cmyplay

Luggage. Whether it be a backpack, a laptop bag or a set of matching travel bags, it represents potential. Potential experiences; of places to come, things to see and people to meet.

It also carries the residue of the past. Of places visited and of memories made. Of moments spent alone, or moments shared with friends. Presently, such memories are abstracted and intangible. It wasn’t so long ago that these experiences were memorialised into pieces of aesthetic celebration that take the form of luggage labels.

Pieces of commercial art, let’s not make any mistake about that. But these illustrations celebrated the setting of these memories in a very unique, and often quaint, way. It may now seem tacky to plaster your luggage with stickers, I can’t help but think significant links to a personal history is lacking by not doing so.

I recently learnt that PayPal doesn’t allow South African members to receive payments through it’s service. Without any replies to my messages on Twitter, I have decided to offer payment methods on the cmyplayStore by making use of a competing product. Thank goodness for PayFast.

I have 28 sets of the PacMat remaining. Please make your way over to the Products Page and pick up a set.

Let’s start the year off with an infographic, shall we? While busy searching for the best price for a MacBook, I became curious about the pricing for Apple hardware in other parts of the world. I navigated to all of Apple’s official sites and this is what came of it.

This infographic is a representation of the comparative price for the entry-level 13˝ MacBook Pro 2.26GHz notebook. I wish I could include information for all 31 countries that I researched. I believe that stripping down the data set to a handful of countries makes the information more digestible. [I don't think that I need to point it out but this isn't a strictly rational graph since it wasn't conceived to be mathematically correct]

I was conviced that South African prices were the highest in the world, owing to the lack of an official Apple presence in the country. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that Brazil’s prices were between US$300.00 and US$1,200.00 higher than here. This in a country with official Apple representation no less. [EDIT: In Apple's defence, I must say that from all of the feedback that the numerous postings of this image has received, this price appears to be the result of a high import duty applied to high-involvement purchases.]

Interestingly though, prices for certain MacBook Pro models are cheaper in Hong Kong than they are in the US. This could however be on account of fluctuation of the exchange rate. [EDIT: In fact, because of the tax implications relevant to the different nations, .hk prices are most likely to be cheaper than .us prices. The graphic has been updated to reflect feedback and to correct a major oversight on my part. Thank you for all of the attention, which for the most part has been positive. And to the special little coward , from the Lincoln Laboratory at MIT, thank you for your piqued insight.]