[wkat4242]

The thing with purchasing power is that it doesn't apply to everything. In particular foreign goods.

So while low cost of living countries offset their low wages with cheaper housing, food and local services, imported stuff still costs the same and is relatively expensive as a result. Basically in those countries it really sucks to buy a computer, camera, even cars.

[tombert]

I spent two weeks in Juarez a few years ago for my wife's visa stuff. The hotel was pretty cheap, the food was pretty cheap (and delicious!), but I was surprised to see that an Xbox was actually more expensive than it was in NYC.

It makes enough sense, Microsoft isn't a charity, they're selling the console at a fairly competitive price already in the US, it's not going going to magically get cheaper just because it crossed a border, but it was still surprising to see that.

[HDThoreaun]

Microsoft also knows that if they sell xbox's for less overseas people will start buying those cheap ones and importing them to the US for resale.

[tombert]

That makes sense, and not really theoretical; it's pretty easy to buy Blu-rays and DVDs from foreign markets, and they're often considerably cheaper than their American versions.

They of course are region encoded, but I suspect nearly anyone who frequents Hacker News knows how to get around that.