Umberto, I think you may need to stop buying or consuming anything, not just Nokia products, in Europe then.. good luck surviving.

If we compare pre-tax prices, it's a bit closer. In Europe, it's €500, which is currently about $735 USD. Conversely, the US pre-tax price of $650 USD is about €445. And the gap would have been closer when these prices were set a few weeks/months ago, before the US Peso collapsed even further...

Not true. The majority of (real) "made in EU" products are cheaper in EU than in USA (as it should be).

Just an example, RIMOWA suitcases (made in Germany):

Same suitcase 609,00 € (inc. taxes) in Germany, $1195.00 in USA

http://www.markenkoffer.de/oxid.php/...de914.50925786

http://www.luggagepros.com/mpb/IID10...&zmap=IID10212

No. That is a absurd comment, reality is just the opposite. Pretty much everything is more expensive in Europe.

yes, while that's true, you are forgetting one thing:
the n900 isn't made in the EU (at least not the ones shipping to the states).

i assumed we were talking about consumer electronics, and these devices tend to be produced in low-wage countries and shipped around the world.
for such globally sold devices, europe's high cost of labour comes into play and translates (by means of the free market) directly into higher prices.
and with items such as the n900, where the manufacturing process most likely is highly automated, the high efficiency of developed countries' workforces isnt a big advantage anymore.

the american buyer of the german suitcases you mentioned on the other hand has to finance the "expensive" workers in germany.
and that's the case with any product produced in high-wage countries. Only if the product quality is really good you will have a chance to compete against cheaper competitors abroad.

if you look at consumer goods, it's usually only the top quality products which are exported, because you can't compete with mediocre products when your costs are ten times that of a local producer.

and if you compare the prices of similar products in different markets which are produced locally everywhere (i.e. no export/import taking place), the high-wage factor comes into play again. it's all about PPP!

to sum it up: globally available products (especially electronics) are always more expensive in the EU, while as domestic high-quality items will be cheaper here than where they are exported to.

here is a nice table in the german wikipedia to illustrate my point, and here a different approach to quantify these differences.

I'm suprised it took this long for a moaning price comparison thread to be made

I'm talking about "made in EU" products. Those are cheaper in Europe. Did you have a chance to compare prices for Italian shoes ? Or French saxophones ? Or German photographic material ? All this products are cheaper in Europe.

Elsewhere in this group someone said the one sold on nokiausa.com is made in Finland.

Well, my E71 is marked "made in Finland". Don't know if this is referred to the assembly only or what else.

Sorry but this sounds like a justification for what is not anymore than a marketing choice. Europe's cost of labour is somewhere more expensive, somewhere less than in USA (as reported by your linked tables). For sure, cost of labour in Italy is way less expensive than in USA (I know both realities very well), but still: N900 in Italy is 600€ and in USA 650$.

And the expensive researchers at Nokia who projected and produced (then at least assembled) the N900, are not to be financed? Why should the american buyer finance them less than the european?

I consider the N900 an "exported top quality product".

Umberto

umberto_soprano and where is your E71 assembled? In a factory in Finland?

Why not? By law, to put a mark "made in Finland", at least the last process of the production chain must have been in Finland. Exactly how my "made in Ireland" Dell was produced / assembled in a factory in Ireland.

Ah, by the way, the E71 comparison between the German/USA nokia sites is €299/$364, which at the net of taxes gives practically the same price.