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Yeah, 1050$ in US and 1600$ in Europe. C’mon Apple, you can do that! How else are you gonna cover tariff costs if not overpricing the overpriced product
Yet another European not understanding that stated prices in the US market do not include sales tax, where european prices include a 20-30% VAT tax.

$1600-(.3*1600)= $1,120.

So a ~6% price difference which... absolutely wouldn't account for regionalization, compliance, or other costs associated with any of the dizzying array of EU regulations, oh no! /s

Look, there's a lot to be mad at in this world - but maybe massively regressive consumption taxes placed on goods and services you need to function as a member of society aren't the fault of the corporations who provide those goods and services?
 
So by your performance/$ metrics the OG iPhone should have cost roughly $10-20.

Desktop computers are also much faster today than, say, 40 years ago, but also MUCH cheaper… the original Mac 128k sold for $2495 (or $7700 inflation adjusted). So what is the iPhone’s excuse for being way more expensive today even adjusted for a measly 15 years of inflation?

A decked-out iPhone 17 shouldn’t cost 2-3 times more than a decked-out OG iPhone just because it’s way faster. That’s not how it works with tech.
You’re missing the point, there is now a “family” of iPhone products across a broad spectrum of prices. This article is about iPhone 17 Pro, there is no equivalent iPhone from the 2007-era. There are more basic iPhones that correlate somewhat more with early iPhones (there won't be a direct correlation, because at the time a phone was an additional pocket device that replaced your phone and your iPod, whereas today for many people their big iPhone is their main computing device. I can recall people at the time commenting that 4 GB was small and it should have video, as other phones before it did, even some non-smartphones like the Razr. I say this as someone who has no need or desire for a Pro iPhone.
 
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I have a (hopeless) wish that they don’t release this phone with that spray painted patch on the back. I think it looks tacky and borderline hideous.

Thankfully almost everyone puts a case on the phone so I guess it won’t matter much in the end.
 
Yeah, 1050$ in US and 1600$ in Europe. C’mon Apple, you can do that! How else are you gonna cover tariff costs if not overpricing the overpriced product
Keep in mind that advertised prices in Europe almost always include VATs whereas prices in the US are almost always advertised without sales tax included, since those taxes vary by state, county, and sometimes municipality. Those get added on as a separate line item at checkout. (US sales tax rates are also substantially lower than EU VATs). So a sizeable chunk of that cost difference (if not exaggerated) is value added taxes, not Apple.
 
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You’re missing the point, there is now a “family” of iPhone products across a broad spectrum of prices. This article is about iPhone 17 Pro, there is no equivalent iPhone from the 2007-era. There are more basic iPhones that correlate somewhat more with early iPhones (there won't be a direct correlation, because at the time a phone was an additional pocket device that replaced your phone and your iPod, whereas today for many people their big iPhone is their main computing device. I can recall people at the time commenting that 4 GB was small and it should have video, as other phones before it did, even some non-smartphones like the Razr. I say this as someone who has no need or desire for a Pro iPhone.
Don’t!

You can’t pretend that the iPhone SE replaces the base mainline iPhone. Sure, there are budget options now but the base and top-end iPhone (even if the top-end was rebranded as Pro) is like the top-end iPhone fifteen years ago. Apple wasn’t holding back their phones back then just like they aren’t now.

When I bought a decked-out iPhone 4 over a decade ago, Apple packed as much RAM as they could, as much storage as they could, and they put in a Retina display (something no competitors had) and I didn’t pay $1000 for something that was amazingly high-end at the time. All of it was the equivalent of an iPhone Pro now with all the best components of that time.
 
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Don’t!

You can’t pretend that the iPhone SE replaces the base mainline iPhone. Sure, there are budget options now but the base and top-end iPhone (even if the top-end was rebranded as Pro) is like the top-end iPhone fifteen years ago. Apple wasn’t holding back their phones back then just like they aren’t now.

When I bought a decked-out iPhone 4 over a decade ago, Apple packed as much RAM as they could, as much storage as they could, and they put in a Retina display (something no competitors had) and I didn’t pay $1000 for something that was amazingly high-end at the time. All of it was the equivalent of an iPhone Pro now with all the best components of that time.
Man, you like arguments. Let's let it go.
 
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1199 USD -> 1 024,69 EUR add 24% -> 1270,62 EUR.

That’s how much iPhone 16 Pro Max starting price would be in my country directly converting from USD and adding sales tax.

Instead Apple sells it for 1509 euros.

This can’t be true? What mistake did I make?
 
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1199 USD -> 1 024,69 EUR add 24% -> 1270,62 EUR.

That’s how much iPhone 16 Pro Max starting price would be in my country directly converting from USD and adding sales tax.

Instead Apple sells it for 1509 euros.

This can’t be true? What mistake did I make?
You finally revealed the secret of the fantastic revenue and the AAPL shareholder happiness:
Don't exploit and make the big bucks at home, do it somewhere else!
[edit] ...and avoid foreign taxes at all costs!
 
I think this is very fair. Yes it’s. A price increase but it’s a price you would have paid anyways if you bought that 256 version. Thats very fair if they do that with every iPhone
 
Yet another European not understanding that stated prices in the US market do not include sales tax, where european prices include a 20-30% VAT tax.

$1600-(.3*1600)= $1,120.

So a ~6% price difference which... absolutely wouldn't account for regionalization, compliance, or other costs associated with any of the dizzying array of EU regulations, oh no! /s

Look, there's a lot to be mad at in this world - but maybe massively regressive consumption taxes placed on goods and services you need to function as a member of society aren't the fault of the corporations who provide those goods and services?
All I understand is that VAT and other taxes existed ever since the original iPhone.

What I don’t understand though is that my first iPhone 5 cost me 679€ which was around 870$. In US the price was around 649$ or smth (without taxes, and even with them it was still cheaper than in Europe).

But this was bearable. To some point. I’ve been coping with that like “hmm, well. They gave me more storage!”. But then I realized: storage costs nothing. I can buy 2 terabytes SSD nowadays for less than 150€. And Apple charges 100€ for each storage tier upwards.

Turns out price hike happened in 2018, not in 2023 as I first suspected.

Here is a comparison table of European prices*:
iPhone 4 - 629€
iPhone 4s - 629€
iPhone 5 - 679€
iPhone 5s - 699€
iPhone 6 - 699€
iPhone 6s - 739€
iPhone 7 - 759€
iPhone X - 1149€
*(note for mods: do NOT delete this post please, I had wasted my time, searched the web and now compiled the list myself without relying on AI tools)


This is something I cannot understand, if VAT exists, then how were they able to evade taxes before iPhone X? I know it became a more expensive phone, but wasn’t 350€ (~409$) price increase too much?

And also this sudden spike with 1300€ (!) iPhone 14 Pro. Insane. They probably reduced costs because they felt that those are not selling well.

Right now Apple is about to cross psychological purchase barrier.

Also, Europeans are not ought to pay taxes for Apple. Everyone knows it doesn’t cost these bean counters 1000$ to manufacture an iPhone in Chinese and Indian sweatshops, especially given how they are cutting corners on materials nowadays. And they literally had other sales formula back then if it indeed was cheaper to buy an iPhone than now.

Also competitors are selling their flagships for much cheaper than Apple. Same competitors sell in US for same 1000$. Then something is different in their formulas, because they do not manufacture Pixels and Galaxy S in Europe either, but somehow they usually cost much, much less than “premium” Pro iPhone
 
Yet another European not understanding that stated prices in the US market do not include sales tax, where european prices include a 20-30% VAT tax.

$1600-(.3*1600)= $1,120.

So a ~6% price difference which... absolutely wouldn't account for regionalization, compliance, or other costs associated with any of the dizzying array of EU regulations, oh no! /s

Look, there's a lot to be mad at in this world - but maybe massively regressive consumption taxes placed on goods and services you need to function as a member of society aren't the fault of the corporations who provide those goods and services?

20-30% tax? Good lord, I thought 9% is high
 
This rumor has been floated for the past several years, and it hasn’t panned out. That said, the would be the year we would be most likely to see a price increase.
 
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