For all of the talk of Foxconn opening a factory in Brazil to churn out iPhones and iPads, here’s the big, overlooked reason that Brazilian Apple fans need their devices to be built locally: 46.76% of any Apple device’s cost in Brazil is made up of crazy import taxes.
What does that mean? Well, it’s easy to see in today’s launch of the iPhone 4S, which is going on sale in Brazil today for the equivalent of $1,830 USD for the 64GB model, compared to the $849 it would cost in the United States.
Madness. Of course, there’s reason to wait if you’re a Brazilian: the Foxconn factory in Brazil is believed to produce native iPhones as early as January, which should shave nearly 47% off the price.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
