Are these tidings of gloom?

[baldrick]

Any participants in the Apple forum will be well aware of this but other people probably have no idea....

Today Apple overhauled a chunk of their product line and upped the prices. Obviously a lot of people are upset/****** off by this as they have held off for a new version and are now hit with (in some cases) £300+ price hikes.

The problem is Apple have merely re-aligned their UK pricing to the current exchange rates. and the true cost Dollar cost of the machines is the same in the US and the UK.

Now the gist of this post is whether we're going to see similar increases on all imported products? At the end of the day if a product costs $400 from the supplier 6 months ago a retail could buy that for £220. Today that same item is going to cost £285.

If the retailer used to make £80 profit on the item they are now down to £15 and presumably you can only survive for so long with an 75%+ drop in profit.

So I guess the question is should you run out now and buy all those things you were thinking about, or risk finding everything being more expensive as the months progress!?!?!

[nheather]

It's a difficult one for the manufacturers and distributers.

There is no doubt that the prices need to be increased a great deal if the Euro and the Dollar exchange rates are applied.

However, they then run the risk of pushes the UK prices beyond the level that the market will accept, especially when everyone is tightening their belts - rememebr that we are most talking luxury items, not essentials.

So they are faced with raising prices but dropping sales or keeping them the same and making a loss.

I suspect most companies will settle for somewhere in between. Rememeber aswell that most items have been sold more expensively in 'rip off Britain' so they may have a little extra margin to play with.

The problem is Apple have merely re-aligned their UK pricing to the current exchange rates. and the true cost Dollar cost of the machines is the same in the US and the UK.

Remember they didn't take this stance when £1 = $2!!!

But certainly it is something that Britain as a nett importer can't avoid - and if it weren't for the recession I suspect we would just put up with it but as it is I suspect sales will tumble as a result. This is where local industry (if we had any left) would start to benefit.

Cheers,

Nigel

[Ned Senior]

Originally Posted by nheather

It's a difficult one for the manufacturers and distributers.

But certainly it is something that Britain as a nett importer can't avoid - and if it weren't for the recession I suspect we would just put up with it but as it is I suspect sales will tumble as a result. This is where local industry (if we had any left) would start to benefit.

Cheers,

Nigel

Wouldn't it be great if good ol' blighty could produce goods that were quality for once unlike the shoddy crap that is usually made here!!!

I would buy if it was reliable for sure

[loz]

nothing new, there's already been a few threads across avforums on the prices of av equipment and cameras for example going up in price.

Most imported hi-tech goods will have taken a massive currency hit in the last few months, so price rises of 10-20% are not uncommon.

[baldrick]

Originally Posted by nheather

Remember they didn't take this stance when £1 = $2!!!

Take a look at my 2008/2009 pricing thread.... In part that is true, but to a certain extent Apple are making up for it now

[Knyght_byte]

yeah, the stuff that doesnt actually cost them all that much to manufacture and is heavily overpriced by the shops is being raised in price as they have something they can blame it on (weak pound). But as peer pressure and high pressure advertising tells you that you must have the item, a lot of people will continue to buy stuff they cant afford :rollseyes:

thing is, the pound was this weak a few years back and prices werent dramatically high because of the pound, they might have been high because shops knew they could get away with it.....

I find it amusing how supermarkets are no longer doing brand new DVD's cheap, no more £8 or £10 wars....lol. Oh well, I just wont buy any then......and a bunch of them (supermarkets) have bought loads of those old original release DVD stock where half the time there isnt even Dolby Digital 5.1 on the disc and are flogging them at £3-5. Bet a lot of shoppers in Asda are buying their Asda Brand 5.1 speaker set for £60, a few (without realising it 2.0) DVD's at £3 and going home and thinking what a waste of money, this surround thing aint all that.

How come the cost of TV's is going down, yet BR players is holding/going up? nothing in a BR player that should cost a fortune now, only the laser is relatively new tech from a sales POV.

Lots of odd things happen in recession....hehe....I'm not loaded, but to be honest, why panic.....(unless you own your house with a mortgage and are about to lose your job, then fair do's, you have the right)....if you cant buy it, you cant buy it......will it kill you?

[eric pisch]

it is inevitable that prices will go up as the pound noses dives

and don't forget it costs a lot more to sell things in the uk than it does in the states, land prices, rents, staff wages and fuel taxes all cost substantially more in the uk. There's also some economy's of scale as we don't buy anywhere near the number of units they do.

[eric pisch]

Originally Posted by Knyght_byte

How come the cost of TV's is going down, yet BR players is holding/going up? nothing in a BR player that should cost a fortune now, only the laser is relatively new tech from a sales POV.

BR is still rolling out faster than expected (and quicker than dvd) so demand is good, there are very few BD player makers with limited models (growing all the time) compared to TVs. The flat screen TV market is at massively over saturated, fat to many people making to many panels with a large amount of cheap unknown brands adding to the problem. Sales would have declined anyway as most people have switched over to a HD ready flat screen (i dont know anyone with a CRT now) but the credit crunch caused sales to dive even more so theres was a huge surplus in the system which meant deals!! Production has been drastically reduced and as the surplus goes prices will go up.

On a side note this is why the TV companies are desperate to "invent" 3D tv (gimmick) so that we all bin our HD TVs and start buying huge numbers again. There trying to create a product life cycle similar to mobile phones so that people keep changing them.