Here's a bit of news that's fascinating, but probably useless: Australia has the second-cheapest iPads in the world.
Fascinating, because the rating is won based on the fall of the Aussie dollar, which has made the products relatively cheaper than in other countries.
Useless, because unless you've just come back flush from a working holiday in the US or you are a US traveller here to exploit the dip in the local currency, you're going to have to buy your iPad in the same currency that's made it so cheap. That means it will be the same price it's always been. Too bad for you. 
According to the CommSec iPad index, an iPad Air 2 16GB Wi-Fi model costs $619 in Australia, the same as it did a year ago.
In that time, however, the exchange rate between the US and Aussie dollars has gone from about US86 cents to about US69 cents. As a result the cost of an iPad Air 2 has fallen in US dollar terms from about US$530 to about US$427.
That makes Australia the second-cheapest country in the world, in US dollar terms. Only Malaysia is cheaper.
The index, inspired by the Big Mac index kept by The Economist magazine, attempts to price the vagaries that stop global markets from adjusting to fluctuations the way economic theory suggests they should.
"While the concept of purchasing power parity is good in theory, unfortunately there are complications in practice," says the report by CommSec chief economist Craig James. "As noted above, one of the biggest complications is tax with differing consumption tax rates applied across the globe."
"If you assume that the Aussie price for an iPad Air 2 should be the same price as that paid by a resident in California [where Apple is based], then the exchange rate should be closer to US87 cents. Alternatively, if you assume that the Aussie price for an iPad Air 2 should be the same as China where the goods are manufactured, then the appropriate level of the Aussie dollar would be US92 cents."
The scheduled release of new iPhones and iPads on Wednesday (in San Francisco) may be an opportunity for Apple to make up for the currency moves.
That would (maybe) mean more expensive products here. But it may not be that easy.
According to research released Monday by KPMG, Australian companies in general want to increase prices, but they're finding that competition means that, on average, they will only be able to increase prices by about half the amount they would want. 
"The pressure on prices has been very noticeable over the past two years," said Ronan Gilhawley, KPMG Australia Partner in Charge of Strategy. "After five years of cost-cutting, post-GFC, organisations have found themselves with nowhere else to go.
"It takes business confidence to pursue an alternative pricing strategy and that is thin on the ground here at present. Customers have been seeking ever-larger discounts and there have also been new lower cost-entrants, or disruptors, in many markets and this has increased the pressure on margins."
The survey behind the research showed that about three-quarters of Australian companies noted "price pressures" in their industry, with more than half saying they believed themselves to be in a price war.
This is certainly the case with the iPad, which now shares the market with cheaper Windows devices, as well as a raft of tablets running Google's Android software. Sales have also been a bit soft, with consumers choosing to hold onto older model iPads rather than upgrade every couple of years.