Sunday April 27, 2008

- Apple on the warpath against the gray market for iPods - Lionel - 18:44:54

Source: The register

If Apple is unconcerned about the grey market for the iPhone, the company appears very concerned about its other products which are sometimes imported via the parallel market in Europe.
The company has ordered 11 English dealers to cease importing iPods directly from the United States and provide all information about companies helping them .
These companies, taking advantage of historically low rates of the dollar, sell ipods below the recommended retail price in Europe.

The calculation is easy to do. Take for example a 32 GB iPod Touch sold for 469€ (and private copying fee is included). Imported from the U.S. on the parallel market, it could be sold including all taxes for nearly 50€ cheaper, or a reduction of over 10%. And in this case, we left the dealer a margin much higher than Apple would let him take.
The situation is very tempting for retailers, even if they risk of upsetting Apple.
And we know from confidential sources that many dealers did not deny themselves this opportunity, doing so with great discretion by importing a small percentage of their turnover using this method, which brings them a tidy profit.

[translation by jeremy]

- Trust for Mac - Lionel - 16:53:05

Trust is a well known manufacturer of peripherals for PC computers, but following the increasing market share of Mac, it has decided to launch products dedicated to our Macs: mouse, keyboard, speakers, tablets, etc.

Those "for Mac" labeled products ensure a complete compatibility with Apple branded hardware. While Cupertino almost entirely dropped the "white color" for its computer models, most Trust for Mac products are dressed in white and grey. If there is no revolutionizing product, it is a clear sign that the Mac market share is not negligible anymore for peripheral manufacturers and we should not be surprised in the future to see other well-known brand from the PC world to offer products for the Mac.

Additional information about Trust for Mac: http://www.trust.com/products/Default.aspx?cat=MAC

[translation by Linathael]