For example the $1,199 model costs £999 in the UK. $1,199 is equal to £744. So to buy it from the UK store you're paying 34% more?
For the cheapest option, $999 in US store, the UK price is 37% more. And I'm too lazy to work out the 13" price differences.
Using today's exchange rate of 1.6149, here are the UK like-for-like premiums for several Apple products in the UK:
7.6% - ipad 2
13.4% - ipod touch
14.4% - mac air 11 64gb
12.1% - mac air 11 128gb
13.9% - mac air 13 128gb
13.5% - mac air 13 256gb
12.1% - mbp 13
21.1% - thunderbolt display
Therefore, the UK premium is much larger when you consider that in some US states there is no sales tax, but the entire UK is subject to 20% sales tax.
Also note that VAT is only a sales tax on items for personal use. Business users do not have to pay the VAT (they reclaim it).
Here therefore are the premiums comparing US states with zero sales tax to the UK:
29.1% - ipad 2
36.1% - ipod touch
37.2% - mac air 11 64gb
34.6% - mac air 11 128gb
36.6% - mac air 13 128gb
36.2% - mac air 13 256gb
34.6% - mbp 13
45.3% - thunderbolt display
http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPort...
That would bring the price hike down to the same level as the computers.
The UK is known in the industry as "Treasure Island" because they know that they can charge more here and get away with it.
E.g. Bose QC15 noise cancelling headphones: 25.2% premium excluding sales tax, 50.2% premium including sales tax comparing a zero sales tax US state to the UK.
Out of interest are you aware of a site that does this sort of comparison?
I did read they'd adjusted their Canadian prices for the same reason though.
11 inch MacBook Air (64GB) = US$999 (which should convert to NZ$1,169.46 using the current exchange rate).
In NZ we've got a 15% GST (sales) tax, but that should only bring the price up to about NZ$1,345. Instead the entry level MacBook Air costs us NZ$1,549.00.
So that's a NZ$204 mark up for what??? Wish we could just buy them directly off the US Apple website!