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Comment by wildmusings | Hacker News Reader

And then people in your country probably get all upset when things cost way more. See "ripoff Britain" or all of the controversy in Australia. Your politicians won't break you the hard truth, but the reason why you pay more is that it's more expensive to sell to you.

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Are you really claiming that expectation for a piece of hardware to work more than 2 years is something that hugely increases costs?

We're not talking 15 years here. 2 years.

Apple charges $99 for the two year warranty in the states. You get that "free" in Europe. Add in all of the other regulatory burdens, labor laws, and such, and it's very easy to see why things cost more in the rest of the Western world.

As a perfect example, they're likely on the hook for many millions of dollars of repairs with this issue in the article in the EU. In the US, only the people that had the problem early on or bought the extended warranty are covered. There ain't no free lunch.

Actually, looking at Apples stock performance I'd easily say that this is just about demanding normal decency from Apple.

They come to Europe to sell phones and we demand that they compete on the same terms as anyone else here.

Edit:

> they're likely on the hook for many millions of dollars of repairs with this issue in the article in the EU.

They can expect no mercy ;-)

They are big enough that they should know about key concepts like QA, continuous improvement and insurance.

That's all fine and dandy, but it isn't free. That's the point I'm making.

Apple made $7.6 billion USD in net income in the last quarter; I'm pretty sure they have plenty to cover the cost of repairs because of poor manufacturing quality.

Agree.

Additionally letting Apple (and other big companies)[0] clean up their own mess creates a perfectly aligned incentive to avoid messing with consumers again.

Edit: clarify

[0]: I actually like big companies. It's mostly just when they, -in spite of massive profits, do stupid things e.g: like whining against basic worker or consumer protection etc that they annoy me.

That's not how it works. They're going to sell it for as much margin as any given market can optimally support. This is basic supply and demand.

So you're claiming that Apple's manufacturing is SO BAD that the they have to charge a full additional 99$ (more than 1/10th of the price) just guarantee that your Apple device will work for 2 years? Or do you perhaps think that there's another reason (PROFIT!) there?

With regard to Australia; in 2013 there was a parliamentary inquiry into IT pricing entitled "At what cost? IT pricing and the Australia tax". The report can be found here, on the Parliament of Australia website.

http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Hous...

Warranties (sections 3.24 to 3.27) are mentioned as one of many factors.

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