javacowboy
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Apple hikes App Store prices in Canada, Russia, New Zealand & several other countries
Probably the reason that the U.S. government hasn't gotten along with the Canadian government is that the former was Democratic (as opposed to Republican) and the latter was Conservative for most of those 10 years. This has now changed with a Liberal government. In any case, what the U.S. government thinks of Canada has nothing to do with the value of our currency since it was at parity for most of those 10 years. A lot of people think they can predict that Clinton will get in the White House, when the reality is nobody knows what will happen. Could you have predicted a year ago Trump would be leading the Republican nomination in the polls, or that Bernie Sanders would be in striking distance of Clinton in Iowa. If I knew who would win in November I would bet on that person and make a fortune. I don't so I can't.
I'm not sure what this anti-Canadian propaganda is you speak of since I don't see it. Again, this has nothing to do with the value of CAD.
Unless somebody comes up with the following made-in-Canada alternatives we'll be totally dependent on the U.S. for our IT needs:- Operating system. Mere mortals are stuck with Windows and OS X. Linux works for a minority of desktop/laptop users, but this has gotten even trickier with UEFI. A made in Canada Linux distro just won't cut it and writing an OS from scratch will take decades are more engineering resources than this country has.
- CPU. It's Intel, AMD, or ARM. Both are U.S. based companies. Canada doesn't have the engineering or capital resources to start designing/fabricating its own CPUs
- Mobile devices/wearable devices. This isn't as impossible the first two, but not trivial.
Let's face it. It all started going downhill for Canadian tech after the Avro Arrow was torpedoed by the Diefenbaker government.
Speaking of Diefenbaker and the Diefendollar, you're talking about an era in which currencies weren't allowed to float. The Diefendollar was the result of a devaluation: a policy decision by the PC government that helped get them thrown out of office.pmcd said:If there are no reasonable alternatives then Canada is in a bind. I really hope that's not the case. If it were then obviously Canadians are in a bind.
Currencies does go up and done but this has been happening in strange ways and Canada is hurting because of it. The country should not lose out because the distributors have to go through a US distributor as opposed to getting products from countries directly, especially countries where the currencies are very constant with respect to each other.
Unfortunately, you have had a US government that has been very negative towards Canada for almost eight years. That party will probably continue in power with the same policies. It's hard to predict but I hardly see the CDN $ improving with respect to the USD, partly because of oil and the extremely negative and biased propaganda put out by the US government against Canada and in fact by a very large numbers of Canadians.
It's not with any great pleasure that I have come to these views. I love Apple products and have a special tie to the US, always have. I never thought I would think this but I think it is critical that Canada look elsewhere for stronger economic and other ties. The US has not been a friend to Canada for eight years and it's unlikely to be one for the next four, unless a reasonable renegade manages to win and that is unlikely given that a reasonable one might not even win their own party no nomination. It's very sad. The relationship between the two countries is at the lowest I have seen it since the Diefenbaker days, and even then the government was criticized for the Diefenbuck ( a 92 cent dollar).
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Apple hikes App Store prices in Canada, Russia, New Zealand & several other countries
As a Canadian I don't think this move per se is unfair since app developers get paid in USD and if this price increase didn't happen they'd take a hit.
I'm just annoyed that through no fault of my own and due to circumstances beyond my control my purchasing power has taken a massive hit over the last two years. I don't really give a damn that Canadian exporters stand to gain from this despite what the Canadian media keeps telling me.
On the other hand, I'll be deferring a number of purchases this year, especially those that are due explicitly or implicitly due to currency fluctuations.
