Business Week: iphone as the latest international currency

Introduction: The latest issue of the U.S. Business Week, the printed version of the newspaper, because the iphone price stability, and prices around the world there is a certain difference, leading to this electronic product has become a new international currency, or even the use of spreads arbitrage. The following is the full text of the article: I recently paid several times with the iphone, but not on mobile apps or bank websites, but on Apple's hardware as money. It came from an unexpected experience when I was on a business trip to New York last year. I live in Rome, where the cost of home economics is very low, but the technology products are very expensive. A unlocked 32GB tyrants gold iphone 5s in the United States with a tax price of about 815 U.S. dollars, but in Italy, up to 839 euros (about 1130 U.S. dollars), about the equivalent of the domestic workers for one months of income, their work includes cleaning, transport and care for the elderly. When a housekeeper heard that I was going to America, she asked me to buy her an iphone for her one-month salary. At the door of the Apple flagship store in New York Avenue, my customers were speaking in different languages around the world. When I told the salesperson that I wanted a unlock version of the iphone, he seemed shocked: just one? He said that a new number of unlock version 5s has just arrived, and I want the tyrants gold in Europe is the most popular, but also the easiest to sell. On my right, a man with a Saudi bank credit card has bought three or four of them in a day. Give me two. I say. But one more step is needed: The salesman picks up the phone behind the counter and lets me communicate with the anti-fraud department at my bank. He said that shopping from that store would be labeled as a dangerous signal. You know, it's completely predictable. When I walked out of the shop with an Apple shopping bag, I stopped thinking about the two phones as an electronic product. In my eyes, they are more like gold bars. Rich or poor, people who work in cross-border jobs often use the price differentials of luxury goods around the world to profit. A few years ago, many Asians went to Paris to buy LV and Gucci handbags and then to sell them for a fee. In the early 1990, for many Americans living in Eastern Europe, Levi's jeans played a similar role. Today, the baton has been uploaded to the iphone, especially the tyrants gold version of the iphone 5s. Ifixit CEO Kerl Wehns, the iphone spares distributor, took the time to dive in for a meeting last November at the Mexican Cabo. The diving captain said that if Wayans returned to Mexico, he would be exempted from his shipping charges by bringing back several iphones with American prices. (The price of the iphone in Mexico is 16% higher than in America.) Wayans says the iphone arbitrage is becoming more common. When he goes to China to meet with suppliers, he will bring several iphones and ipads and sell them at cost to show friendliness. Alexander Peterc, an analyst at BNP Paribas, Alexander Peterk the office in LondonTop of the Apple flagship store on the main street. He said that one months after the iphone 5s was listed last year, people from all over the world queued up to buy every day in front of the store because the iphone 5s had not yet been listed in their country. Just buy two iphones and then go back to India and sell them, and basically they'll be worth their airfare. Carney said. Apple CEO Tim Cook has hinted that the iphone's Cross-border resale has a significant impact on the company's profits. Last July, when Apple reported a 14% per cent contraction in the Greater China quarter to $4.6 billion, he blamed some of the decline in Hong Kong's sales, where foreign tourists and middlemen were the main consumers. An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment. According to British mobile unlocked, in 48 countries or regions, the U.S. 16GB version of the iphone 5s the cheapest, about 700 U.S. dollars, the most expensive is Brazil, up to 1200 U.S. dollars. Italy sells close to $1000 trillion, ranked 7th in the world and tied to Malta. I came back from a business trip in the United States a few days, the two mobile phones have been replaced by the domestic workers wages, and I pay the unit price of only 815 U.S. dollars. The housekeeper I bought said she sold the second iphone for 1130 dollars to an acquaintance who would pay later. She also told me that the acquaintance was sold out in installments, and the last buyer paid about 1350 dollars. Not a few weeks after I bought two iphones on New York Avenue, I went on a business trip to Los Angeles again, and I came to the door of an Apple flagship store. This time I came into the store feeling like I was coming to an ATM. I asked the salesman for an unlocked version of the iphone 5s, and his answer was the same as the New York salesman: just one? There was no one in line, so I only bought one. But when I returned to Italy, it took only one weeks to exchange 600 euros in domestic service, and the housekeeper's cell phone had just been stolen from the subway. When the deal was done, I was relieved: the iphone's value only lasted until the next generation of products were released. At present, the IPhone 5s price is still strong, even compared to bitcoin. (PEI)