iPhones expensive in the US? Try India

[madage]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/24/us-apple-india-idUSBRE91N0FK20130224

Full disclosure: My wife has an iPhone 4 on StraightTalk (for another few weeks before I switch her to T-Mobile's $30 plan) and I have an iPhone 3 (purchased broken, then fixed) talk/text on GoPhone (switching to P-tel even sooner). I also rock my 7 year old iMac (first Intel Mac), an original iPad I received as a birthday gift in 2010 and we love our Apple TV.

[venkol]

I was just in Turkey where an unlocked iPhone 5 costs about 2000 Turkish Lira ($1200 US).  I wanted to buy a bunch of $600 Unlocked phones in the states and sell them to stores there, but Turkey makes it very difficult to use imported phones except for tourists.  Oh Well, one of the big advantages of the global economy should be the rise of arbitrage forcing lower prices for everyone, but lots of companies and governments make it really difficult to do.  For example, in Australia, it is cheaper to buy a plane ticket to Los Angeles and buy a copy of Adobe Creative Suite 6 there than to just buy it directly in Australia.

I think the scarier part of the article is that 2 months wages for an entry level software engineer is $840 compared to about $10,000 in the US (not counting taxes and benefits).  Just another reason to follow MMM, if your wage is not tenable in a global economy, you need something to fall back on.

[gooki]

For example, in Australia, it is cheaper to buy a plane ticket to Los Angeles and buy a copy of Adobe Creative Suite 6 there than to just buy it directly in Australia.

Or use a VPN and get it done in five minutes and save yourself the flight :)

But yes, a global economy is the future. Prices will begin to stabalize with only local taxes effecting the total price.

[venkol]

For example, in Australia, it is cheaper to buy a plane ticket to Los Angeles and buy a copy of Adobe Creative Suite 6 there than to just buy it directly in Australia.

Or use a VPN and get it done in five minutes and save yourself the flight :)

But yes, a global economy is the future. Prices will begin to stabalize with only local taxes effecting the total price.

Heck, if you are going to break the TOS anyways, might as well go to the pirate bay to get it. ;)  I'm just kidding, but it is completely retarded how software rights management work in the global economy anyways.

[mm31]

I vastly prefer expensive phones over expensive plans. In the US, subsidized phones mean I'm paying $2500/year for a phone plan. Contracts are usually 2 years so that's $5K paid to a phone company for the "privilege" of buying an iphone at a discounted rate.