January 13, 2010
Comparison of worldwide Apple prices – South Africa comes in 2nd highest
“The world is flat!” Thomas Friedman proclaimed in 2005, meaning that the world has become a global village, where all players have a equal opportunity. I wish he was right, because that would mean that we in South Africa would have the same access to Apple computers as the rest of the First World.
Thanks to Core, we have that access, but it comes at a price, a price which Core refuses to explain to online community, so continuing to maintain the perception that they are a monopoly focusing on one thing: profit, and profit only.
cmyplay.com has an interesting infographic showing the price of a 13” Macbook Pro around the world, and South Africa comes in second most expensive, just after Brazil.
Worldwide Macbook Prices
TUAW picked this up and have some interesting comments on their post.
If Core was paying attention, they could point out that the graphic shows greater differentiation between prices than the actual numbers show. If Core bothered to interact with the online community, they would be able to point out that the South African prices are similar to prices in other countries. If Core cared at all about customer perception, they’d hire someone to reach out to the online community instead of isolating and vilifying us. My Christmas wish (from last year really – I didn’t make one so figure I have some credit!) is that Core would stop their command-and-control ways, and enter into conversations with their customers.
I wish the world really was flat. And I wish Core would reach out to the online community in healthy ways.
Comments(3)
Roger Saner is a web platform developer (using 
Very few resellers or distributors manage to transfer the passion of the companies they represent. A Volvo for example is a great car in Sweden, but a bad buy in South Africa. Still you are buying the same car, but the fun, passion and community around it has been stripped by the importers.
I don’t know Core, but I do know that Mac’s in SA are not Mac’s elsewhere, because the spirit of the company cannot be packaged and shipped with the hardware.
Bad representation of products in countries such as SA remains the fault and problem of the manufacturer though. You should write to Mac, and not to Core.
Super new year
Thanks Jacobus – you too
I think writing to Apple, instead of complaining to Core, is a very good idea. I wonder what standards Apple expects their distributors to adhere to? For all I know, Apple might not mind that the sales people in iStores are badly trained, that Core can charge what they like on hardware, that repairs take ages and that Core’s internal systems are so bad that dealing with them on the phone is like speaking to a compulsive liar (“Yes, your laptop will be ready tomorrow – we promise.”).
I really want to get a macbook and I have the opportunity of getting one in the States in a few weeks and bringing it in…potentially saving myself R3500. However I have a few queries which i hope you can answer: I know that apple have a 1 year world wide warranty but the sales person at Digi Cape (Cape Town) told me that unless I declare the laptop at customs and pay the import duty, the warranty is invalid (she proceeded to tell me that they record serial numbers and send the info to mac so that if i bring it in for repairs they will know whether I payed the duty or not.) Is this true?????? or is she just trying to scare me into buying the laptop from them?
thanks
Brandon