4 ms·

There is one other important factor that is seldom discussed: inequality. Even being so expensive, they still sell enough to make good profits, because there is

There is one other important factor that is seldom discussed: inequality. Even being so expensive, they still sell enough to make good profits, because there is enough rich people in Brazil to buy them once a year. Brazil has one of the higher inequalities in the world and while it’s common to say Brazil is poor, the truth is that there is a shitload of very rich people too (it’s more than 200M people after all). I’m sure things would change if people simply stopped buying them (or couldn’t afford).

tomxor 5y ago
^this In most countries Apple's market is the top 1%
- dan-robertson 5y ago
  This sentence looks plausible, but easy to misinterpret by reading it incorrectly. For example, I think most Apple device users are middle-income Americans or middle-high income people from other developed countries.
  - oblio 5y ago
    Most countries are poor and Apple devices are expensive. Why are you hacknernews-splaining their comment when it's obvious what they meant?
  - low_tech_love 5y ago
    In America yes, and also in Europe for example. I come from Brazil and live in northern Europe and having an iPhone here means absolutely nothing because everyone can afford it, even though it is still expensive. It’s simply that the gap between rich and poor is small, so you get to play the same game. But in an extremely unequal place like Brazil the economy works differently. It’s like a tug of war where 1% from one side pull as strongly as the rest on the other side. There is a huge gap in-between, and the same deals sometimes won’t work on both sides.
  - throwamon 5y ago
    A Mac in Brazil costs literally 1 year worth of salary if you're poor, if you're lucky enough to have a source of income at all. Even as you go up the class hierarchy, most people are in debt (over 70% of families if I'm not mistaken). Edit: A Macbook Pro costs 3 years of minimum wage. https://themacindex.com/variants/MKGT3/macbook-pro-14-inch-m1-1tb?currency=USD https://themacindex.com/variants/MKGT3/macbook-pro-14-inch-m...
    - dan-robertson 5y ago
      I think if one quickly reads the comment I replied to, one could think that most Apple devices are owned by people who are very rich compared to others in their country. I know I tripped up on that implication for example. However there are a lot more middle-income Europeans than very rich Brazilians so the actual balance of Apple users mostly come from the middle of a small number of rich countries rather than the top of a slightly larger number of small countries. For example if you counted each US state as a country, I think it would not be the case that ‘In most countries Apple's market is the top 1%’ so I think the statistic is mostly biased by the fact that the richer countries where most Apple devices are owned are very large countries and so their population is underweighted in a ‘proportion of countries’ statistic.
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tomxor 5y ago

^this In most countries Apple's market is the top 1%

dan-robertson 5y ago
This sentence looks plausible, but easy to misinterpret by reading it incorrectly. For example, I think most Apple device users are middle-income Americans or middle-high income people from other developed countries.
- oblio 5y ago
  Most countries are poor and Apple devices are expensive. Why are you hacknernews-splaining their comment when it's obvious what they meant?
- low_tech_love 5y ago
  In America yes, and also in Europe for example. I come from Brazil and live in northern Europe and having an iPhone here means absolutely nothing because everyone can afford it, even though it is still expensive. It’s simply that the gap between rich and poor is small, so you get to play the same game. But in an extremely unequal place like Brazil the economy works differently. It’s like a tug of war where 1% from one side pull as strongly as the rest on the other side. There is a huge gap in-between, and the same deals sometimes won’t work on both sides.
- throwamon 5y ago
  A Mac in Brazil costs literally 1 year worth of salary if you're poor, if you're lucky enough to have a source of income at all. Even as you go up the class hierarchy, most people are in debt (over 70% of families if I'm not mistaken). Edit: A Macbook Pro costs 3 years of minimum wage. https://themacindex.com/variants/MKGT3/macbook-pro-14-inch-m1-1tb?currency=USD https://themacindex.com/variants/MKGT3/macbook-pro-14-inch-m...
  - dan-robertson 5y ago
    I think if one quickly reads the comment I replied to, one could think that most Apple devices are owned by people who are very rich compared to others in their country. I know I tripped up on that implication for example. However there are a lot more middle-income Europeans than very rich Brazilians so the actual balance of Apple users mostly come from the middle of a small number of rich countries rather than the top of a slightly larger number of small countries. For example if you counted each US state as a country, I think it would not be the case that ‘In most countries Apple's market is the top 1%’ so I think the statistic is mostly biased by the fact that the richer countries where most Apple devices are owned are very large countries and so their population is underweighted in a ‘proportion of countries’ statistic.

deleted 5y ago

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