You can't use the nexus as an example, google are selling them with almost no if any profit since it doesn't need to sell hardware. Google makes its money elsewhere, but companies like samsung and nokia are pretty much hardware companies.

I can give you a non-exhaustive list of why things are so expensive in the UK:

Import duties calculated as a percentage of cost of goods + freight.
High transportation costs as a result of exorbitant duties levied on diesel.
Exorbitant business rates charged on commercial premises by local authorities.
Exorbitant Employer's National Insurance calculated on the basis of each of your employee's salary.
Exorbitant Class 1A National Insurance on any 'perks' you provide for your employees.
Exorbitant rate of VAT charged on sales value.
Exorbitant Corporation Tax payable on company profits.

At the end of the day it all boils down to the huge state. Somebody has to pay for the thousands upon thousands of public sector boondogglers with their flexi-time and fancy pension schemes.

Research done in the UK showed public sector workers were paid 30% more than somebody doing a similar job in the private sector, they worked 9 years less and then headed off into retirement with a pension a private sector worker could only dream of.

On top of the plethora of exorbitant taxes required to maintain the lavish lifestyles of the bloated public sector the European private sector has other handicaps imposed that reduce efficiency such as:

Absurd employment law - employing someone seems almost akin to adopting them, it's hard to get rid of them even if they turn out to be a worthless, lazy bludger.

EU beaurocracy - EC Sales Lists, Intrastat, Triangulation, etc... (it's actually easier for me to deal with the Far East or the USA than it is other EU member states).

BTW do you know what the UK's biggest export is?
It's fresh air - empty containers heading back to China to be refilled.

well, you can't say, prices in Europe are in middle-range or something like that... have you ever travelled from e.g. Slovakia to Iceland or Switzerland?

Prices differ about 100% or 200%, much more than between US and Asia for example....

Companies make prices, depending on how much they can get from people, low prices in US means US people are pretty broke (like the whole country), sadly nothing else...

Edit: best example given: pharma industry, prices differ by 1000s of %

Edit2: ok, i stand corrected, maybe Slovakia these days was not the best example, but i guess, one can get, what i mean

No politics on TMO please.

I doubt we have high duty rates from China, and since most of the stuff we get here is imported from China it helps keep the cost down. Not to mention the lower than usual value of our dollar. Competition is huge here with electronics in a big way, but also with retail product in general. We buy more stuff period. Lots that we don't even need. It is burned into our brains that novelties are necessities. We must have this new product whatever that is. Apple knows what they are doing by making a product that gets little to no change every year, but we all must have it because its the new I-this or the new I-that. Even if they release the I-phone 5.25 everyone will want it. And it will keep people extending their phone contracts every year to get the newest phone. Its even worse with the apple tablets making a smaller version called the mini which is a half of a half of a laptop. Who needs all of this stuff? Hell even the stupid infomercials we see that advertise crap products put an "I" in front of the product name because the target market sees the "I" as a familiar name meaning good product. It could even be an I-toilet. Companies know this. They have also adapted to lowering costs as well to be more competitive. The Samsung Galaxy SIII commercials went right out bashing the I-phone. It hilarious. You can get a galaxy SIII here for a hundred dollars with a new contract VS I-phone is around 300 dollars with contract. Samsung has the better deal obviously so it shows they want to compete here where we own a big majority of smartphones. Not just with phones but car makers here do the same damn thing. Every 4 to 5 years companies revamp the flagship model because they know the typical car loan here is 5 years. And when the car is paid off, its time to trade it in and get another 5 year car loan. The system is built to keep us in debt, but make it cheap enough so that we feel we are getting somewhere by all of our possessions. This isn't hitting the nail on the head fully, but it's just my observation.

P.S Microsoft has been spending a lot of money here advertising their new touchscreen computers and laptops too. And they don't really cost much here as well. I do see some lumia commercials a few times a week too.

My lord. What a wall of text.

Why thank you Sorry everyone for the small rant. It can be deleted if everyone hates it haha.

Not necessarily, a company has the freedom to put in any price they like.. As long as there are different solutions for the consumer to choose from, otherwise it would be a monopoly...

And your honour you quoted it verbatim


Your post makes sense, why delete it? Only paragraphing is required