The big Mac index
You probably won't guess the most expensive place in the world to buy a MacBook Pro. No, it's not Switzerland. :: blogtober 10/4/24
Please note: this is a Blogtober post.1
Where is the most expensive place in the world to buy a MacBook?
If you are fascinated by things like the Big Mac Index, your first guess might be Switzerland. The Swiss franc seems to frequently top the Big Mac index. Anecdotes abound from flabbergasted American tourists forced to shell out for things like $8 coffees. But! The most expensive MacBook Pro in the world is not sold in Switzerland.
Just to be annoying, I would like to suggest a different international consumer goods metric: the big Mac index. How much does a MacBook Pro cost around the world?
Why compare the MacBook Pro? MacBooks are fairly standardized around the world (with minor exceptions, like keyboard layouts) and are thus easier to compare internationally (and historically) than other computers. They’re popular among software developers for a handful of reasons, so you could see the cost of a MacBook Pro as a relevant thing to consider for would-be tech startups internationally. MacBooks are also largely sold directly from Apple, versus from other retailers, so there’s very little price fluctuation from sales etc. Additionally, I think it might be a good way to examine a phenomenon that strikes fear in the hearts of those who get too much screen time: tech tariffs.
Nukeni, a Japanese website, scrapes data on the costs of Apple products around the world. It’s an interesting website to explore (just turn on auto-translate!). Here are the top 10 cheapest and top 10 most expensive places in the world to buy the latest MacBook Pro base model2:
Most inexpensive (price in Yen, price in USD):
1.America 3 ￥238,051 ($1601.15)
2.Vietnam ￥240,394 ($1616.91)
3.Canada 4 ￥241,670 ($1625.49)
4.Japan ￥248,800 ($1673.45)
5.Hong Kong ￥249,193 ($1676.09)
6.Taiwan ￥253,057 ($1702.08)
7.Singapore ￥262,330 ($1764.45)
8.South Korea ￥264,097 ($17765.34)
9.Malaysia ￥264,459 ($1778.77)
10.Canada6 ￥264,686 ($1780.30)
Most expensive, ascending order (price in Yen, price in USD):
25. Hungary ￥325,599 ($2190.00)
26. Germany, France, Austria (tie) ￥326,550 ($2196.40)
27. Denmark ￥328,667 ($2210.64)
28. Netherlands, Belgium, Spain (tie) ￥331,450 ($2229.36)
29. England ￥331,919 ($2232.51)
30. Portugal, Italy, Ireland (tie) ￥334,718 ($2251.34)
31. Norway ￥335,034 ($2253.47)
32. Finland ￥337,985 ($2273.31)
33. Poland ￥340,482 ($2290.11)
34. Sweden ￥344,523 ($2317.29)
And - get ready for a break in the y-axis - the most expensive place in the world to buy a MacBook is……………..
Brazil ￥504,030 ($3390.15)
Yes, really. (Switzerland was #20 on the list, by the way.)
Brazil, to put it bluntly, has insane tariffs on technology. There’s a tradition of protectionist tariffs intended to prop up the national industry going, perhaps, a little too far and simply resulting in everyone smuggling in the heavily-tariffed good. This is a longstanding problem - it’s been true as long as I’ve been alive. Neighboring Argentina isn’t much better (though probably a lot of Argentinian MacBooks were bought in dollars anyways, IYKYK).
Being in favor of very high tariffs on imported technology is sort of like being opposed to vaccine mandates: those who have experienced the change being advocated for will go to extremes to not live through it again.
Here’s an interesting anecdote from Hacker News:
To challenge myself, I'm going to write a blog post every day in October. These might not be particularly long or good, and I might queue up a few blog posts in advance. “Blogtober” has been done before, and the general premise is to blog every day in October. Sort of like NaNoWriMo, except it seems like a more useful endeavor for my purposes. Each post will take about an hour - judge accordingly.
M3 Macbook Pro 14”, 8x10 Core, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD
Lowest tax rate area
Lowest tax rate area
🇺🇸🦅🤠
Highest tax rate area