Apple Online Store Updates Sales Chat Support, Testing Screen Sharing Virtual Tours in Brazil

Now that's incredibly handy, trying to guide an aging person (such as a parent) through something over the phone is like walking through fire.

"Click on the menu button..... No the menu button.... THE MENU BUTTON, it looks like a button with 'MENU' written on it......."

And so on.

LOL. I live in Brasil. It's horrible to pay taxes like brazilian people pay. The government here in Brasil it's horrible. Is a government of corrupt politicians.
Thats the result of bad administration!!! Bad Government = Horrible Country

If you ever studied Tax Law, you would understand that, once a government approves additional taxation, it will almost never accept to relinquish it. Furthermore, Brazil is a federative republic - the President is not able to change the whole taxation system at will...exactly the same happens with the horrid tax system in the US - the only advantage is that taxes are still lower over there.

As for corruption, please stop this usual mongrel dog complex that affects many Brazilians - according to the latest Transparency International reports, Brazil's corruption levels are way better than China and Russia, better than most of the Americas, much better than most of Eastern Europe and Africa, and at similar levels as "rich" countries such as Italy. So try to put a little perspective into things instead of spouting the same blabla to non-Brazilians.

Good to see the Brazilian market leading the way once more - once the taxation of Apple devices gets to a more reasonable level there, the increasingly wealthier local consumers will be even more willing to buy from Apple than what they are already doing right now.

Next logical step: MAJOR Apple Stores in São Paulo, Rio and Curitiba - mark my words for this extremely important emerging Western power.

Well at the price they pay for Apple product, they at least deserve extra customer services.

Seriously how can people manage to live in Brasil with such taxes?

Just imagine what they could do WITHOUT excessive taxes, huh? In any case, the main burden talked about here is on imported electronics, which in any case can be fairly easily bought on instalments.

Moreover, Brazil has an extensive local industry for computers and the like, giving people the possibility to buy without incurring the same taxation as traditional Apple products.

Although this should change for the better once more and more iPads/iPhones are produced locally, the main issue depends on whether the average Brazilian consumer wakes up to the fact that what he pays is NOT ONLY due to taxes - companies love to put a huge mark-up due to those consumers' extremely high willingness to pay whatever price for a nice gadget. Ironically, they now face the same situation I see in Switzerland: people paying a LOT more just because they can and accept to - the traditional economic concept of welfare, if you will.

Besides, although there is still considerable poverty in the country, one cannot forget that Brazil has 190 million inhabitants, of which at least 30% can easily afford to buy the most expensive things...companies love that, especially for electronics and vehicles.

If only they could extend the same level of interactivity to their godforsaken "support" forums.