Last week the Canadian Dollar reached parity with the US dollar. In fact, it’s been within 5% of the value of the US greenback for about 3 months now. Today, it’s actually worth more than $1 USD.
Which brings to mind the obvious question for any self-respecting Canadian Apple Fan-Boi: How has this impacted the cost of a 15″ MacBook Pro on the Apple Canada web site?
The answer will disappoint you: Not one bit. Apple still charges an approximately 12% premium for products bought in Canada, as these screen shots from this morning show:
This despite the fact that both products are drop-shipped direct from Shenzen no matter which country you order it from. In fact, you can spring for the 17″ in the US for less than it would cost you to buy the 15″ in Canada, especially considering you’ll save on (at least) provincial sales taxes.
So what gives? Is Apple trying to play games with currency fluctuations? Or is their notoriously inept Canadian organization simply too slow to act on news that is more than one operating quarter old and adjust their prices? And anyway, how difficult is that to do, really?
-Ian.
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Yeah, I had read that the savings from the strength of the Canadian dollar are not being passed on to consumers by importers. It’s good that you post about it as it may raise awareness among consumers.
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