Why is the iPhone 5c so expensive?

I was looking at a sim free 32gb model of the iPhone 5c, I live in Europe and checked the price of the iPhone on the us store and it was $650, which I then converted into euros to get a price of €490 which is affordable.

I then proceeded to check the European (German) store and seen that the same model was priced at €700, which then converts back to $930.

So apple are charging an extra $280 (€210) to ship to europe.

Why is this? Its not fair, this is way too expensive.

Unfortunately many companies do this when selling products in other countries.

So apple are charging an extra $280 (€210) to ship to Europe. Apparently No.
You think they are charging more for Germany. Could have been worse like UK.
The 32 GB iPhone 5c will come at £629 (€747) in UK.
Other than America nobody gets cheaper iPhone.

Apple is not a charity. It exists solely to make profits, and does so by making a popular product in restricted numbers for which it charges the highest prices it knows buyers will pay.

Different countries and different territories have consumers willing to pay different amounts. The 5c in particular will be a lot cheaper in developing markets such as China where they have had little impact until now, and their price will be partially subsidised by the much higher prices they can get away with charging in many developed countries.

It's not quite as simple as that as there are also local sales taxes such as VAT in EC countries which can add more than 20% to the basic price.

But in short, they're that expensive because buyers are prepared to pay high price premiums for Apple products. Until consumers start voting with their wallets and refuse to pay those prices Apple will continue to treat them as cash cows.