iPad UK prices - are they too high?

There is no doubt that the Apple iPad has been a big success over in the US, with 1 million units sold in 28 days and the big question now is how successful it will be in the rest of the world. We've been waiting for shipping dates and prices for ages, but now we know. You can get your iPad in the UK on 28th May, with the cheapest model (16Gb Wi-Fi) costing £429 and the top of the range model (64Gb 3G) costing £699. At today's exchange rate, that's US $636 for the cheapest and an eye-watering US $1,038 for the top one (don't forget the monthly data plan too). That's more than (the US price of) a MacBook!

(The figures look worse because UK prices include sales tax, but US prices don't. However, subtract the sales tax and UK prices are still $50 more than US prices. We pay also 17.5% sales tax, which is double most US states' sales taxes, so add $50 to the base price and then double the sales tax, and you've got quite an expensive iPad here in the UK.)

I spent exactly £429 at Christmas and got a new PC with 2.5GHz quad-core processor, 4Gb RAM, 1Tb hard disk etc. Hmm, quad-core power PC that does everything or iPad that's, well, cool and fun, but also limited.

Don't get me wrong, I think that the iPad is a brilliant device and the best tablet I have ever seen. Nothing comes close, but although it is highly desirable, it is also just a luxury item. I can argue that I couldn't live without my smartphone and that it is essential. I can argue that I couldn't manage without my laptop and that it is essential. But an iPad. Sure it would be nice to have one, but it is a device I can live without because I can do everything I need to right now.

If I had lots of money to spend on luxury items then yes I'd go out and buy an iPad, but I don't and that's why I won't be queueing up on May 28th at the nearest Apple store. Unless I suddenly come into a lot of money, that is. It's a lottery rollover this Wednesday, I think I might chance a pound on it.

Sales predictions

With much higher prices here in the UK, and probably the rest of the world too, there probably won't big as big a demand for iPad. It took a week for Apple to sell the first half million iPads, but it then took three weeks to sell the second half million, so sales are falling every day. They'll be boosted by UK and other international sales at the end of May, but I wonder what sales will be like in 6 months or a year from now when everyone that wants one has bought one.

You can change mobile phones quite easily because they are subsidised and even free on some contracts, and iPods are cheap enough to replace frequently anyway, but a £699 iPad ($1,038) is too expensive to change every year or even two years. It's more like a computer and it will have to last three to five years before it is replaced. This will inevitably have an impact on long term sales. Those people that are predicting iPhone-like sales of 10 million units a year are wrong. Initial sales will undoubtedly be high, but then they'll fall to Mac-like figures at best.