They aren't anymore. I've lived both in Poland and countries in western EU, Netherlands be one example, and honestly everyday product prices are very similar. The major difference is housing although Poland is very similar to Berlin housing wise, now compare the average salaries...
That's a good one, haven't heard of this before.
Personally i think apple relaxed a bit from what they've been doing 3 years a go and have other things to worry about.
Besides the design of WhitePad matches a number of other products on the market not only an iPhone.
Embedding logo is not a part of the spec, but demonstration that QR codes can be customized. In my experience (and i also have been involved in QR code related startup) these don't take longer to process as long as you don't go over the certain point with customizing the code. It's all about finding the right balance.