Apple has apparently increased the price of iPads in Malaysia shortly after its big event in San Francisco. While the local price of the new iPad Pro has not been revealed just yet, the new pricing for current-gen iPads should provide at least some idea how much it will cost.
There is currently no explanation for the increase in pricing for iPads locally, despite the price difference being rather substantial. The cheapest iPad Air 2 saw a price increase after the implementation of GST to RM 1,695, but is now retailing on the Apple online store for a terrifying RM1,999; which is a price hike of more than RM300. On the other hand, the iPad Mini 2 WiFi-only 16GB model has only seen an increase of RM22.
It looks like the higher end models have suffered the greatest price increase, with models like the 128GB cellular version of the iPad Air 2 listed with prices around 14% higher than before. Interestingly, several models – like the WiFi only 32GB iPad Mini 2 – have had their retail prices lowered.
The last time that Apple raised prices in Malaysia was due to the implementation of GST some six months ago. This latest round of price hikes could possibly be attributed to the severely weakening Ringgit, although the company has not issued a statement on the matter. On the other hand, it could also be a price realignment; as evident by the prices now mainly ending with a more marketing friendly “99”. However, it is most likely that the real reason lies somewhere between these two extremes.
On another note, the iPad Mini 3 is no longer listed on the online store and has been replaced by the iPad Mini 4 – which was announced by Apple at the San Francisco event earlier this morning. Also newly appearing on the online store is the colossal (by iPad standards) sized iPad Pro. Neither of the new models have a local release date or pricing yet, but that is to be expected from newly announced Apple products – we’ve never been in the first wave of countries to receive them.
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