Hiya!
The sun is shining, the trees are in bloom, the air is getting warm,
and lambs are appearing out of nowhere (maybe I have to check those
birds and bees theories again) around my little cottage.
Ahh, spring in New Zealand. A time when a young man's thoughts turn
to the annual change of underwear and hardware to keep up with the ever
increasing demands on processor speed and graphic cards by the ever
increasing amount of bloatware.
So I fired up my ancient
G3 2x USB 500 MHz iBook (this is Low End
Mac, right?) and went on the hunt to get some new toys. To check
out the new NZ prices I went to the logical place to go when you live
in New Zealand, www.apple.co.nz,
but instead of getting the slick corporate site I expected, I got a
little less elegant chunk of links by a company called Renaissance Ltd.
showing me where to drive to lay my hands on an iMac, a bit of blurb on
how brilliant OS X and the Macs are, and this rather disturbing
line:
- "It is important to note that Renaissance Limited is an entirely
separate entity from Apple Computer Inc. Renaissance Limited has sole
distribution rights of Apple equipment in New Zealand, but is not the
same company as Apple Computer."
So, let me get my head around this: There is only one company
allowed to import Apple gear and distribute it to retailers in New
Zealand. Mmh. That would explain the unusual high prices you get if you
check out the retailers here in NZ: online stores like MagnumMac and totallyMac have pretty similar
prices, but compared to US retailers like Other World Computing and
Outpost, NZ prices seem to be unusually expensive.
While the basic 700 MHz iMac retails at around 1,299 US dollar, the
same computer sells for 1,550 US dollar in NZ, and that's without
general sales tax, which will set the buyer back another 12 percent.
Ouch. No wonder everybody around me buys their gear in Australia or,
like me, orders it directly from the US.
One of my nurses recently really, really wanted to get the new iMac,
so I showed her where to test drive one and found the best deal on the
Web, but to no avail: She had to go for a Dell that came with a
scanner, printer, and monitor for about half the price of the iMac here
in NZ because she couldn't afford it. Even used Macs have outrageous
prices: On the local equivalent of
eBay (trademe.co.nz), somebody
recently wanted 200 US dollar reserve for a 7200/75, CPU only.
Well, it's a small country, and obviously Apple is not taking it
very seriously. Shame, though, as the creative potential is there, and
the few Mac-using Kiwis are proud of their machines and would wish more
people would use them.
Oh well.
On a happier note: I just ordered "Puma" (er, Jaguar) and can't wait
to see the "150 new features" crash. Or sparkle. Who knows....
Dirk 
