Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Real Reality]

Discount the iPod
I read with interest the article under the heading, "Apple Korea raised the prices of its iPod MP3 players" in your Feb. 12 edition. As an iPod owner living in Korea, I would like to offer an observation. Apple products in South Korea are generally significantly more expensive than in other countries, as are consumer electronic products generally. Looking at the 20 gigabyte iPod cited in the article, we have the following: Korea, 418,000 won ($405); Japan, 327,000; Hong Kong, 318,000; Australia, 405,000; Singapore, 343,000; and the United States, 307,000 won.

Other Apple products in South Korea are similarly overpriced. Aside from someone in Australia, it seems unlikely that anyone outside South Korea would complain about a Korea-only discount since their domestic price will still be less, so Apple's excuse doesn't make much sense. Even in the United States, Apple products have always tended to cost more than competing technologies. People who buy Apple products know this but buy them anyway because they think Apple's products are better (in terms of technological superiority, elegance of design, etc.) enough to justify the difference in cost.

Koreans are very tech-savvy people and portable music players, like other consumer electronic goods, are very popular here. Apple's products cost too much to be competitive. I'd be very interested to see what their sales statistics are for iPods in Korea.
by Joshua Margolis
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/200502/14/200502142253426179900090109013.html

[mindmetoo]

Even electronics produced right here in Korea like iRiver and Samsung are more expensive to buy here than in the USA. A user here had a very sensible explanation. Because Korea puts such a high duty on imported electronics, which means mostly Japan, the competing Korean product can be priced hire domestically. The iRiver mp3 player, then, only has to be a bit cheaper than the Sony product and it will still sell.

[SuperHero]

Macintosh sucks

[dogbert]

Heh...I know that guy.

[Derrek]

I saw Mini I-pods on sale for like $170 in the states when I was home after Christmas.

[tommynomad]

[desultude]

[JongnoGuru]

[The Lemon]

[dogbert]

Pay with your life?

********

February 15, 2005 -- EXCLUSIVE

City students have become victims of a rash of vicious iPod muggings and a spike in larcenies at schools.

One South Brooklyn transit officer, who asked not to be identified, said his district has seen a near doubling of student iPod robberies on the subways in recent months.

Just last week, he said, a James Madison HS student took 44 stitches after being stabbed for his iPod on a Q train. At least three students at Stuyvesant HS in Manhattan recently reported getting jumped outside their school for iPods.

Inside schools, grand larcenies shot up 41 percent during the first two months of school over the same period last year, according to the mayor's management report released last week. Petit larceny jumped 16 percent.

Concerned with the crimes, South Brooklyn transit cops last week distributed fliers offering to engrave students' iPods and cellphones with ID numbers beginning today at John Dewey HS in Sheepshead Bay.

But police brass late yesterday put the kibosh on the initiative, which they had hoped to expand citywide, upon being told by the city Department of Education that the items are banned in schools because they're considered distracting.

"We don't want it to be misinterpreted as encouraging bringing banned items to school," said NYPD spokesman Paul Brown.

Education spokesman Keith Kalb said the program was worthwhile, but held firm that the noisemakers are off limits on school grounds.

When asked if the department could make an exception, he noted that the agency only learned of the police plan yesterday through inquiries from The Post.

"We would certainly support a police effort to etch anything after school or at other times," Kalb said. "Kids should not bring cellphones or iPods to school."

Police said the white iPod headphones, which seem to be pumping tunes into the ears of every other youngster on the street these days, are alerting would-be thieves to the presence of the tiny but big-bucks music players.

The machines start at $299 and can hold more than 10,000 songs ?a collection that can take years to accumulate.

Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum said the spikes in larcenies were cause for concern and accused Mayor Bloomberg of ignoring the problem.

"Things have gotten so bad that the NYPD has taken it upon itself to fight crime where the Department of Education isn't," she said.

Police said that students interested in engraving their iPods or other valuable items could visit a transit district office and have them etched.

The Bloomberg administration has crowed about its school safety record. But the spikes in larcenies and in disorderly conduct, which rose 36 percent, stand out in an otherwise positive cross-section of school crime data.

Gotbaum charged the city with focusing all its attention on the 17 most dangerous schools at the expense of others.

"The mayor needs to find a more effective way to make our schools safer," Gotbaum said.

IPODDY-POOPER THUGS ATTACKING SCHOOLKIDS

[teachmeenglish]

I understand walmart in the US is offerign a linux laptop for 500US. What I want to know is considerign that nobody in Korea pays for the software, why can I not buy a basic laptop fro even twice that? There is soemthing screwy about laptop prices here. And ifanyone knows where I can or is selling a decent older one, let me know

[The Lemon]