Apple's not the only company who does this kind of stuff but is guilty just the same.

I lived in the UK for six years and wasn't pleased about the markup when buying Apple gear over there (at one point a PowerBook was pretty much the same in UKP as it was in USD, which was like 40% markup to UK consumers).

When the BBC interviewed Steve Jobs at the iTunes UK music store launch, he was asked why songs in the UK were 79p which was a difference of like 50¢ over the US price. Steve blamed the VAT but when told he was still way over the US price he got angry and stopped the interview.

EDIT (UK - US comparison): Currently the $2,299 PB is $2,881 USD with VAT in the UK - but adding 17.5% (UK-VAT) to the US price would add up to $2,701 (so what's that extra $180 for)?

Also the US Apple store will only ship to it's region and Apple has a stipulation in its reseller agreement that only allows them to sell in their appropriate region, too (although you may be able to find an online reseller who will send a US PowerBook to you).

i bought mine from Ubertec in Parnell Auckland and paid i think like 3800(incl. gst) a few days after the latest upgrades came out.luckily i was smart enough to buy ram before i got the cmputer when i was in las vegas otherwise i would have been even more bent over the table than i already was.
every company has differing prices in different countries.

(prime example been a 2001 porsche turbo selling for 210,000NZD which is about 148,000USD and the same milage/year turbo in the states sells for between 75-85,000USD)

also helps that all other countries are a far bigger market therefore can sell a higher volume of product compared to NZ which has a very small market. also probably the fact that all our apple stores are resellers so the price is only dictated by what eachother is selling the same product for.

live with it or buy online or something.

In Europe, prices are more expensive because of VAT and the extended warranty that US buyers don't get. As far as NZ and Oz goes, I know a few who try and do their shopping in Singapore, HK or Bangkok.

oh yea good point. try and get it through Hong Kong if you can, it is incredibly cheap from there, although apprently shipping from there is expensive or hard or something?

Hey all - thank you for all your replies.
I totally agree with you vtgts500kw - NZ is a small market, and no doubt prices are hiked up with good reason. :S
I'm going to Japan later this year.. and I just had another look at their website - turns out I can get the 15" SD PB for Y245,511 ($2,270 USD) on Educational Discount, which is right down there (actually a bit lower) with the US prices.
So.. I may just wait until I get over there, and flash out my student ID.
If for any reason I can't do that, I also found http://www.bhphotovideo.com - they have custom built PB's and ship internationally.
Thanks for all your help guys - I'll let you know how my new PB search goes!

PowerBook pricing in Canada has become far more reasonable for Canadians in the last couple of years. Users are paying thousands of dollars less now than they would have payed 2-3 years ago for the the high end PB that you speak of. So I'm certainly not going to be complaining. Owning a PowerBook is within reach for the average Canadian consumer.

We have our strong Canadian dollar to thank for this, definitely NOT Apple. I do however bet that more PowerBooks are moving off the shelves in Canada now, more than ever before. It would be interesting to see some statistics...

Noah

It's that VAT that's the killer.

Anyway, remember when the dollar was in the basement (kinda like now) and people would fly from all over Europe into NYC to buy jeans for all their friends? They'd pay for their trip once they got back to Europe...

Personally, I'd take an old beat-up laptop case and fly to someplace close by and then return with a laptop, maybe with some stickers on it, some dirt on the palm rests...lots of camouflage stuff, like post-it notes stuck to the lid, etc. This implies somehow forgetting to declare it to customs, take that as you like...

to the op - definitely get it in japan. i was over there for two years and for some reason put off getting a new laptop until i got back, then got totally stung on the price. the stoopid thing was that i'd compared prices before i left but still didn't get it there. aaargh.

with the nz$ as high as it is now the change totally isn't getting passed on to the buyer. i emailed renaissance (the guys who run apple in nz) and they said that it's to do with the cost of making nz specific adaptors, and that they bring them in through australia which means that the exchange rate differences get diluted with each step, and kinda ummed and ahhed and that was about it. sounds like a gip to me, but. someone must be making a f@<&ing killing off us...

also, you'll find that external hard drives etc are a hell of a lot cheap in japan - around half what you will pay in nz.

the educational discount might be a bugger to get, but good luck with it. if you're studying in a j university (ie have a student id in japanese) then you should be sweet, but if the id is in english you might not have so much joy. definitely worth a shot but it might not fly.

sminch

Sminch, are you saying Japan because you know it's cheaper than other places in Asia, such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Thailand, or because of your experience there?

Haha, in Belgium we pay 21% taxes. I payed 3.500 euros or 4.405 USD for my 15" RevA PB... Dammit

randman - just based on my experience there vs new zealand, and with the caveat that japan is never going to be the cheapest place in asia to buy electronics.

sminch