Why a dollar to rand comparison of electronics does not work

I stand corrected.

In my previous post I spoke about the prices of new iPods in South Africa, and I requested feedback on why these prices can possibly be so high. In fact, I really wanted to be proved wrong in my assumption of price gouging, and wanted to get off my high horse.

Well, thanks to twitter, I got some feedback on what type of import taxes are being charged in SA for electronic goods. Here are some important factors to take into account in these comparisons:

Dollar vs Euro vs Pounds: Most electronics distributors in SA get their stock from european headquarters, therefore dollar comparisons will not be fair. For example, Apple Europe is headquartered in Paris, whereas Dell is headquartered in England and Wales. A Euro currency comparison will lead to a much more comparitive price.

VAT: Anything sold in SA typically is taxed with 14% VAT.


Sales Tax: When purchasing anything in the US, a sales tax is typically added to anything, and not quoted on websites. Some states have higher ones than others. For example, when purchasing something in California, a sales tax of 10.75% is added. Good to know.

Import duty on electronics: When reaching the South African customs a typical charge of around 10% – 20%, depending on the type of device. (There are some people who told me that there is no import taxes on electronics to SA though.)

Video device charge: South African customs have started charging additional taxes for portable video devices of around 20 – 24%. Whether this replaces the traditional import tax or is bundled on top of it, I could not get a clear answer.

Like I said, I am not perfectly sure if some of these taxes cancel each other out, but it does give me some understanding. Adding all these costs together does seem to make the current iPod prices a little more fair. In fact, when taking into account VAT, import duty and a possible video device tax on european prices, the cost of a 16GB Nano is already R2700.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I am getting off my high horse for now.

Unlike Julius Malema, I can, and will admit I was wrong.

Price Gouging for Dummies (Updated…)

or: Same old, same old.

I have gone on way to much about the prices Core charges for Apple products in SA in this blog. True. But really, they just keep on flaming the fire – I have tried to start looking for positives in their current operations. I have looked for good service (and I did find it once) and I have noticed the slight dropping of prices of macbooks, even if it was old stock they were trying to get rid of. I actually thought this was a recession busting exercise, which I applauded. But then today they announced their pricing of the new iPods that were announced last week by Apple. I just want to inform my readers of these new prices.

Here is some price comparisons:

iPod Touch 64GB:
UK price: £299 (R3638)

US price: $399
SA price: R5499 ($740 or £452)

iPod Nano 16GB:
UK price: £135 (R1643)

US price: $179
SA price: R2499 ($336 or £205)

iPod Shuffle 4GB:
UK price: £59 (R718)

US price: $79
SA price: R1000 ($135 or £82)

I am well aware that you cannot make direct comparisons between countries because of import taxes and such, but these prices straight up ridiculous. Seeing as SA falls under Apple’s european region, the prices comparisons might be better by using UK pricing.

If there is maybe a new tax on iPods that I am not aware of, I would very much like to be informed – in fact, please correct me if I am wrong in comparing SA and UK prices. Criticism? Please. If it is not Core’s fault and in fact the SA government asking this much tax, let me know.

How much is an acceptable price increase for it to reach SA in your opinion? My opinion is that Core should not have charged more than R2000 for the 16GB Nano. This is not the way to do business in the current economy.

UPDATE: After some feedback I have gotten some import tax figures for electronic devices in South Africa. Find it here.

iTunes update and the madness ensues

At last Apple has updated iTunes for Vista – the application runs smoother, has less rendering errors and sports an awesome new full screen cover flow mode. The application still has a few errors, and includes an absolute lack of Aero use. Apple still says it has a few Vista “niggles” which will be ironed out in the next release… Of course the OS X version is spotless.

Us early Vista users had to sit and wait for a decent upgrade – while Apple blamed the issues on Vista. Or perhaps it wasnt that simple right? If you think about it, many people have become so reliant on their PCs as a source of entertainment that they are willing to hold out on upgrading to a new fancy OS just so that their music keeps playing without issues. Makes you think about Apple’s current position – with so many millions of iPods about and people investing decent money on their music libraries, the shine of a new OS loses its luster if its not going support your music player on the subway the next day all that well. Apple is currently in the position of having such a big and supportive following that it can actually tell its “users” to please hold off on Vista for a while while they are “fixing” iTunes. Please.

If I’m not wrong, hardware and software companies had about a month to adjust their products after the RTM candidate was made? What was Apple doing then? Choosing a poor time to announce a yet to be released phone? Apple is using the popularity of iTunes and iPod to curb Windows users to upgrade. If it wasn’t for Windows, the iPod would still be some overpriced pretty toy. This sounds like the makings of a evil empire…

Bad move Apple…

Not Tech but

I just placed my order for a car – Renault Megane… Im quite a car lover, so I cant wait. After driving a 20year old Merc for quite a while, I think the time is right…..

Now how to get my iPod going in this bad boy… Any ideas?