Apple snub non US consumers once again with Snow Leopard

Apple’s latest incarnation of their current operating system; Snow Leopard, has been announced today as shipping on or before Friday the 28th for nothing more then $29. This is a pretty amazing price for an operating system, but there have always been concerns that Snow Leopard is more of a service pack. Apple have of course been denying this, as it would bring them down from their high horse to be seen charging for a service pack.

But let’s face it. It basically is. There is, after all, a reason why only people who already have Leopard can make use of the $29 deal.

Anyway, for you lot who live in the US, $29 is a pretty awesome price for an operating system. $29 should make you happy. You get what Apple are calling “The Most Advanced Operating System. Finally tuned.”

So, you may remember a while back I did me some complaining about the amount that us Irish were being forced to pay for the iPhone. I got the usual amount of sniffling Apple fanboy feedback (mostly through emails) which boiled down to “We should thank Apple and O2 for taking our money!”, so I decided that I would do something similar with Snow Leopard. And what’s more, I would do it in the same littered-with-screenshot manner.

I’m a controversial guy, me.

So, as Apple have so widely publicised, the price of Snow Leopard in the US is a measly $29.

Look at it. All cheap and such. Oh! And look! It will deliver ON the 28th of August! Lucky folk! If I lived in the US I would certainly order from here. It saves one a trip to the shops. I wonder how much us Irish are being charged…

Hey! Cian! I think you used the same screenshot! Why do they both look so similar?

Well, Mister Italics, I’m glad you asked. Wanna know why? Because they pretty are the same. They just replaced the dollar sign with a Euro, and replaced the bit about shipping with another bit about shipping. We can’t really blame them for changing the shipping details, as the Irish postal system is a recognised mess.

But that little change with the Euro sign. It can’t mean much, can it?

Why yes, Mister Italics, it can. It means just under $13. From my basic usage of the calculator on my Mac, us Irish folk are paying almost a full 45% MORE then our US counterparts!

Why, Cian, that’s terrible!

But that’s not all!

OHNOES!

This is the amount that the UK are being asked to pay for Snow Leopard. That’s about $41, or about $12 more then the US are paying. Thanks, Apple!

Just for funzies, I also checked out how much people from Hong Kong have to pay.

That is about $30, which is pretty much what the US people are asked to pay. Not all that interesting. But not a 45% price hike!

Let’s sum up this post with some quick and friendly bullet points.

• Mac OS X Snow Leopard is coming out on August 28th.
• If you live in the US, you are a happy consumer. Well done, consumer! Buy buy buy!
• If you live in the Eurozone, you are paying 45% more then people in the US are paying.
• Everybody will buy it anyway.
• At least ONE person will say to me, either through email, comments, twitter or pidgin, that it’s not a big deal. After all, it is only $13. What worries me more about this is the fact that a huge company can get away with price discrimination of 45% so easily.