As you’ve no doubt heard, the Israeli version of an Apple Store is up and running, in a 300 square meter space in the Ramat Aviv mall – very classy digs, with a nice layout. The store looks like other Apple Stores around the world, only smaller. It has a Genius Bar, where you can go in and check out equipment or pick the brain of an expert on hardware or software. And, there are displays of not only computers and laptops, but of peripherals – equipment that is sometimes hard to find.

But the store is just one aspect – albeit the major one – of iDigital’s efforts to make Macs for popular here. As Mac sales have taken out throughout the world, Israel has remained woefully behind the pack. Israelis are said to be “afraid” of Macs, having been intimidated into believing that they’ll be paying more money for a “toy” (I can’t tell you how many people I’ve heard this from). The iDigital store (not an official Apple Store, but close enough) is apparently intended to be a center for “missionizing the masses,” trying to educate Israelis about the benefits of using Macs.

The iDigital website has been refurbished to look more like official Apple websites around the world. That, too, is part of the effort to popularize Macs, whether or not that was the intent of iDigital in putting together such a site; by standardizing the local persona of the products to match those in the rest of the world, Israelis can feel more connected to the international Mac community, and not have to feel that they’re doing something “crazy” by buying an Apple.

The company has gone a long way towards reaching out towards Israelis. Several weeks ago, iDigital released the first Hebrew localization package for Leopard (OS X 10.5.4 minimum). The package converts all Apple system menus and applications (like Safari) into Hebrew – although, of course, you can write your documents in English (or any language). The localization package is free to download from the iDigital site, http://www/idigital.co.il. And you can also download a helpful guide to Leopard – in Hebrew – from the site as well, also for free. iDigital is also offering classes on various aspects of the Mac experience – how to use Leopard, making movies with iMovie, etc. – free for customers, and NIS 70 or so for people who bought their Macs abroad.

They’ve also opened a new service center in Haifa – making it more convenient for people up north to get their products service without having to to run down to the service center in Rosh Ha’ayin. iDigital is even offering a local version of AppleCare- the extended warranty package Mac owners can buy to extend their worldwide warranty.

So, even though iDigital is “only” an independent Apple distributor, the company has gone a long way into emulating the total, authentic Apple experience here in Israel. Now, of course, comes the several thousand shekel question: Should you actually buy an Apple product from iDigital? Prices have even come down at iDigital – as much as 33% on some items – although they are still extremely high, relative to almost everywhere else. For example, a 20 inch iMac with 1 GB of memory and a 250 GB hard drive sells for NIS 6,199, instead of the previous price of NIS 7,699. At NIS 3.50/dollar, the new price works out to $1,771.

The only problem is that the same iMac sells for $1,199 at the Apple USA web site, making the iMac $572 more expensive here. The Apple site price does not include sales tax – which you wouldn’t have to pay anyway if you were having your computer shipped. If one were to buy the iMac at the popular J & R Music World in Manhattan, they would pay 8.375% sales tax – making the total cost $1,288.58, with $99.58 sales tax added to J & R’s price of $1,189 for the iMac. That makes the retail iMac $482 cheaper than the iDigital version.

In a recent interview with someone from iDigital, I was told that one of the reasons Apple products are more expensive here is because Israel orders its products European distribution channels, which are more expensive. Note, however, that the price for the iMac at Apple’s UK site is 799 pounds, VAT included – which translates into NIS 5029.89, or $334 more. That’s less of a differential than the US price, but still significant. The 2.4 ghz/2GB/160 gb HD Macbook costs NIS 6,699 – or $1,914 – $1,299 at the US Apple site, or 829 pounds (NIS 5,218) at the UK Apple store.

The last time I wrote about this phenomenon, I suggested that you might consider pickup up a Mac if you were traveling anyway during your summer vacation. Now that the prices at iDigital have been reduced (about as far as they are going to go, I guess), we still see a stark differential in prices (the higher end the product, the bigger the gap). You get the same exact one year worldwide warranty (three years, if you buy AppleCare), with the same service provided by iDigital as they would provide to their own customers no matter where you buy your Mac. You can’t really blame anyone for deciding that it makes more sense to fly abroad if they need to buy a couple of Apple computers (a Macbook and an iMac, say). It would be like getting a free trip to New York!

But maybe it’s not a such a great idea to run off to New York or London to buy a computer. Travel is a hassle nowadays, as everyone knows – and more importantly for our purposes, it’s expensive. Let’s face it: There’s no way you’re going to get off the plane at JFK, take the train to the city and go to the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue, and then go back home the same day. Any savings on the computer would be wiped out by your hotel bill! If you have friends in New York, you can save money by not going to a hotel, but of course you have to bring them a gift. That’s more money spent! And how could you avoid the “landmarks,” which for Israelis in Manhattan entails lots of shopping. You do pay more at iDigital – but at least you know what the computer is costing you. Macs here in Israel may be more expensive, but if you’re the type that can’t resist a bargain (New York is full of ‘em), you might find it cheaper to pay more money for the same product here in Israel. It’s a paradox, really – one of the miracles of the Holy Land!

What if you don’t want to spend all that airfare just for a shopping experience? Well, pretty soon you won’t have to: Israel is set to get its own Apple Store around the beginning of September, according to an Apple rep I spoke to this week. But like so many things here, the local version is just different enough from the “real thing” to be – well, different.

According to Michal, who represented iDigital, Apple’s local licensee in Israel, in our conversation, the Apple Store Israel “will give customers the full Apple Store experience,” although the store will not be operated by Apple, as Apple Stores elsewhere are. The store will feature a genius bar – where you can pick the brains of an expert on Apple products or software. The store, to be located at the Ramat Aviv Mall, will have a layout and product display similar to Apple Stores around the world. But the Apple Store Israel is a project of iDigital.

Not that that’s a bad thing; iDigital has been getting a lot of good buzz in the local Mac community for its standards of service and its willingness to serve the customer (unlike those “other guys” who used to run the local Apple shop). And, according to Michal, many of the services to be offered by Apple Store Israel – such as training, product demonstrations, etc., will be directed and authorized by Apple. By the way: If you’re a “MacHead” or i-gadget whiz, the Apple Store Israel wants you! iDigital is on a hiring campaign, looking for the right people to work its Genius Bar and other customer interfaces. If you’re up to the challenge, just surf to iDigital’s site and drop them a line.

Note that Israel is actually going to be ahead of the Apple Store game than most of Europe is, come September. True, our Apple Store won’t be one of those bona-fide Apple Stores, but other than the the UK, there currently aren’t too many of those Apple Stores outside the U.S. and the UK, although a number are opening later this year, in Switzerland, Germany, and other locations.

One thing they won’t have at the new Apple Store Israel is an iPhone waiting line – because iPhones still won’t be available. According to Michal, iDigital is doing everything in its power to persuade Apple to work out a deal with a local cell phone service provider. For various technical reasons, such an arrangement has not been made yet, but she’s “hopeful.”

One Apple retail feature that is available right now is the iTunes store – except you can’t download any tunes from it! Here we come to the thorny problem of how to manage the digital rights of copyrighted works in international settings, a problem the most brilliant legal minds on the planet have been working tirelessly to come up with a solution for. But to no avail yet. So what can you do at the iTunes Store Israel? You can buy and download applications for your iPod Touch; technically, you can do so for your pirated “old school” iPhone, but you run the risk of having your device disabled by an iPhone software update (there are contradicting rumors on whether or not this is true; erring on the side of caution is probably wise). Note that here, too, Israel is not being singled out; Apple last month opened iTunes stores in over forty countries, most of which are selling apps and not music.

Which brings us back to the iPod Touch, the current top of the line advanced Apple handheld device we can get our hands on and actually use, at least currently. As it’s name implies, it’s got a touch screen, Wifi, a video player, and access to the the iPhone App Store, with dozens of free and cheap productivity programs, games, entertainment, etc. It’s got the Accelerometer, which keeps the picture on the screen “straight” no matter which way you turn the device. And it’s also got the ambient light sensor, which automatically adjusts screen brightness, depending on the light where you are. Many of the applications give the Touch a PDA-like usefulness, so if you’re looking for a replacement for your old Palm Pilot, the Touch is a great choice. Snap review from my teenage kids: It’s the coolest device they have ever seen. But it’s not an iPhone – which means that it can’t be your single, all around communication device, since you’ll have to shlep around a cellphone for conversations and messaging. So it’s a partial solution – sort of like the new local iTunes store, and apparently, the upcoming local Apple Store.

So what’s the first thing a good Jew yells when confronted with such a situation? Anti-Semitism! But hold on – it could be that, in this case at least, Apple is actually doing us a favor. True, we may be excluded from the new iPhone party (at least for now), but thanks to the 3G iPhone, the opportunity to get a iPhone device we can actually use – and afford – has never been better.

First, the details: The new iPhone is, according to Apple, “twice as fast and half the price.” The new version works with 3G networks, provides GPS style maps, lets you work with Microsoft Outlook Exchange servers, and allows users to access the “App Store,” the first Apple-sponsored centralized depot of free and for-pay iPhone applications. And, the new device has a 3G radio, allowing streaming radio as part of the built-in applications (courtesy of AOL). The biggest change, of course, is the price: Instead of the $399 it cost until now to buy a device, you can get a more advanced, 3G iPhone for just $199. It’s like “two for one” day at the supermarket!

Why We Can’t Buy One Here: After the worldwide success of the iPhone, with millions of the things being “unofficially” used around the world (the original iPhones were offered only in the U.S., and later some European countries), Apple got the hint, and has struck deals with cell phone service providers all over the world to sell iPhones and calling plans. It appears that Apple is selling in just about every country where it was able to strike a deal – how else to explain the wide diversity of countries on its list, which include hi-tech “giants” like Cameroon, Burundi, Jamaica, Equitorial Guinea, and Uruguay- as well as Jordan and Egypt? Like Israelis wouldn’t snap up many more iPhones than Egyptians, Jordanians and Burundians combined!

Israel isn’t the only country Apple is skipping: Notably absent from the list are several countries one would have expected see, like South Korea, China, and Thailand. Qatar is in, but Dubai and the UAE aren’t. And Russia’s not there either. Each country has its own story on why its citizens can’t get a 3G iPhone with local service, according to a number of Web sites I reviewed (in South Korea, for example, there seems to be a lot of pressure from local cellphone manufacturers Samsung and LG against Apple’s inroads among service providers). Israel, too, has a “story” when it comes to its exclusion from the club.

It actually doesn’t take much brainpower to figure out what the problem is. In much of the Middle East and Africa, the preferred service partner seems to be Orange, so I assume they have some kind of multi-country zone deal with Apple to provide service. After numerous attempts to speak to someone at iDigital, Apple’s local representative, I couldn’t find someone official willing to make a statement on why Orange Israel hasn’t adopted the iPhone, but a brief perusal of Orange’s website provides the likely answer. Orange, like other Israeli cellphone service providers, makes a good chunk of change on the devices it sells, not just the service. Orange currently sells phones that can be considered iPhone competitors – the Nokia n95 and the Blackberry Curve 8310 – for NIS 3,205 and NIS 4,294 respectively. How’s it gonna look for them to sell an iPhone for NIS 805 ($199 at the current exchange rate plus 15.5% VAT)? That’s cheaper than almost all of the “cheap” phones Orange sells! Like they say in Brooklyn, fuhgeddaboutit.

What to Do If You Want an iPhone Anyway: While many Israelis who have gone abroad over the past year have brought back with them iPhones purchased on their journeys that they unlocked and used with their GSM Sim cards here, that may no longer be an option with the iPhone 3G. In the U.S., iPhones are available in two places – Apple Stores and AT&T service centers, which provides all the official calling plans for U.S. iPhones. The reason the new iPhone is half the price of the old one is because AT&T is subsidizing the price – which means that if you buy a 3G iPhone, you will be required to sign up for a two year calling plan (which, according to many sites, such as http://tinyurl.com/5k55nq, will make it more expensive than the $399 device with a calling plan!). That will also be the case in the Apple Store; until now you were able to buy a phone without signing up for an AT&T plan, but under the new system, you are obligated to join one within 30 days of purchase – and if you don’t, they’ll charge your credit card like you did anyway (it’s not clear if you will be able to pay a penalty to get a phone without joining a plan; I’m betting no, at least at the beginning).

Then there’s the issue of the cost – and benefit – of 3G service in Israel (the 3G Internet package for the Blackberry costs NIS 175 a month!). Do you really need 3G anyway? Probably not. If you’re looking for a cool replacement phone you can easily swap out your Sim card into, the “old” iPhone (which just two weeks ago was the height of cellphone technology!) will do just fine. And now you have an opportunity to get one at a bargain price! If you’re traveling in the U.S. this summer, check out an Apple Store and check out one of the now surplus iPhone models, which will probably be on sale beginning in mid-July – and for those who can’t make it to an Apple Store, you can be sure there will be a flood of “outdated” iPhones on sites like eBay available for a bargain price, as many current iPhone users with proper AT&T calling plans upgrade to the new model. For you and I, though, last month’s technology can become this year’s bargain cellphone buy!