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It’s (nearly) all good! 11 Jan 2005

So, the much-awaited Apple announcements have been made. We now have Mac Mini, a lovely bit of kit with a sweet price ($499 — let’s not talk about the UK price, urgh — 6.5 x 2 inches, G4 processor, combo optical drive, plenty of the right software), iLife ’05 as predicted, with GarageBand 2 amongst other things. Then we have iWork, the subject of much speculation (“Pages” a word processor, together with Keynote 2). Any more hardware? But of course: iPod shuffle for less than one hundred dollars, a flash-based diddy music player.

All good stuff. Nice work Apple. But sort your damn prices out. $499 = £339? Jeez.

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Comments

  1. Ben, I wouldn't complain to much about your price for the mini-Imac in the UK, as we, on the other side of the Channel will be paying even more. (499 € equals 349 £ according today's exchange rates)

    And what about those poor guys in Ireland then?

    Weird price policy, to say the least, I don't understand it.Pieterjan Lansbergen#
  2. The $499 price I'm sure doesn't include tax, whereas UK prices generally do.

    $499 = £264 (based on $1.9=£1)

    Add on UK VAT = £309

    That's only £30 difference and we haven't included UK import duty. On top of that our retailers have to handle higher property prices and a higher minimum wage.

    Sounds a fair price to me.

    Incidentally this Mini-Mac would make a nice server. Can you get Linux/Domino on it?Ben Rose#
  3. Yeah, fair point. These prices don’t fleece UK consumers nearly as much as some Apple gear did in the past. I guess the secret is to do your grey imports from states with low / non-existent sales taxes eh ;-) Ben Poole#
  4. Yes indeed, what's the personal import limit these days?Ben Rose#

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I’m a developer / general IT wrangler, specialising in web apps, the mobile web, enterprise Java and the odd Domino system.

Best described as a simpleton, but kindly. Read more…