[Pythonmac-SIG] the iBook's irresistible charms

[Alex Martelli]

On Wednesday 07 January 2004 08:29 am, Dinu Gherman wrote:
> Alex Martelli:
> > Anything BUT alone, I'd say -- the iBook's price/functionality
> > ratio is really irresistible these days.
>
> Hi Alex! The price/functionality ratio would be even more irre-
> sistible if Apple would pass on the current conversion rate be-
> tween dollars and euros. If they did, an iBook G4, 12" would be
> a mere 880,- EUR (1100,- USD)... BTW, is anybody keen on taking
> a flight, placing and executing some iBook orders? ;-)

True!  But that goes for ALL sort of products -- the drop in USD/EUR exchange 
rates over the last year isn't really reflected in most retail pricing 
(making shopping in the US for all sort of reasonably transportable stuff 
more and more attractive to us Europeans).  VAT also plays an important role: 
a 12" entrylevel iBook is EUR 1200 _VAT included_ here, that's 1000+VAT,
while the 1100 USD price excludes sales taxes (typical sales taxes being 5% or 
so, but some states may not have any), which explains part of the difference.

I did get my iBook in the US (had Anna get it for me, actually -- the 
advantages of having a fiancee who's a US resident often going back and 
forth, AND has weightlifting as her hobby, are really huge;-).  There is some
natural market segmentation in laptops thanks to keyboard layouts: buying
in the US, my keyboard choices were limited to US English or Western
Spanish.  NP for me (I _far_ prefer US keyboard layouts -- indeed that's part
of why I never buy laptops here, except from _sensible_ sellers that let me
specify US keyboard layout, such as Dell... or Apple!), but most buyers used
to QZERTY or AZERTY or whatever probably wouldn't take kindly to QWERTY,
now would they?-).  Nothing as blatant and hateful as the "Region Codes" for
DVD's (where the market-segmentation purpose is so openly obvious!), but
still...

Unfortunately, I suspect that going for US purchases in anything but onesies 
and twosies "for personal use" is going to require licensing and customs and 
nullify the advantage:-(.  I've explored the possibility of ordering on the 
Web, but even just for minor accessories most sellers just won't ship to 
Europe, and if they do, postage + customs + hassles makes it a bother.  So, 
my advice to y'all is to get American fiancees...!-)  [[Ideally Pythonista 
ones, of course -- but, not everybody can be as lucky as me, I guess:-)]]


Alex