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Show HN: The iPhone 14 Index

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25 pointsadrianvincent15 comments

Nice page. I guess the actual numbers are way worse: For instance, in Germany ~34kEUR is the median gross income. The country has quite a high ratio on income tax and social insurance, making the net income typically in a regime of 30-60% of the gross income. Not to even start about living expenses and rent. Of course same applies for other countries. That's why I said things are even worse :)

Those figures for net income seem off, especially for something around 30k you're not going to pay that much.

Also I think that median income you cite is PPP, actual would be closer to 45k.

An average citizen is not Apple's target market though, especially in poor countries where one excessively impoverished section brings down the whole population's average income. But these countries' marketable section of the population can be as formidable as that in any developed country. Hell, India's potential market is possibly bigger than that of several rich countries combined due to its sheer population size.

An IPhone 14 base model in Nigeria costs $1,571.57 after taxes, where in the US, the cost is $881.64 ($799 + taxes). Why is the cost in Nigeria so much more? Tariffs? Taxes? Even with a US salary that would be pricy. Japan is the least expensive country, $831.43.

Typically taxes. As the good is "officially" imported by some company, tariffs are applied at the port.

So in such countries, the "official" big store price is $price + $tariff + $profit-margin. Or you do what most people in such a place do is either travel abroad and or get a friend etc to bring you one.

The gov gets wise to this and so they then begin saying things like "travelers can only have 1 used phone and 1 new phone on them".

Happened to me once when traveling abroad. I had taken like 2 xboxs to sell for marginal profit, when they opened my bags and confiscated one of them. Had to pay say $100, which for a $200-300 item is a STEEP tariff.

If i didn't pay it, i'd essentially relinquish the item altogether. Sweet life.

Also in Latin America there are heavy taxes for importing iphones. Why it is so? I suspect a policy to keep the developing markets… developing forever.

That’s because they are considered luxury items. You can buy cheap android phones for next to nothing. But agree that gov’s are being short sighted and should strategically reduce taxes on certain items as an investment in education/workforce.

It might be an exchange rate topic? Since you're highlighting Japan, then yen is very weak compared with the dollar right now, so it seems way less expensive. Compared with the previous generations I think it's quite a bit more expensive.

Nigeria? Heh... I give you Cuba. Monthly average salary 3902 pesos which, converted to USD, yield 31.2. It would take, what? 50 months?

Why does xe.com show 3902 cuban pesos as $162 US?

https://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/?Amount=3902&Fr...

That's old news. The state mandated rate is around 120 CUP per USD (with a little spread when buying/selling, and for other market fluctuations.) But almost no one uses that mechanism, as the state is profoundly insolvent.

The black market, or unofficial, rate is what everyone thinks about[2].

[1]: http://www.cubadebate.cu/especiales/2022/08/29/apuntes-sobre... [2]: https://eltoque.com/tasas-de-cambio-de-moneda-en-cuba-hoy

Apparently that exchange rate isn't real.

https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/cuba-more-than-quadruples...

Looks like Venezuela is missing. Was expecting it to be at or near the top.

According to this:

https://observatoriodefinanzas.com/el-salario-promedio-del-s...

Avg monthly salary in Q1 2022 was $101.

Using the cost of the iphone 14 in the US ($800)

That would be 8 months or 66%.

since individual states in the US have different sales tax, and supposely also not the same overall median income, I wonder if this information would give any interesting insight.

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