Why are Macs so expensive in Australia?

[Magnus]

Duncan Riley is asking a similar question to many of us. While we're of course concerned with UAE prices, he's wondering why Macs are so much more expensive in Australia compared to the US.

He writes:

Using xe.com (conversion rate of 83c), the same Mac sold in the US is $3,002 AUD. So why does Apple sell it for $3,999, 33% higher? even if we allow for 10% GST it still only brings it to $3,300, not $4k. At $3k it’s reasonable buying, at $4k it’s not.
It’s the same across the board.
A Refurbished Mac Pro Quad 2.66GHz Intel Xeon:
US: $2199 USD/ $2640 AUD Australia: $3359 AUD/ $2796 USD
Does anyone know how to import them into Australia directly from the States or can recommend a company that does ship them here? Even with customs duty they’d still work out cheaper.

[Magnus]

Just to add something to this really old discussion. I looked up prices at Apple's online UK and France stores. These are the prices in Pounds and Euros without any tax. Small caveat is that listed on the UK site are the new MacBooks, the prices I have for the UAE are for the previous gen (before the latest bump) as is the case for the France store. But in the US the prices stayed the same, so assuming that will be the same here, the comparison is valid I think.

[Yasir]

I posted a comparison about the ipods in the world and Australia was number 19 on the list

[SimplyBahraini]

You know in bahrain, you can get the new macbooks 2.0 white for 490BD which is a bit less than 4900AED and the black one for 550BD so around 5500AED and the new 2.16Zz for 620BD which is around 6200AED. my brother was in dubai few days ago, he says the prices in bahrain are much cheaper. true or not?

[Magnus]

You know in bahrain, you can get the new macbooks 2.0 white for 490BD which is a bit less than 4900AED and the black one for 550BD so around 5500AED and the new 2.16Zz for 620BD which is around 6200AED. my brother was in dubai few days ago, he says the prices in bahrain are much cheaper. true or not?

See my earlier post (with the table). The UAE MB prices are in the rightmost column.

[SimplyBahraini]

ouch we are cheaper!! well anyone wants a new macbook?! :P just joking