Lenovo thinkpad pricing

So, I kept reading good stuff about Lenovo, how their thinkpads are awesome, etc. Reading reviews, I could see why, but looking at the prices where I live (France), I didn't understand why people wouldn't consider Dell more (here, Dell offers lots of student discounts, they are very active on campuses).

I checked prices for similar models of Thinkpads 430, more or less same config, US store vs French store and.. surprise!

For one given config:
US price ~ $1120, $1230 after tax (edit)
Fr price ~ 1400 euros = USD 1850

Why such a big price difference?
Doing similar comparisons for Apple products, I did find differences, but much smaller (like 5% price difference). Why is the difference so huge for Lenovo products? Is it common for people living in Europe to order from the US shop?

 

From what I've seen in France (well, Paris), Apple, HP and Dell notebooks are more popular than Lenovo notebooks.

To answer your last question: one cannot order on the US store and have the product shipped to France.

Alternatively, one can order a ThinkPad from an auction seller who is willing to ship internationally, or one can use a forwarder service that places the order on one's behalf. Anyway, the total cost may not be very attractive. Plus, such a ThinkPad is equipped with a US keyboard. You can order a French keyboard and do the replacement yourself, but why go through all the troubles? For what? A T430? Nah, not worth it.

Bonne chance!

 

In the UK, Lenovo prices are silly too, easily 1.5x of that in the US or Canada, often more. Even more expensive than Dells/HP mobile workstations (in Canada, for example, Lenovo W530 is easily 30% less expensive than similarly configured Dells/HPs), or quite stuffed Apple MacBook Pros.

Apparently Lenovo isn't targeting European market for real, yet.

Another thing, is that the US/CAD prices typically do NOT show applicable taxes. Yet European prices always include VAT.

 

Thanks for the replies. I guess this does mean Lenovo doesn't want to sell in Europe? Sounds weird. And as far as I know, they don't have extra costs when selling in Europe (like very high taxes on imported product or whatnot).

 

Taxes aren't included in the price in North America, that much is true and from talking with gaming buddies in France, tech is just more expensive on your side of the pond. Lenovo sells less and probably aims at higher margins because of that and it looks like they chose to focus on the NA market too, I guess.

On the bright side, wine, good cheese, etc. are so much cheaper on your end. I'm pretty sure your eyes would pop if you saw how much it costs for the ingredients to make a tartiflette over here.

 

Someone should start a Big Ma- I mean, Lenovo Thinkpad Index