cmyplay

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.]