The reason is that—a far cry from when it dived as low as 62 cents American in 2002—Canada's "loonie" dollar has been trading at a higher value than the U.S. greenback all this year so far. And unlike with its brief upward spike in 2007-'08—during which time it briefly hit US$1.10—this time the Canuck-buck is forecast to remain above-par through 2012 as well, and perhaps beyond. So, why should Canadians be paying higher nominal dollar prices for Apple hardware (and most everything else) than Americans?
Here's the current disparity in Canadian vs. U.S Apple Store pricing:
iPods and the Mac mini are the worst deals proportionate to price. The $500 nominal discrepancy in iPhone prices relates to an AT&T service plan subsidy in the U.S. that is not available from Canadian service providers.
So is Apple gouging Canucks? After all, while retail pricing can't be expected to track floating exchange rates precisely, the Canadian loonie (so-named in reference to the Common Loon that appears on Canada's $1.00 coin) has been at par or above for about four months now, and as noted, this time it's not expected to be a temporary blip.
However, in defense of Apple and other retailers operating in Canada, it isn't quite that simple. Wholesale unit cost is just one element of the pricing dynamic. Canadian businesses have to pay their staff, their rent, and in most instances all of their other overhead costs in Canadian dollars, the overall tax burden is substantially higher in Canada, and there are the negative economies of scale in serving a market roughly a tenth the size of the U.S.'s. Another factor is a less-competitive market environment north of 49. Some Canadian market watchers say Canadians are just simply unwilling to spend as much time comparison-shopping and rooting through bargain bins as Americans.
Nevertheless, if the loonie soars to U.S.$1.10 again or higher, as some are predicting, for any length of time, demanding at least nominal price parity wouldn't seem too unreasonable an expectation.
As we reported on Gadgetell, Apple has sued Samsung for violating 16 trademarks and 10 patents when it allegedly used the iPod and iPad as an inspiration for the Samsung Galaxy line of phones and tablets. Now, it’s Samsung’s turn as it has countersued Apple for allegedly violating 10 of its patents relating to “power reduction during data transmission, 3G technology for reducing errors during data transmission, and wireless data communication technology,” as reported by Reuters.
We just got official word from Sprint that their version of the Nexus S will be arriving in stores across the country on May 8th. Carrying a $199 price tag (two-year commitment), the Nexus 4G features Android 2.3, a 1 GHZ processor, 5-megapixel camera, and support for Sprint's 4G network. Let's not forget that beautiful 4-inch Super AMOLED screen, front-facing VGA camera, NFC chip, Wi-Wi, Bluetooth, and GPS either.
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Sony confirmed the existence of two rumored Android 3.0 tablets today with a press release for their new "Sony Tablet". Yup, that's the name, for now. Engadget pretty much nailed every aspect of these devices a few months back but we'll refresh your minds.
Verizon has officially announced the follow up to last year's Droid Incredible in the new, wait for it, Droid Incredible 2. Dropping later this week on April 28th, the HTC handset will run $199.99 with a two-year service agreement. Specs include a 4-inch LCD display, 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 8.0-megapixel camera with dual LED flash, and a 1.3-megapixel front facing camera. Powered by Android 2.2, the Droid Incredible 2 also features HTC Sense, 720p HD video capture with DLNA support, and SRS WOWHD surround sound. And being that it's a "global-ready" device, the phone works in more than 200 countries around the world.
