{"id":2597,"date":"2009-08-20T00:16:02","date_gmt":"2009-08-20T00:16:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/2009\/08\/a_tale_of_two_g\/"},"modified":"2009-08-20T00:16:02","modified_gmt":"2009-08-20T00:16:02","slug":"a_tale_of_two_g","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/2009\/08\/a_tale_of_two_g\/","title":{"rendered":"A Tale of Two Gadgets"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Gadgets\"<\/a>
\nIn the last 48 hours we’ve learnt about the forthcoming release of two exceptional devices.
\nSony has finally decided to release a new version of the Playstation 3 – their gaming device who’s sales have been, let’s be honest, lacklustre.
\nKey to it’s future success is its price. In the US it’s priced at $299, while in the UK it’ll be £249.
\nNow that’s not an exceptional deal. Today’s exchange rate suggests that £1.00 is equal to $1.65, so £249=$411 or so. To be fair, the US price of $299 excludes sales tax, while £249 includes VAT. At a rate of 15% that means a tax free price of £216, which is roughly equal to $357. So UK consumers are still paying over the odds, but it’s not the worst case ever.
\nWe’ll leave that to Canon shall we?
\nI own a wonderful compact camera – the Canon Powershot G7. It was replaced not long after I bought it with the similarly specced G9 (there was no G8) which also recorded RAW images – something that I will look for in any future camera I buy. This is turn was replaced by the G10 which was similar, but actually in some respects was inferior to the G9 – not least in its video capture specs. I let that one go, and today the Canon G11 was announced.
\nAs is always the case, there are some new features – with an improved sensor, and a fold out LCD at the back. It’s released in October, and I might just <\/em>be tempted to replace my ageing G7. Except for one small thing.
\nThe price.
\nIn the US, its tax-free price is $499. Now we saw in the Sony Playstation example above that given the current exchange rate of £1.00 = $1.65, that we should expect to pay a little over the odds in the UK.
\nBut what do you suppose the UK VAT inclusive price is?
\n£569!<\/a>
\nIf we exclude VAT from that it brings the price down to £494 or so. But the US price, excluding sales tax, is $499 which is equivalent to roughly £302 – nowhere near £494.
\nIt’s practically unheard of to have a £ price that’s more<\/em> than the dollar price.
\nEven Adobe – who can be awful – aren’t that bad.
\nNow you might think that perhaps the “RRP” is a meaningless price that nobody will expect to pay. But I’ve already received my first direct mail from Warehouse Express, allowing me to pre-order this camera for £569.00. And this is a retailer who always sell goods at a decent discount.
\nWhat on earth is Canon UK thinking? I know that to avoid poor currency exchange rates, that a certain amount of “safety” is built into UK prices, but this pricing strategy is extortion.
\nI may as well travel to the US and buy a camera there. I forsee dismal UK Canon G11 sales until they rethink their pricing.
\nAnd to be honest, I’ll be keeping an eye out for a competitively priced G9.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the last 48 hours we’ve learnt about the forthcoming release of two exceptional devices. Sony has finally decided to release a new version of the Playstation 3 – their gaming device who’s sales have been, let’s be honest, lacklustre. Key to it’s future success is its price. In the US it’s priced at $299, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2597"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2597\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}