iPhone Price discrepancies.

As Michael explained, it is not just a matter of calculating the exchange rate, there are other costs involved in doing business in other countries that are factored into the price of the device. I believe if you check the price of Samsung phones you will find the same issue, although not exactly at the same level.

Prices of all sorts of items are different in different countries. Companies price their products independently for the markets they sell them in. There is nothing that requires any company to price things at parity in all countries they do business in.

If the price in South Africa is too high, the market and sales will tell Apple or any other company is, and they’ll need to adjust it. But expecting price parity in different countries is unrealistic. Businesses have never priced products that way.

What does an exchange rate have to do with other commodity or product pricing? An exchange rate is just the price that one countries banks and lenders are willing to pay to buy another countries currency. Money is a commodity like any other internationally traded commodity. The exchange rate is nothing more than the price of money as determined by trading on the international money markets.

Consumer products are not priced based on an exchange rate. Consumer product pricing is market driven and so can vary wildly from one country to another, just as exchange rates can vary wildly from one country to another when trading currency.

mpho259 wrote:

Then if parity does not apply, then we should do away with the exchange rates.

i am not saying the price should be the same, but when I take the SA/US exchange rate the price shouldn’t be far off. When I look at the US price and convert it to the SA price it’s actually double than what apple customers pay in the USA and it is really unfair.

Theres likely more. Included VAT vs sales tax was mentioned, although there are a few states in the US without sales tax. There’s a brisk business in Oregon of people looking to avoid sales tax.

The resellers decide on their own markup. There could also be a high import tariff.

the prices in the usa store is without salestax