Apple’s MacBook Pro Priced Through the Roof in Korea
Phenomenally priced MacBook Pros in Korea Apple Store! Korea is likely the least Mac friendly first world nation on the planet, despite its being extremely advanced in IT technology. And these pricing points for the new MacBook Pro are not going to help things.
3,099,000 South Korean Won is equivalent to 2915 CAD or 2600 USD – almost 750 dollars more dear than it’s equivalent on the Canadian Apple Store. The high-end MBP, on the other hand, priced at 3,890,000 KRW works out to 3600 CAD – almost 1,000 Canadian dollars more expensive than if bought in the Great White North!
This saddens me somewhat, but the Mac is viewed here as a largely incompatible, premium product used only by design specialists. Moreover, in electronics as in almost all other areas of life, Korea tends to be fiercely nationalistic in its purchases. Cars, phones and computers, as well as all major appliances, are almost always of Korean design.
On the other hand, Apple’s Korean pricing policy does make sense in light of a recent post from Jonh Gruber. Gruber argues that,
Other PC makers fight viciously over pricing because it’s the only factor on which they can differentiate. Few of them bother trying to make better computers — most just build bland, junky wrappers around Intel’s reference chipsets…None can offer better software because they all ship the same version of Windows. They’re stuck with Vista. They all seem, for whatever reason, incapable of producing Apple-level marketing and advertising. And none of them who’ve tried have been able to do their own retail stores successfully. Price is all they have.
This comment comes in light of the fact that, though Apple controls only 18 percent of American retail market share, it has an amazing 31 percent of it’s revenue share. Apple is successfully competing by creating products of phenomenal quality and charging accordingly.
In any case, Apple fares poorly in Korea. I was just able to purchase an iPod Touch yesterday, nearly a month after they had been released in Canada and the US. And still, no iPhone for Korea’s ultra fast and pervasive 3G networks. It’s a sad state, and Apple’s new pricing structure won’t help them develop more of a foothold here. But on the other hand, the few Apple fanatics of Korea will continue to buy Macs no matter what the pricing. And thus, higher priced notebooks will allow Apple to maintain an even higher ratio of market share to revenue share.
(As an aside – I purchased my MBP in Korea for 1,999,999 KRW – only 1900 CAD and roughly 1000 dollars less than if I’d have held off until now.)
