“Apple Inc. will open its first Latin America store tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro, featuring the highest-priced iPhone of all nations listed on its website,” David Biller reports for Bloomberg. “Apple’s 16-gigabyte, contract-free iPhone 5s will sell for 2,799 reais ($1,169) in Brazil. That compares with $649 in the U.S. and 5,288 renminbi ($872) in China. ”
“Brazil marks the 15th country where Apple operates its own stores,” Biller reports. “The new outlet is at Multiplan Empreendimentos Imobiliarios SA (MULT3)’s VillageMall in Rio’s coastal Barra da Tijuca district, which will be the main stage for the 2016 Summer Olympics.”
MacDailyNews Note: Also the host country of the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
“Apple’s 16-gigabyte iPad 2 with wireless in Brazil will sell for 1,349 reais ($564), versus $399 in the US.,” Biller reports. “‘Over 50 percent of the people in countries like China and Brazil that are buying an iPad don’t own an Apple product,’ Tim Cook, Apple’s Chief Executive Officer, said last February at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference. ‘So this is a huge thing for us to go out and show people what Apple is, to introduce them to the company.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: When you’re in Brazil, you’re not in Texas anymore, you’re in Taxes.
(Exchange rates might also be a factor, too.)
It is because of the out-of-touch government and their what-(tf)-world-are-you-living-in taxation system. Good job Apple. Bad job Brazil.
Is it a better deal flying to Miami, take a vacation, get your iPhone, and come back?
Or…. Get your (and friend’s) iPhone in one of those trips to the States.
Possible, but it’s also a case where the customs at the airport will charge you import tax, making the opportunity and savings null.
This is probably a domestically made iPhone, as the price otherwise would be much higher. The domestic product prices include about 40% of the retail is, imports add another 50-80% unless some accommodation has been made. That excludes taxes paid for labor costs, income etc. They distribute the taxes on imports so they claim minimal import duty and make up for it with a list of other taxes. Where else would the funds come to cover the corruption?
They got around tariffs (possibly), but biggest cost is exchange rate hedging. In the last quarterly report, they mentioned their revenue was 29% lower in Japan due to currency fluctuations. That potential is built into the price. If a country has a more volatile currency, the price is higher to ensure they get the minimum margin they are shooting for. Sure, they could keep changing the price all the time but then you’d get different groups of people screaming. You can’t win, but in the end, everything is gov’t related. High tarrifs, high regulation, unstable currency due to gov’t intervention.
Don’t blame Apple, blame your gov’t.
Having lived in Brazil most of my life, I can say that almost everything here costs more than abroad. This includes clothes, shoes, sport shoes, and even (restaurant) food. We have lots Apple products spread around family member houses. Only one iMac and one Mac Mini were bought here. Everything else was bought abroad. High import duties, state taxes and imoral merchant margins make it very difficult to justify buying here. Everybody I know that can manage to travel abroad thinks the same.
Disgraceful that such a poor country is so expensive to live in but I guess taking a leaf out of China’s old book discouraging imports and forcing foreign companies to open there and export most of their products due to internal taxes. You can see why they have horrendous crime and serious riots but will become a massive economy with very rich and very poor if they don’t self district.
“poor country”, “will become a massive economy”. WHAT!? Brazil has the seventh largest GDP on the planet. Maybe you are fooled by the incredible income disparity, which is even more blatantly visible than in the US.
Brazil is a third rate country with high crime, murders, kidnapping and other illicit activity a normal fact of life. the well off lead a great life where as the poor in the favelas are down trodden. This despite the country being blessed with mineral richness. No wonder the prices are high and bad value for money