Think you overpaid for that iPhone 6? You probably didn't pay nearly as much as the average Brazilian.
Last year, Business Insider's Michael Kelley checked out Apple prices in São Paulo, the largest city in the country. They were absurd then, and they remain just as crazy today.
I recently visited a typical shopping mall in the city while on a reporting trip — along the way I stopped to survey a variety of Apple resellers.
The typical price for a 16 GB iPhone 6 Plus: a whopping $1080, compared to $749 in the U.S. (without a cell phone carrier contract, which lowers the price to about $299).
The 16GB iPhone 5S offers a little relief at a cost of $618 (versus $549 in the U.S, or $99 with a carrier contract).
Some other outlandish prices:
- A 13-inch MacBook Pro (500 GB) costs $1800, versus $1099 in the U.S.
- A 13-inch MacBook Air (256 GB) costs $1824, versus $999 in the U.S.
- A 13-inch MacBook Air (500 GB) costs $2166, versus $1199 in the U.S.
A number of factors are behind the price gouging, including strict labor laws, a 60% flat tax on many imported products, and bottlenecks in transportation.
Thus, the reason that you don't see many residents toting around the latest iPhone.
