International iPad Pricing Addressed by Steve Jobs in Short but Snappy Emails

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Just a few days ago Apple decided to announce official international iPad release dates and the company went ahead and made public pricing details for various markets. In case you have been following TFTS you are already aware that the iPad will sell in various countries starting with May 28 and you also know that it will cost a little extra than in the USA.

The reason behind this is that prices for international iPads already contain tax included in the final prices and that’s why, when comparing them to U.S. prices they seem to be a lot higher. Let’s not forget that U.S. customers also pay taxes for the iPad and these taxes are different in various states, but they aren’t included in the prices shown in Apple stores. With all that in mind, and after some simple math, you’re going to realize that the international prices aren’t really that far off even if they are above U.S. prices.

Of course, the alternative is to import the device straight from the USA but that’s not really going to save you a lot of money unless you have a friend bring it over for free to you. As we’ve already seen, eBay sells the tablet at prices well over the regular costs so that’s not really the way to go either.

The other alternative is to mail Steve Jobs asking him why Apple treats its international customers like that. And Apple’s CEO answered to such emails already but this time he used more than one word in order to better explain things while adding pinch of snappiness to the whole response. Here are two replies directed to UK and German iPad customers:

Please educate yourself. UK prices must by law include VAT, which is around 18%. US prices do not include tax.

Blame your government. Germany just added a new copyright levy for computers.

UK and German iPads seem to be the most expensive of Europe at this point but that’s because the final prices include tax, as I said earlier, all over Europe. In addition to that German stores will charge you about 15 Euros extra for the iPad as there’s an extra copyright tax that applies there. Where are you buying your iPad from?