Armenia Gets an Apple Store
It’s been a long time coming but Armenia now has an official authorised Apple Macintosh store, selling Ipods, Ibooks, Imacs, and pretty much everything else they make. I checked out the price of a 30GB Ipod, and it hits $405, which is pretty much exactly the same as here in the U.K.
Obviously the average Armenian citizen is probably not going to spend this on what is ultimately a glorified walkman, but still, I guess it’s at least a supplier of Macs and mac products in Yerevan for the design/media industry… and I guess another one of those proud “we have a ‘…..’ store in Armenia now…!” sort of statements.. 
As far as I am aware very few Armenian media outlets use mac, which is the standard for most here in the West. Only reporters from Armenia Tv I have noticed carry branded Ibooks around with them, but even the core processes there are done using pc’s. We’ll see what happens I suppose…
i never thought the day would come!!
Comment by Nareg — 5/31/2007 @ 3:52 am
Why so expensive ?
30Gb iPod at Amazon is $234.88 shipped, no tax.
The most expensive model, black 80gb is $331.99
Those are US prices, what makes UK/Armenia so more expensive, is it a different model perhaps ?
I was surprised how many locals had iPods when I was visiting last year, its great that many more will have access to a better technology
Comment by Tim — 5/31/2007 @ 5:26 am
Well, I bought my Ipod here in the UK for £189. I have seen them as low as £160 but thats the absolute lowest. Thats about $460… I am not sure but generalyl technology is cheaper in the USA anyway. I know people who always buy that stuff in the US. The problem is that if I do order an ipod from amazon.com, as soon as it gets to uk, the post people get it, and send me a letter saying “hey you owe us tax!!” , making the price pretty much the same
Damn this efficient tax collection system!!!
As for Armenia, I guess increased transportation costs? I’m not sure if this stuff is coming from Turkey, plus there’s the fact that they have monopoly, and probably have to pay their overheads for new building, etc. I am really not sure though.
Comment by Harmick — 6/1/2007 @ 2:27 am
You charge the price that maximizes your profits. If you sell 1 iPod at $460, 1 at $300, or 2 iPods at $200 each, you will prefer to sell it at $460 each.
What is beyond me is why would people spend so much money just to listen to music or whatever. They need to get a life.
Comment by nazarian — 6/5/2007 @ 8:10 pm
Dude the prices are not even close to what they cost in North America.
MacMinis are more than $300 US less in the US, most of the MacBooks are up to $1,000 US less, and the higher end iPods are more than $150 US less.
God knows what their iPhones are gonna cost. Especially since they’re not even supposed to be released in Europe and Asia till the end of this year and early next year. Supposedly they’re gonna have it in this month.
Comment by H.A. DerHova — 6/5/2007 @ 10:36 pm
Nazarian I guess it depends how much you enjoy/how much time you spend listening to music. I study music, much of my life revolves around listening to and making music, so I guess maybe I do need to get a life! But on the other hand, having a collection of over 6000 songs , an Ipod is the perfect thing to bring it all together. I use it on long train journeys to college, I use it in my car for music, as well as a place to keep all my music for when I DJ at those lovely Armenian kef events. They can also be used as a portable hard disc drive.
If you are someone who rarely listens to music, or has a few CD’s you enjoy then I can imagine it is a huge waste of money.
Comment by Harmick — 6/7/2007 @ 5:17 pm
DerHova, iPhone has 2 models at $499 and $599, 4 gigs and 8 gigs. Having said that price cuts are very likely, may be not right away but look at what happened to RAZR, they give it away for free now.
I don’t know if these things are going to be available in Armenia, don’t they have a different network over there.
Comment by Tim — 6/7/2007 @ 11:10 pm
Tim, Motorola screwed up big time with their RAZR strategy. They were doing very well initially - they charged a premium and still sold them like hot cakes. Then they stopped changing the model and instead reduced the price. Now their profits have gone down the drain. It was a major screw up for the company but a good thing for the consumers.
Apple is much smarter than that. They will not drop their prices - they will innovate on iPhone, change the product but keep the high price. They may come up with cheaper less sophisticated iPhones for the cheapscates among us. Steve Jobs is one of the best executives out there. He usually doesn’t do idiotic things like dropping prices.
Comment by nazarian — 6/8/2007 @ 6:45 pm
Can we get a picture of the store? the mac community online will just eat it up…
Comment by Babken — 7/18/2007 @ 12:09 am