Apple products are infamous for being costly; sometimes excessively so. And yet we cough up months’ worth of savings for those shiny new iPhones or those sleek and elegant MacBooks. After all, they are excellent products!
It’s bad enough that Apple products burn a large hole in your pockets, but now it looks like things are going to get a lot worse. Not satisfied with hiking up the prices of the iPhones in India, Apple has gone ahead and increased MacBook prices as well … by 20% across the board!
The recent pricing shift affects MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Mac Pro and Mac mini models.
Source: NDTV Gadgets
The price change is being attributed to the recent fluctuations in the global economy and the consequent changes in the exchange rates of various currencies. And India isn’t the only one affected. Seven other countries, including Brazil, New Zealand, and France are now having to shell out a lot more for the Macs.
Apple adjusting the prices of its products to account for currency fluctuations is not out of the ordinary and is something that residents of non-U.S. nations have come to accept. The logic behind it is also simple. Apple being a US company balances its accounts in USD; any changes in exchange rate must therefore be adjusted accordingly. This means that if you live in a country (like ours) where the currency has weakened against the dollar, you’d end up spending considerably more for the same products as compared to last year.
Perhaps this is why the iPhones are so very expensive this time round. Even though Apple announced that the new iPhones (6S and 6S Plus) would be available at the same prices as the 6 and 6 Plus, in India they still arrived at a higher price tag. Apple products have now strictly become luxury goods, accessible to only those with very, very, VERY deep pockets.
In the last few months, there were a few signs indicating towards a more affordable Apple ecosystem in India. Amazon selling the non-retina MacBooks for ₹ 48,000 gave us a glimmer of hope. The reduced prices of iCloud service made us cheerful. But these new prices for the MacBooks are like ominous dark clouds that are threatening to rain over our parade!