Steve Jobs says educate yourself on international iPad pricing

Many fans of the Apple iPad were waiting in anticipation for the release dates and prices for the new ‘magical and revolutionary product’. Well this week the wait was finally over for nine different countries.

So was it worth the wait? It seems not, many Apple fans and potential new customers were very unhappy with the price structure. It seems they were dismayed at the higher price structure compared to the US. Many consumers were so taken back by the prices that they have bombarded Steve Jobs with emails of complaints. Steve jobs reply was simple he told them:

Please educate yourself. UK prices must by law include VAT, which is around 18%. US prices do not include tax.

MacRumours goes on to report:

Value added tax (VAT) is similar to the sales tax that is familiar to most residents of the United States, but is applied uniformly throughout the country for a given type of item and is included in the advertised pricing. Sales tax in the United States is not included in advertised pricing, as it varies significantly by region, even down to the municipality level.

The standard VAT rate in the UK is 17.5%, meaning that the £429 base price for the 16 GB Wi-Fi iPad in the UK is actually only £365 in “pre-tax” pricing. At current exchange rates, this corresponds to approximately $540 in the United States, or an approximately $40 premium for U.K. customers. While the price difference is not insignificant, it is considerably smaller than it might appear at first glance.

Apple products have always been considerably higher than in the US and most recently even more so in Germany. Again Jobs reply to this was short and sweet:

Blame your government. Germany just added a new copyright levy for computers

According to reports on MacRumours iPad prices in Germany are about 15 euros higher than in France and Italy.

Even after the emails from Jobs it seems that many consumers are still unhappy about the cost and on many social network sites like twitter and on many forum discussions have been made about how to get an iPad for as little as possible. With mentions of shipping over from the US or even looking on auction sites such as eBay.

Now that we have seen the iPad prices will you still be buying one? Will you be paying the full price or looking for a cheaper alternative? Let us know in the comments below.

[MacRumors]

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2 Comments on “Steve Jobs says educate yourself on international iPad pricing”

  1. Roy

    Screw the iPad with high international prices. Not going to buy one. If more people refused to buy the gadget Apple together with AT&T would not be able to keep ripping off public. So much for Steve Jobs pointing a finger at other companies saying they were greedy bastards. First, he should look at himself and the company he is running.

  2. stephennorthcott

    My personal view on this is Steve should have perhaps been a little more polite with his email. Glossing over the fact that this is actually a 27% hike in price in the UK, with an email telling people to “educate themselves” is disingenuous at best.

    Perhaps Steve needs to put a calculator widget on the iPad so he can get his maths straight before he tells people in different countries to “educate themselves”.

    Can you tell that comment ticked me off?

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