Kevin Bostic
Some eight months after the debut of Apple's iPad mini in the United States, Brazilian Apple fans can get their hands on the diminutive tablet, as it has finally been announced for release in that country.
The iPad mini will go on sale in Brazil on Tuesday, June 25. Macworld Brasil posted the news on Friday, saying the tablet will show up at retailers like FNAC, Fast Shop, and Saraiva.
Brazilian pricing for the device has yet to be revealed.
One of the world's largest developing economies, the Brazilian market is an important one to Apple. The company actually manufactures some of its iPhones in Brazil, thanks to the operations of its longtime partner Foxconn.
As Brazil's economy has yet to mature , though, Apple has had to tailor its pricing strategy to make its devices affordable for Brazilian consumers. Earlier this year, Apple slashed iPhone 4 and 4S prices in the country by up to 25 percent. Aggressive pricing in domestic markets has worked well before for Apple, as the iPad mini debuted to insatiable demand in China late last year.
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11 Comments
Why is this news 8 months later?
Its news if you live in Brazil...
Still, it will surely cost north of twice as much as it does in USA (accounting for current exchange rates). Brazilian tax policy for imported goods is shameful, the government says it is to protect national industry, but there is NO national industry for modern consumer electronics, just a bunch of factory "assemblers" who put together knockoffs of yesteryear technology. I myself am upper middle class, and I have an iPhone 4S and a iPad 2 (both bought when they originally launched here), but I just can't get a Mac (not even a mini) because it is way too much expensive. We pay here, in dollars, what would get me two Macs in the US and still pay half the airplane ticket... So, it may be news in Brazil, but excuse us if we don't get that much excited, that is not a fault of the product itself, but our shitty tax policy!
The Brazilian government is very short sighted in their policies sometimes. Brazil could be the center of the next twitter, Facebook, Weibo, etc... It's the government trying to support the manufacturing industry while stunting the growth of the services/developer/software industry. Shooting yourself in the foot so to speak. Brazil as part of the BRIC countries should be focusing on services/software, not make importing hardware more expensive. China already won the manufacturing race. China will win social in their own country. India's fluency in English and many other skills make them competitive in regards to the English speaking market. Brazil could dominate the Portuguese/Spanish language tech world, which has huge potential but is faltering with no leader yet, hence Brazil's advantages squandered by their government tariffs. R, Russia, they already shot one foot off and are aiming at their other foot. Without Oil, Gas, nuke energy, and arms sales, they don't have much to offer. Actually they have a lot of talent but their government restricts it too. It's all complex, there's no perfect answer.
Can someone from Brazil answer these two questions: 1) Are the prices because of a tax ? 2) Are there existing distribution contracts in place for Apple products that cause the ramp in price ? Or is it a combination of both ?