Would be interesting to see if all these sales corrospond to market share.
Does make you wonder how much kit they could sell if they weren't hosing the channel...
Apple sales via independent distributors across Western Europe soared 42 per cent in Q1, figures from channel analyst Context reveal. The sales-out numbers detailed by the beancounter's Vendor Performance Monitor (VPM) shows that the majority of growth was generated by the previous generation of iPads, up 180 per cent. This …
What sort of rubbish is that? Price fixing in terms of companies working with other companies to ensure prices are high and therefore riping off the customer is illegal. Not setting a price for a product and not letting the reseller adjust the price so it's suits them. If that was illegal, surely Apple would of been told off by the International community already?
Get your facts right. and have a beer on me. It's Friday.
If Apple want to fix the retail price then they sell it through their own retail outlets.
If they choose to sell it wholesale to other retail outlets, then it's up to those retail outlets what they sell it for. That's how it works in the UK. Probably across the EU as a whole.
That's why some items have an RRP, Recomended Retail Price. The word "recommended" is significant in UK law.
You can buy Heiz Beans for a variety of prices in a variety of shops, no matter what Heinz may think of that end-user price. They get the wholesale price irregardless (subject to bulk buys/contract with large retailers etc). On the other hand, only Tesco get to sell Tesco branded beans and they get to dictate the retail price nationwide.
Apples actions are similar to the ebook agency model debacle and I suspect that now they have attracted the EU spotlght, their retail pricing strategy may also be looked at in the coming months.