So its possible the Karma will be available before Christmas - what will the probable selling price be? It has to be the same price - or less - than the iPod (or so I'd hope).

Any insider info?

*tumbleweed*

At a guess, replace the $ with a £

Ow! Given the current exchange rate...

Disclaimer: I have no information, and I am just guessing...

If it is available through the RioStore, I think a good estimate would be to take today's published MSRP of $350 (rounding), convert that to GBP (using today's exchange rate from CNNfn) to get about £206. Rounding up a little further for general purpose, I would guess that it would sell for about £210. Perhaps there might be a "street price" of £199.

Remember, this is only a guess.

For comparison's sake, Amazon is selling the 20GB iPod for $399. Using your estimate, that means that Amazon.co.uk should be selling it for £235. It's actually being sold for £289.

There always seems to be an added fee for buying US-oriented electronics in the UK. Maybe the iPod isn't the best comparison, since Apple keeps its retailers under its thumb, but still, it's the best comparison I can come up with.

Wow! That is a pretty impressive "added fee". I wonder what you get for your money - in whatever format...

That's not that bad compared to others. A lot of other things are seriously $1 = £1 conversion. Sometimes I've considered just taking a holiday and buying whatever it is I want in the US (and then trying to sneak it past customs... sshhh... don't tell anybody! )

In reply to:

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It's actually being sold for £289.

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Where??

As I said, amazon.co.uk is selling the 20GB iPod for £289.

Sorry - I must be going blind. I thought you said Amazon.co.uk were selling the Karma. False hope I guess...

For comparison's sake, Amazon is selling the 20GB iPod for $399. Using your estimate, that means that Amazon.co.uk should be selling it for £235. It's actually being sold for £289.

It's the same in Belgium : a 20gig iPod costs 449€ at the Apple store here. According to XE.com, that's $529 !!

Remember that the UK price will have to have 17.5% VAT added onto it; even at a bare exchange rate conversion (which is unlikely to be used, given that the UK price would have to stay put even if the dollar gets stronger) you're looking at £240 when you include VAT.

My GUESS (and this is just a guess, I have no inside information on this) is that it'd end up at something like £279 or £299 in the UK :[

Hugo

Speaking of exchange rates, anybody got an idea where the dollar is going over the next few months? It is very weak at the moment (£1=$1.72) which is *good* for us UKers to buy stuff. I am looking at getting a 9C1 (ex-cop) Impala next year and am considering cashing out some of the money now. It would be just my luck that it would be even weaker by the time I am ready to buy!

Gareth

£300

I might have to reconsider getting a friend in the US to ship me one disguised as used car parts

Its what I expected. Thats the price of a UK 20GB iPod.

anybody got an idea where the dollar is going over the next few months?

George Soros maybe, but I don't think anyone else can see into the future.

Hi,

On the topic of what is gonna happen with the US dollar contra the euro.

I started my friday with a meeting with my bank - i'm a CEO of a middle size IT company in Denmark, we were discusssing where it was best to place large loans at the moment. The biggest bank of Denmark believes that the dollar is gonna fall against euros for the months to come. In my case thats good as i'm dealing a lot with US suppliers. But it's just an indication, nobody knows for sure, add another 9/11 and the we can only trust the schweitz currency.

\\Kaare

On the other hand, the germany/france EU fiasco has undermined much of the euro's credibility, and the Japanese economy is still sinking... But the current US administration seems to want to drive the dollar low to support the recovery... So yes, nobody knows