Canada: best place for iPods
p2pnet.net News:- Canada is the best place in the world to buy an iPod.
The revelation comes in news that the fanous Big Mac Index created as an indicator for foreign exchange movements has been replaced by the iPod index.
“In 1986, The Economist magazine launched a tongue-in-cheek index based on the McDonalds hamburger as a way of assessing whether a particular currency was under- or overvalued against other currencies,” says Australian Associated Press, going on:
“The Economist’s Big Mac Index is as a way of looking at purchasing powers, and has a good track record in predicting the direction of currencies. The theory is that if a Big Mac in Australia is cheaper than it is in the United States when expressed in US dollars then the Australian dollar may be perceived as undervalued.”
Now, “Twenty years on, and with the same light-hearted approach, Commonwealth Securities has devised the CommSec iPod Index, and based on a product that is also the same the world over,” says the story.
“Simply, an iPod nano should broadly cost the same across the globe,” it has CommSec chief economist Craig James saying. “If there were substantial price differences customers would switch their purchases to other countries, especially given the power of the internet.”
James admits the iPod index doesn’t meet all the criteria because freight costs will vary from country to country, and countries such as the US may get volume discounts.
“But, said Mr James, the iPod is tradeable across country borders and is the same around the globe,” says AAP.
At US$327.71, Brazil has the most expensive iPods. In Canada, they’re about $170.
Also See:
Australian Associated Press – iPod Index trumps the BigMac one, January 18, 2007
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