kk102029@tut.fi (Karsisto Konsta) (07/18/90)
On 17 Jul 90 18:21:55 GMT, jkh@meepmeep.pcs.com (Jordan K. Hubbard) said: jkh> Sender: news@pcsbst.pcs.com jkh> Ok, I'll admit that I haven't shopped for one in every European jkh> country so far, but if Germany and England can be judged adequate jkh> mid-to-low points in the European cost spectrum, then the Amiga (I think you're right. Germany might be the cheapest European country Amiga hardware being the issue. Dunno, might be, might be.. ) jkh> is still grossly overpriced here. A typical 25Mhz, 40MB configuration jkh> here in Munich, for instance, will run you a cool DM8000 or more. That's jkh> about $4800 USD at current rates of exchange. The cost is about the same jkh> in London, given the current Pounds <-> USD exchange rate (a little more, jkh> actually). Hear, hear! Have you ever happened to hear any horror stories about prices in Finland? Well, if you haven't then keep reading... A2000 basic unit without any additional hardware ... 9990 FIM (that's more than 4000 DM ~ $2500 USD) A2620 Processor Board, with 2MB 32-bit RAM ......... 19995 FIM (that's more than 8000 DM ~ $5000 USD) (these two examples will suffice; The A2620 is an extreme case) (no, I don't think they have been able to sell _any_ '020 board; mail order rules Ok, I think.) Now _that's_ expensive ;( The prices usually reflect an exchange rate of $1 to 10 FIM (8-16 FIM actually) when the actual exchange rate is $1 to 4 FIM.. Condsider that. (BTW as far as I know, the prices in Sweden (and Norway?) are not much different from the prices in Finland, maybe a bit cheaper.) jkh> <stuff about manufacturing Amigas somewhere in Europe deleted> Yeah, it seems to me as a practicable and profitable idea. Don't they manufacture any hardware in Germany? I thought they do, or is it just PCs? jkh> Note that by "reasonably priced" I'm not talking 5 for a dollar, I'm jkh> merely asking for something that meets (or, heh heh, beats) current jkh> average prices in the U.S. Couldn't agree more. Really. But there's 17% (16? 13?) sales tax in Germany, right ? I suppose you do mean to accept that 17% extra you _will_ have to pay, don't you. Now let's see what an A3000 could cost here in Finland: taxes and such will add about 20%, shipping wouldn't be any more than 5% - together ~25%. Let's see.. A3000 should cost no more than $5000 (25MHz/40MB), but alas, that won't be the case ;( The rumour has it that we _are_ going to see considerably lower price for the A3000 than one would expect, but according to the rumour it's still going to set you back about $8000, which isn't even affordable ;( And then there's the educational discount issue... I consider the educational discount prog. to be A Really Good Thing, sad that it's only available to the US students... Oh yes, there's going to be sort of an ed. disc. prog. here in Finland, but ( you guessed it ) the prices aren't going to be of the same order of magnitude as the US e.d.p. prices... It seems likely that the _discounted_ prices are going to be about 1.5 times the prices in Germany. Definitely a step to the right direction, but still failing to attract enough students, I'm afraid. The price for an A2000 w/ monitor and 2nd floppy will be about the same as you would pay for average MeSsy-DOS machine w/ 286 @12Mhz or >, color VGA monitor, 40MB HD and I don't like that: guess which system a student with no knowledge of computers will choose ? Geez, an A3000 (@25MHz/40MB HD) w/ A1950 for less than $3200... Sort of takes your breath when you come to think of it... (at least if you're a Finn) jkh> While we're in flame mode, how 'bout somebody tells the German jkh> distributors that NOT EVERYONE wants a german %$#%#$!! keyboard! jkh> For typing in personal correspondence to your Tante Ingrid in jkh> Frankfurt with umlauts and all, it's fine. For writing C code, or jkh> programming in general, it sucks. Yet when I tried to get a jkh> Munich distributor to order a 3000 for me with jkh> <stuff deleted> You're not the only one who would have some other keyboard... There are quite a few persons here in Finland with a _German_ keyboard.. Anyone guess why ;) And yes, there are undoubtedly takers for US keyboards in Finland, too. (Aren't those braces just wonderful ;) jkh> <Remap it, you say? Sure, I can remap it...> jkh> <stuff deleted> Well, if you have really good memory, then remapping alone would suffice.. ;) Solution to this problem is most welcome. I'm really sorry if I seem to have been just whining and flaming, but do understand that I am a little bit frustrated about the prices, to say the least. jkh> Jordan *** FOLLOWUPS directed to c.s.a. where this discussion belongs -- ' ' '' ' '' '' '' '' '' '' '' '' ' ' ' ' '' '' '' ' ' ' ' ' ' Konsta Karsisto kk102029@tut.fi -- me, myself and I "The 68040 points the way to the future. It's clean, it's sexy, it represents everything that's good in computing" - Jeff Lawson in PCW
csbrod@medusa.informatik.uni-erlangen.de (Claus Brod ) (07/20/90)
kk102029@tut.fi (Karsisto Konsta) writes: >Yeah, it seems to me as a practicable and profitable idea. Don't they >manufacture any hardware in Germany? I thought they do, or is it just >PCs? Yeah, mainly PCs. They also have some developpers in Braunschweig if my memory serves me right. >But there's 17% (16? 13?) sales tax in Germany, right ? I suppose you >do mean to accept that 17% extra you _will_ have to pay, don't you. 14 %. Claus Brod, Am Felsenkeller 2, Things. Take. Time. D-8772 Marktheidenfeld, West Germany (Piet Hein) csbrod@medusa.informatik.uni-erlangen.de ----------------------------------------------------------------------
space@ncc1701.stgt.sub.org (Lars Soltau) (07/22/90)
In article <KK102029.90Jul18162412@kaarne.tut.fi> kk102029@tut.fi (Karsisto Konsta) writes: > >Have you ever happened to hear any horror stories about prices in >Finland? Well, if you haven't then keep reading... > >A2000 basic unit without any additional hardware ... 9990 FIM >(that's more than 4000 DM ~ $2500 USD) >A2620 Processor Board, with 2MB 32-bit RAM ......... 19995 FIM >(that's more than 8000 DM ~ $5000 USD) >(these two examples will suffice; The A2620 is an extreme case) >(no, I don't think they have been able to sell _any_ '020 board; > mail order rules Ok, I think.) Ick. And I thought that We have it bad in Germany. >jkh> Note that by "reasonably priced" I'm not talking 5 for a dollar, I'm >jkh> merely asking for something that meets (or, heh heh, beats) current >jkh> average prices in the U.S. > >Couldn't agree more. Really. Count me in! >But there's 17% (16? 13?) sales tax in Germany, right ? I suppose you >do mean to accept that 17% extra you _will_ have to pay, don't you. Well, but we would save American sales tax, wouldn't we? I mean, if you export things from the US, do you still have to pay US sales tax? -- Lars Soltau bang: <insert ridiculously long path> Bix: -- no bucks -- smart: space@ncc1701.stgt.sub.org