CNET reports on an online petition lamenting the price differential between the US and Europe for Apple products, just as I had made a mental note to myself earlier this week that Apple Europe’s local prices had never looked as good as now. What is the price differential, then?

Using a cool new free calculator (for Mac), I set to work. I used online Apple store prices before VAT in the US, Swedish and Irish store.

Mac mini: USD 499 – SEK 3,756 – EUR 429.

Implied exchange rates: 10kr = $1.33, 1 euro = $1.16, 10kr = 1.14 euro.

20 inch screen: USD 999 – SEK 7,676 – EUR 866.94.

Implied exchange rates: 10kr = $1.30, 1 euro = $1.15, 10kr = 1.13 euro.

20 inch iMac: USD 1,899 – SEK 14,369, EUR 1,594.21.

Implied exchange rates: 10kr = $1.32, 1 euro = $1.19, 10kr = 1.11 euro.

So the average implied exchange rate across the product range seems to be pretty constant, within a range of 2.5%.

The petition uses a EUR/USD exchange rate of 1.32 to make its case. The latest interbank rate currently puts the euro at $1.30. Of course neither consumers nor Apple can ever get that rate. We as Europeans first need to convert our euros to dollars if we want to buy in the US instead of in Europe, and Apple needs to convert its revenues back to dollars when it sends them home as well. For us, the quoted credit card rate, at interbank +2%, lets you buy dollars at 1.28 to the euro and 1.41 to 10 Swedish crowns.

At these exchange rates, the $499 Mac mini would cost a European 390 euro in the US Apple store, vs 429 euro in a European store — a price differential of 39 euro. The European mini is thus exactly 10% more expensive than the US mini at current exchange rates.

The $499 mac mini would cost a Swede 3,539kr in the US Apple store, vs 3,756kr in Sweden — a price differential of 217kr. The Swedish mini is thus only around 6% more expensive than the US mini at current exchange rates.

So Swedes are getting a better deal than (the rest of) Europe. As far as I am concerned, a 6% price differential is practically negliglble. If the dollar were to strengthen back to 1.32 for 10 crowns, a rate it was at as recently as September 2004, Swedish Apple store prices would match US store prices.

The petition makes some claims that I do not think stand scrutiny. For example, European operations — both Apple’s and its retailers — almost certainly experience higher employment costs and corporate taxes than in the US. If Apple wants to maintain its and its dealers’ margins, this would translate into higher prices, even before exchange-rate fluctuations work their strange voodoo. Apple may even be giving Swedes a break, due to the fact that corporate taxes in Sweden are below the European average.

And finally, Apple doesn’t set Europe’s VAT pricesVAT is 25% in Sweden, Europe’s highest rate. I didn’t know this, but the lowest VAT an EU country can charge is 15%, by EU law.. For that, Europeans have to blame somebody else.

I think Apple’s European prices are the very model of reasonableness, so no, I shall not be signing this petition.