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Filip Chudzinski has created a very clean and helpful document, in which all the international prices for an unlocked iPhone 4 are gathered.

Costs vary a lot. In the document, we can see that the iPhone 4 16GB has a minimum price of 496 € (from Hong Kong) and a maximum price of 659 € (from Italy). Prices for the 32 GB model range from 585 € (always in Hong Kong) to 779 € (always in Italy). The average prices are: 594,21 € for the 16 GB model and 699,29 € for the 32 GB model.

Unlocked iPhone 4 international pricing

In this document you can look at all the international prices (till now) for an unlocked (not branded) iPhone 4. Those countries above which you see a lock are the ones where you can only buy a branded iPhone (so, no “native” unlocked iPhone 4 is available).

What do we learn from Filip? Well, that you really wouldn’t want to live in Italy, as I do, since you will have to pay 660 € (about $870) for the base 16 GB model. Or 780 € (over $1,000) for the largest 32 GB model. You did will want to live, insteadt, in Hong Kong, or if you prefer the old Europe, in Switzerland. Here you can have the 16 GB iPhone 4 for just 569 €. And it even is a really good place to live in!

This is a strange price policy. It surely comprehends costs related to import/export, customs, local copyright laws, etc., but the differences are really big, amongst prices.

The same strange price policy is the reason why it’s becoming even less convenient buying Apple products outside of the US. Just to make another example, let’s compare italian and american iPad pricings. In USA the iPad 16 GB costs $499 (about 380 €), while the iPad 3G 64 GB costs $829 (about 630 €). In Italy the very same products cost respectively 499 € (about $660) and 799 € (about $1,060).

Has anyone a good reason for this? Could someone explain why should the prices vary that much? I’d be grateful if someone would tell me.