place.
Thus ends my On Topic content.
While I cannot say I wholeheartedly support Obama, I am totally opposed to McCain’s promise of four (eight?) more years of the Bush regime.
Of a war declared based on lies told to Congress.
Of a President who feels he is above the Constitution.
Of a government intent on enslaving the reproductive-aged women among us.
Of a President who only supports SOME of the laws, SOME of the time.
Of our government engaging in torture.
Of our government paying cronies of the President for work done, or NOT, at exorbitant no-bid rates.
As a “Good American”, I must fight to prevent this atrocity. Even if it means electing a man with the courage to NOT wear a silly flag-pin on his coat. Is it more important to wear such a pin or more important to act according to the laws of this nation? I say the man who acts in a righteous manner is better than the one who wraps himself in the flag then pees on it from the inside.
But … that’s just my opinion.
Now … please get rid of all the political drama. It doesn’t belong here!
See this site for more outrageous opinions that have no business here.
Mod, please update your comment auto-filter to remove posts with:
– Obama
– Osama
– Bush
– McCain
– Gasoline
The political comments attached to this story are irrelevant and largely idiotic.
Just charge customers the lower subsidized cost as it is in every other country and line-item part of the monthly phone bill as a payment towards the full price of the phone. Voila, it is not longer subsidized!
Does Belgium have a VAT (Value Added Tax) in addition to a Sales Tax Or was that 21% figure someone quoted above essentially a VAT?
Personally I wish we had more regulations like Belguim’s in the US. The way people are hooked with loss-leader items is appalling. The way people get sucked into these kinds of plans is analogous to the way people get strung out on credit card debt.
I am not Belgian-so I do not care about what they pay for the iPhone or anything else. Interesting tho’ that Gilette’s model for selling razors is illegal there.
I use firefox, so I do not see any ads-political or otherwise.
I now wish firefox had an anit-stupidity extension so I do not have to see the morons posting political crap on a Mac forum.
I do believe I will have to switch to another site for my Mac news.
I really do not understand why people are surprised by these retail prices. Given the 21 percent sales tax, the retail price without sales tax comes to approximately $650. Given normal retail markups that translates into $325 wholesale price, which exactly the number which has been quoted for the ATT subsidy.
BTW, anyone, who believes that a 100 percent retail markup is too large, needs to go out an buy a retail business and try running it for a couple of years. I assure you that it will be an eye-opener. You can checkout the retail prices for unlocked Blackberries and compare them to the Average Selling Price (which is the price that RIM received from the seller) that RIM reports in its financial statements.