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Opening of first Apple Store in Brazil draws large crowds despite high prices

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-CAut6hkPs]

Around 1,700 people attended the opening of Apple’s first retail store in Brazil, in the popular Village Mall in a suburb of Rio de Janeiro – despite steep import tariffs meaning prices 80 percent higher than in the USA.

As the LA Times observes, a 16GB iPhone 5s sells for the equivalent of $1,174 in Brazil, compared to $649 in the U.S.

We first told you the store was planned all the way back in 2012, learning the the approximate opening date in October last year. Apple began teasing the opening last month before announcing the opening date.

To avoid the high tariffs imposed on imported goods, Apple has been working with Foxconn since 2011 to set up manufacturing or assembly plants in the country.

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Comments

  1. K Sil (@ForcaLeoes) - 11 years ago

    Pretty much everything in Brazil is offered in interest free installments, which is the only way most Brazilians can afford expensive electronics.

    • Sorry, you’re wrong. Maybe the false true that WE brazilians can afford something because of the free installments is the answer the our people is one of the most indebted with loans.
      The low classes only think they can afford it.
      The prices here are translated in only one word: theft.

  2. Even more ido*ic government in Brazil than in Slovakia and that’s what to say. For example in US you have certain brand new MBP for 1500 dollars. Here you have it for 1500 euro which is 2100 dollars and it’s pretty unfair I think.

  3. amitvedant - 11 years ago

    Even though I didn’t understand a single word, I still watched the whole video. Just to see the store.

  4. Raphael P. Borges - 11 years ago

    Village Mall located in Barra da Tijuca and isn’t suburb of Rio de Janeiro.

Author

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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