Apple Raises iPad and iPod Prices in Japan

[Chupa Chupa]

There are very few product categories that are not covered by Japanese producers. People do not eat an iPod every day. The effect on the average cost of living is abysmal. There will be an effect on imported expensive goods, but for most of them there is a Japanese replacement. The real problem is rather that the strengthening of the local businesses and exports will again strengthen the Yen, requiring additional money to keep it down. It is a solution for now, it won't work forever.

You contradict yourself so many times here.

1) Do you mean "abysmal" or "inconsequential"? You can't mean abysmal and then blow off the increase by saying it's not a consumable necessity.

2) But if you mean it's inconsequential then your latter statement that policy result strengthens the yen requiring additional stimulus doesn't mesh because you then admit the policy causes abnormal inflation.

3) If that is the case (which it is, you are correct on your latter statement) then the iPod does not live in a vacuum. If Apple is raising the price of the iPod as a direct result of Japanese stimulus then it means Apple has to keep up with inflation. If Apple has to keep up then so does every other company.

4) If the Touch was so elastic that there were good substitutes, then the law of supply and demand would indicate Apple would have to "eat" the cost of inflation because consumers would go elsewhere.

To conclude: 5) You end stating the monetary policy is unsustainable BUT that was the entire point of my original post so unclear what you are trying to say.

 

[adbe]

This is totally untrue (I'm in the UK)

You have to by law give pay part of your salary every week/month towards state medical care

The difference is it's free at the point of delivery. It's not free at all. Workers have to pay money every week to fund it.

Yes, but if you aren't working you still get healthcare and at the same standard as you were receiving when you were working.

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make here, obviously it's not 'free' healthcare since the NHS isn't staffed entirely by fairies and the old elf on loan from Santa. It's still 'free-er' than straight private healthcare as it's considered a state service rather than a contract service.

 

[3282868]

What I find most amusing is that the US spends more public money per person on health care than the UK.

I was floored when I researched stat's on the healthcare "system" we have had. We spend more on healthcare than any other nation, $3 trillion/per, $300 billion a year on pharmaceuticals alone. That's 90% more than the 1950's. We have become dependent on treating instead of preventative healthcare. General Practitioners are paid ~$15/patient and must see a set number of patients per day in order to meet requirements for state and federal funding. Many practices push patient visits instead of time spent with patients. Surgeons are paid per surgery, which leads to many unnecessary surgeries.

Doctors are taught treating care, especially in ER's. If we educated people on how to live a healthier life through diet and exercise, stints, pharmaceuticals and other unnecessary treatments could be avoided. A recent 25 year study addressing this issue discovered that cardiovascular disease could actually be reversed through proper diet and exercise. That was groundbreaking.

However, just as oil, the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry is "too big to fail". Unless we break the cycle, we're doomed to be rats on the wheel, putting our health at risk to grease the industry.

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It's equally amazing to me when Europeans assume that the vocal minority is the general US population.

True, but being a dual citizen living in NYC, I should have clarified that it's the vocal minority in the non-coastal cities that tend to lean towards our points.

 

[charlituna]

For those of us in the US, it's like listing the price AFTER tax instead of price BEFORE tax.

Yep. Which isn't as possible in the US cause side by side cities could have different rates. In EU countries etc the VAT is the only tax and is the same everywhere. So it doesn't make sense it to just include it on the shelf. Might even be legally required

 

[ChrisA]

Wow, I guess that's what $1.4 Trillion in stimulus does to your currency.

It makes their exports cheaper. China has been intensionally keeping their currency low for years. It makes their exports cheaper.

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Doctors are taught treating care, especially in ER's. If we educated people on how to live a healthier life through diet and exercise, stints, pharmaceuticals and other unnecessary treatments could be avoided. A recent 25 year study addressing this issue discovered that cardiovascular disease could actually be reversed through proper diet and exercise. That was groundbreaking.

I don't think there are many people who don't know they need to exercise and eat better. I don't think it is a lack of education. Every person who smokes knows it is going to kill them. I wish the problem were so easy to solve.

Soon, in a couple years will will be used to the idea the EVERYONE has health care coverage. The next reform will be about cost reduction. The only way is to put the in tire industry in a salary. They get paid per month not per surgery or per test.

 

[Azathoth]

You are right. UK healthcare isn't free. But it is cheap.
UK per capita health care costs $3,433.
US per capita health care costs $8,233.

I'll just add to the datapoint:
Legally mandatory health insurance in Germany (as a freelancer in 2012) for me was:
650euro/month = 10 100 USD /year
Though this is tax deductible

 

[3282868]

I don't think there are many people who don't know they need to exercise and eat better. I don't think it is a lack of education. Every person who smokes knows it is going to kill them. I wish the problem were so easy to solve.

Soon, in a couple years will will be used to the idea the EVERYONE has health care coverage. The next reform will be about cost reduction. The only way is to put the in tire industry in a salary. They get paid per month not per surgery or per test.

Agree, but you'd be surprised. I watched a documentary in which an Ohio diabetic woman had 27 stints! She finally went to the Ohio Heart & Cardiovascular Center (an internationally recognized and praised center). The expert she worked with had her on a better diet and pushed her to exercise. She lost weight, her type 2 diabetes lessened in severity, and in less than two years was in the best shape of her life.

The point: generally doctors are rushed through patient care, and surgeons push unnecessary surgeries as they are paid thousands per surgery performed. Yes, she probably knew exercise and diet play an important role. However, as GP's rush through patients to meet their daily quota's patients are often pushed through the system, handed over to surgeons. 27 stints is outrageous, and can never be reversed.

The patient was never fully evaluated, and never pushed to improve her lifestyle. Most people are stubborn and need an incentive (many corporations such as Virgin are implementing incentive systems, rewarding people based on exercise recorded through their devices). Instead of pushing volume, we need to emphasize patient care and preventative healthcare. In addition, it is more expensive to eat well. Fruit, vegetables, organic meat and produce are generally more expensive than super-sized inexpensive fast food and the common American is over worked and under paid, leading them to eat cheaply on the run.

There are a myriad of factors that plague (no pun intended) the American healthcare system. It is great that we now have a Patient Bill of Rights, something John McCain and Ted Kennedy tried to pass together in the late '90's, as well as eliminating pre-existing conditions. Being a diabetic since 12, now 36, I take excellent care of myself with A1C levels in the 5 range (which is non-diabetic), I test ~20 times a day in addition to a medtronic insulin pump mainly to monitor my BG's wirelessly, and take insulin when needed. I exercise and eat well. Even still, my Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield monthly healthcare is hundreds of dollars. It's inexcusable and outrageous. 70% of our costs are administration related. Cutting costs needs to start by eliminating the (middle) corporate man.

 

[RickyB]

Shoot, this is how WWII started.

No this is how The Phantom Menace started.

 

[unibility]

And, if you have actually been paying attention-- the deficit has been dropping rapidly as the economy recovers. When are you yourself going to "man up" and start handing out credit along with that blame?

BTW, where is the rampant inflation and weakening dollar that you guys have been predicting would result from the stimulus? I'm still waiting on that.

really? our deficit has been dropping? you must be a liberal. our national debt is $16,742,116,987,856.30. our nations debt is increasing by $2.78 billion per day. i hardly think our economy is recovering when weekly average unemployment is about 300,000 or about 1.2 million+ per month and a creation of 140,000+ per month does not equal a growing economy.

 

[3282868]

really? our deficit has been dropping? you must be a liberal.

I stopped reading there. Any time "liberal" or "conservative" are used as condescending labels/terms, you already lost validity to any point.

 

[iosuser]

I'm just complaining about price increase in general, once they raise prices it's almost always permanent. I remember back in around 2007 or 2008, I bought a Nikon D700 with the Nikkor 24-70mm 2.8 lens. The lens was $1200. Next thing I knew it jumped to $1500, and now it's $1900 With the value of the yen back to around 100, I wanna see when Nikon drop their prices, but I probably shouldn't be holding my breath. Or how about gasoline prices. When oil was $140 a barrel, gas was ~$4 a gallon. Now with oil in the $90's, gas is still $3.60 around here. How about hard drive prices. Before the Thailand flood, I bought 2TB drives for $59 each. Now they're still $99.

 

[rdowns]

really? our deficit has been dropping? you must be a liberal. our national debt is $16,742,116,987,856.30. our nations debt is increasing by $2.78 billion per day. i hardly think our economy is recovering when weekly average unemployment is about 300,000 or about 1.2 million+ per month and a creation of 140,000+ per month does not equal a growing economy.

You are aware that the deficit and debt are two different things, right?

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

Yep. Which isn't as possible in the US cause side by side cities could have different rates. In EU countries etc the VAT is the only tax and is the same everywhere. So it doesn't make sense it to just include it on the shelf. Might even be legally required

Yea, it's just different customs/laws. Apple isn't being greedy by doing this. And all that posts I replied to earlier about Congress, Tim Cook and Apple's offshore bank accounts is completely irrelevant. The yen is depreciating. And Apple (more or less) bases prices on the USD.

I wonder, what would they do (to the price) if the USD depreciates in regards to the yen?

 

[chadley_chad]

VAT is charged at every stage of a product's life, from manufacture to final consumer sale, so the retailer does directly pay a VAT to the wholesaler. The wholesaler pays a VAT to the manufacturer. The manufacturer (if product and parts are made in the UK pays a VAT on the raw materials to make the parts).

Good explanation w/ example of the UK VAT system here: http://www.vatexchange.co.uk/What-is-VAT-and-how-does-it-work

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I wonder if you'd feel that way if people were talking about your company, knowing you have all those employee's with great benefits, none of which you want to layoff or reduce pay, but also shareholders that demand value, and customers that expect great products. The money for all that has to come somewhere. Governments can raise taxes or print money (real or virtual, like bonds). Businesses have to work to maintain margins. It's a tough balancing act.

Whatever, it's still apple greed!!!

 

[Technarchy]

really? our deficit has been dropping? you must be a liberal. our national debt is $16,742,116,987,856.30. our nations debt is increasing by $2.78 billion per day. i hardly think our economy is recovering when weekly average unemployment is about 300,000 or about 1.2 million+ per month and a creation of 140,000+ per month does not equal a growing economy.

I hate talking points. Like the notion of the "deficit dropping". It's meaningless when you are $16 trillion in the hole.

Buy hey, the Fed will just print more money. That clearly solves everything.

 

[Eraserhead]

I'll just add to the datapoint:
Legally mandatory health insurance in Germany (as a freelancer in 2012) for me was:
650euro/month = 10 100 USD /year
Though this is tax deductible

So what did you actually pay for healthcare?

----------

I hate talking points. Like the notion of the "deficit dropping". It's meaningless when you are $16 trillion in the hole.

If you earn $16 trillion/year then being $16 trillion in debt is less of a big deal than if you earn $50k/year and have $200k in debt (which sounds like a standard mortgage to me...).

 

[IbisDoc]

I was floored when I researched stat's on the healthcare "system" we have had. We spend more on healthcare than any other nation, $3 trillion/per, $300 billion a year on pharmaceuticals alone. That's 90% more than the 1950's. We have become dependent on treating instead of preventative healthcare. General Practitioners are paid ~$15/patient and must see a set number of patients per day in order to meet requirements for state and federal funding. Many practices push patient visits instead of time spent with patients. Surgeons are paid per surgery, which leads to many unnecessary surgeries.

Doctors are taught treating care, especially in ER's. If we educated people on how to live a healthier life through diet and exercise, stints, pharmaceuticals and other unnecessary treatments could be avoided. A recent 25 year study addressing this issue discovered that cardiovascular disease could actually be reversed through proper diet and exercise. That was groundbreaking.

However, just as oil, the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry is "too big to fail". Unless we break the cycle, we're doomed to be rats on the wheel, putting our health at risk to grease the industry.

----------



True, but being a dual citizen living in NYC, I should have clarified that it's the vocal minority in the non-coastal cities that tend to lean towards our points.

So much BS in this post that it's hard to type while I'm laughing so hard. The problem is the American, not the doctor or health care industry. You really don't realize that people look for the easy way out every day? Americans will be Americans, you see.

Every day, people come in demanding a surgery for something that could be corrected by proper diet and exercise. Instead, they want to continue to be fat pigs, eat whatever they want, smoke, sit in front of a TV every day, and sign up for a surgery "as long as insurance pays for it". And as for the genius idea that "If we educated people on how to live a healthier life through diet and exercise, stints, pharmaceuticals and other unnecessary treatments could be avoidedl", guess what happens if you so much as suggest any of this? DOCTOR SHOPPING, NEGATIVE DOCTOR REVIEWS, AND ALL OF THE OTHER IDIOTIC THINGS THAT ENTITLED AMERICANS DO.

LOL at the complete cluelessness of the above post.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Whatever, it's still apple greed!!!

Please do tell. If there are enough willing buyers for Apple to sell enough units to make a healthy profit then logic dictates Apple is selling at "fair value." Fair value, is not necessarily a good deal, but rather the optimal intersection of the supply/demand curve.

Also for Apple to be actually "greedy" (AKA profiteering, price gouging) it's devices would have to be non-fungible, a necessity either in an emergency situation or in life in general, and priced in such a way to take advance of such situation. A good extreme example of this would be a $1,000 bottle of water in the desert or $5/gal gasoline instantly after, say, a refinery explosion.

 

[3282868]

So much BS in this post that it's hard to type while I'm laughing so hard. The problem is the American, not the doctor or health care industry. You really don't realize that people look for the easy way out every day? Americans will be Americans, you see.

Every day, people come in demanding a surgery for something that could be corrected by proper diet and exercise. Instead, they want to continue to be fat pigs, eat whatever they want, smoke, sit in front of a TV every day, and sign up for a surgery "as long as insurance pays for it". And as for the genius idea that "If we educated people on how to live a healthier life through diet and exercise, stints, pharmaceuticals and other unnecessary treatments could be avoidedl", guess what happens if you so much as suggest any of this? DOCTOR SHOPPING, NEGATIVE DOCTOR REVIEWS, AND ALL OF THE OTHER IDIOTIC THINGS THAT ENTITLED AMERICANS DO.

LOL at the complete cluelessness of the above post.

First, please don't insult me. It's unnecessary. If you take issue with the statistics I listed, then address those, not me.

Secondly, I agree with the individual taking responsibility for their own health. I believe most on MacRumors are intelligent enough to realize this without needing it repeated, in CAPITALS (for the record, CAPITALS do not help in making a point). I never stated or implied that the individual is a "victim", I merely stated that most people aren't fully informed of all the options they may have as the system is created to make money off the individual instead of focusing on quality care. This is a generalization, certainly, but one that exists.

Lastly, it seems you are unnerved, defensive and have anger issues. Work on that, it will help with your relationships and overall well being. I recommend calmly, maturely and respectfully addressing others online and in person as it will open a meaningful exchange. There are much more baseless opinions in your comment than mine, but that is for you to learn.

P.S. I'm a dual citizen, bet the U.K. and U.S., so please don't assume I am an "ignorant", "entitled", "fat pig" who sits in front of the t.v. all day.

Wish you well.

 

[mrxak]

Means sales tax is only paid on the value add at each step in the supply chain, rather than the full price each time. Avoids the tax-on-tax issue of a cumulative sales tax. Its a more efficient and intelligent form of consumption tax.

You're really going to debate the semantics of sales tax nomenclature?

No, it's a TAX on the added value at each stage of manufacture/distribution:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_added_tax

To the government of course stupid! VAT is a wonderful idea where companies get to be unpaid tax collectors for the government and unlike corporation or company taxes pretty, much unavoidable and complete with draconian penalties for not paying them (at least in the UK that is!)
Seriously though value added tax is a system where every entity in the supply chain charges VAT (20% in the UK) which is collected on behalf of the government and defrayed by the amount of VAT charged on purchases by that company, only joe public pays that 20% in full. Another thing is that consumer prices must legally include VAT so for instance the prices on Apple's UK website are the same as in the retail stores unlike the US where prices will be higher due to state taxes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_added_tax

Some people can't take a joke. Yeah. I know what a VAT is.

The joke, of course, is that Apple is forced to raise their prices on the consumer. But hey, at least the British government got its cut. I suppose the other joke would be how much fraud there is in VAT systems with carousel scams.

 

[Z400Racer37]

What you wrote makes sense, unfortunately that's something in short supply. There's nothing wrong with saving money, of course, provided we have a sane monetary policy that doesn't eat away at the value of your savings (as we have now with artificially low interest rates and QE + infinity).

The answer to your sensible question is that our monetary system is based upon fractional reserve banking, whereby banks are allowed to "create" money by lending it - it literally doesn't exist before the loan is made, and the principal will never actually be paid back, because the quantity of money doesn't exist to pay back all existing debts - thus we have exponential debt growth, with relatively linear real economic growth.

Banks are only interested in the interest generated by these loans, and to continue to service this debt, the money supply must constantly be increased. Eventually the debt levels go parabolic (the hockey stick) and large amounts of derivatives (risk based instruments) and bad loans start to default and collapse.

This represents a reduction in the monetary base (unlike people calling for hyperinflation, this is actually deflationary). To counter this, the FED fires up the printing presses and pumps funny money into the system.

It's a lot less simple than just money printing = inflation. Remember there are 2 sides, destruction of bad debt and a huge derivatives market, and on the other side reckless money printing to counterbalance this. This is why we haven't experienced hyperinflation despite many calling for it (look what happened to gold recdently). The FED may be run by sociopaths, but they're not stupid.

Either way, the savers and sensible people get shafted.

Hmm, so it seems as though the inflation actually comes from the fractional reserve requirements. It also seems that the simplest, most efficient, reasonable, and sustainable, solution would be to introduce a system whereby people would need to divide their savings into 2 accounts.

The first account you could deposit your money into the bank, and they would be required to keep 100% of the money in that account on hand so you could come by at any time and take it out (and they would charge you for the service since they're not collecting interest on loans).

The second account, which would equate to something very similar to (if not exactly) a CD, where the bank would lend the money out of house, pay you interest for lending them the money and allowing them to do that, and if you needed it before the agreed lending term was up, you would be charged a penalty.

Gradually increasing reserve requirements overtime to achieve this would cause prices to come down from their artificially inflated and manipulated levels, making it unnecessary for the Federal Reserve to prop up those artificially inflated asset prices, thus promoting conservative consumption/investment, and lead to a much more stable, bubble/recession resistant economic model, with each person having drastically less debt, and dramatically reducing the the ability of someone to run up large amounts of debt in their name in the first place (as opposed to encouraging indebted people to take on even more debt to stimulate the consumption of things they don't need). Flawed thinking?

Also, in regards to the QE, the Federal Reserve has recently been talking about "tapering back" its QE program. I look right now, and I see that the US expenditure for interest paid on it's national that is around $232 billion. I also heard on TV the other day from (Bill Gross), that the Federal Reserve is currently buying 90% of the treasuries at auction. Assuming that number is true (which I assume it is since the guy invariably has an enormous research department), and seeing as how rates are at around .25%, it seems like even an increase of .25%, to .50%, would almost double the amount of interest we need to pay on our debt annually. This seems unsustainable to me... No?

 

[Dmunjal]

Hmm, so it seems as though the inflation actually comes from the fractional reserve requirements. It also seems that the simplest, most efficient, reasonable, and sustainable, solution would be to introduce a system whereby people would need to divide their savings into 2 accounts.

The first account you could deposit your money into the bank, and they would be required to keep 100% of the money in that account on hand so you could come by at any time and take it out (and they would charge you for the service since they're not collecting interest on loans).

The second account, which would equate to something very similar to (if not exactly) a CD, where the bank would lend the money out of house, pay you interest for lending them the money and allowing them to do that, and if you needed it before the agreed lending term was up, you would be charged a penalty.

Gradually increasing reserve requirements overtime to achieve this would cause prices to come down from their artificially inflated and manipulated levels, making it unnecessary for the Federal Reserve to prop up those artificially inflated asset prices, thus promoting conservative consumption/investment, and lead to a much more stable, bubble/recession resistant economic model, with each person having drastically less debt, and dramatically reducing the the ability of someone to run up large amounts of debt in their name in the first place (as opposed to encouraging indebted people to take on even more debt to stimulate the consumption of things they don't need). Flawed thinking?

Also, in regards to the QE, the Federal Reserve has recently been talking about "tapering back" its QE program. I look right now, and I see that the US expenditure for interest paid on it's national that is around $232 billion. I also heard on TV the other day from (Bill Gross), that the Federal Reserve is currently buying 90% of the treasuries at auction. Assuming that number is true (which I assume it is since the guy invariably has an enormous research department), and seeing as how rates are at around .25%, it seems like even an increase of .25%, to .50%, would almost double the amount of interest we need to pay on our debt annually. This seems unsustainable to me... No?

Sounds like you're figuring out what a lot of people already realize. That what the Fed is doing is unsustainable. If they raise rates, the Treasury will not be able to afford the interest payments on the debt. If they keep rates too low for too long, they risk creating another housing bubble and more inflation in food and energy. They have to thread the needle and they don't have a good track record for getting the exit plan right.

As for your idea about separate accounts, we used to have that system. Checking accounts were demand accounts that couldn't be used for loans and paid very little interest but available immediately. Savings accounts paid more interest but the funds weren't available immediately and were the source for fractional reserve lending. Then the Fed came along and lowered interest rates to zero and there really isn't a difference anymore.

QE might have made sense to save the system in 2008 but the last 3 or 4 versions have been useless and only serve to support the banks and create another housing and stock market bubble while the middle class continues to suffer.

 

[Technarchy]

So what did you actually pay for healthcare?

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If you earn $16 trillion/year then being $16 trillion in debt is less of a big deal than if you earn $50k/year and have $200k in debt (which sounds like a standard mortgage to me...).

No, not quite.


The federal government took in $2.3 trillion in revenues in fiscal year 2011, most which comes from individual income taxes and the payroll taxes that for Social Security and Medicare. Not including all the other things that need funding.

The Federal government would only come close to $16 trillion in revenue at damn near 100% taxation.

 

[toke lahti]

If we forget the small VAT adjustments made before, is this the first time Apple changes current model's price?
AFAIK, they used to have so fat margins that there was enough room for currency changes.
Consumers knew that the same Apple product would have same price as long it was current model.
Now this security is gone. Oh boy, times are changing...

 

[rdowns]

I hate talking points. Like the notion of the "deficit dropping". It's meaningless when you are $16 trillion in the hole.

Buy hey, the Fed will just print more money. That clearly solves everything.

It's not meaningless. We can't do anything about our debt until the deficit is tamed.