iPad Will Cost Twice as Much in Russia as It Will in the US

Most of the time Russian news agencies are not particularly eager to cover the latest gadgets (especially those introduced on another side of the ocean). The reason is simple: these novelties are rarely something that many people in Russia are actually interested in so why bother covering them if only a handful of people will want to read about such news.

Now imagine my surprise when the first thing I saw on TV yesterday morning was Steve Jobs introducing iPad - that was a story in the Russian news that went live mere hours after the press event took place in California. Honestly, I did not expect Russian TV to react so promptly to an event that did not really sound like anything remotely interesting to the vast majority of people in Russia.

My guess here is that it happened as some sort of an experiment or something from an eager journalist (probably a geek) who was invited to witness the event - probably in Apple’s efforts to generate the famous buzz everywhere and for some reason even here in Russia (I don’t buy any talks about “worldwide availability” in March because Apple devices tend to arrive here much later than people begin buying them abroad and bringing here).

But the irony is that even after the coverage iPad has already received here in Russia (and that it will obviously be further surrounded with), Apple will probably not see any significant successes selling its latest gadget here - most certainly due to its usual strange pricing policy for the country.

Representatives of one of the local retailers that is now negotiating iPad sales in Russia expect to be able to sell iPad at the price that will be twice as high as it is in the US. And those very representatives claim that the device will only enjoy demand here if it is priced under $1,000.

But if it is twice as much as in the US, the $1,000 limit will most certainly be exceeded. At that I have to admit that most Russians don’t really use US dollars when making calculations in mind and this psychological mark of $1,000 does not translate into anything equally psychologically important in rubles - so this is probably not that important in terms of psychology. But it is extremely important in terms of price, of course.

The same representative of the retailer mentioned that they are now negotiating a more appealing price for iPad in Russia without expressing any specific hopes of being able to agree on such a better price with Apple. What’s more, it could very well be possible that these public talks that the price should be under $1,000 could be specifically intended for Apple to notice - and realize that they should be more flexible in the pricing negotiations.

Unfortunately personally I don’t think they will get anything important of a discount given the previous experience with iPhone disastrous sales here. And while Apple has some very loyal followership in Russia, it will not ensure any strong sales for the device if it is not priced any more reasonably, especially given that it is such a specific niche product. Now can anyone explain me why Apple cares so much about its pricing goals in the US and does not care about them internationally?

Via (in Russian)