SAUKS threedux

As mentioned previously, there’s a good rule of thumb for working out how much Apple will squeeze out of its British customers: convert dollars to pounds, add VAT, slap on an extra ten per cent for shits and giggles and round up to the nearest nine. That is, if you don’t have an election, a hung parliament, and ForEx traders dumping sterling.

At £429, the base-level iPad would fit the SAUKS equation almost perfectly at $1.50 to the pound, which is where sterling was hovering on election day. At $1.48, the prediction comes in about a fiver more; at $1.40, it’s just over £460, and at $1.30 just shy of its (pre-tax) dollar price.

For all the jokes, it’s clear that Apple’s sales model, with its consistent price points and relatively long product cycles, can only work outside the US with some degree of hedging against currency declines: assuming a year till the next iPad, a weakening pound may squeeze margins at some point, though Apple will be loath to raise prices.

In that scenario, though, the price of an iPad is going to be the least of people’s worries.