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Over The Last 14 Years, iPhone Prices Have Gone Up More Than 80%

13 years ago the original Macbook Air started at $1,799 and it came with a spinning hard drive. If you configured it an SSD... the price ballooned to $2,399

Today the Macbook Air starts at $999 with a superfast SSD.

So... some Apple products get dramatically cheaper over time.

And yes... I know miniaturization is more difficult in smaller phones versus big laptops. But it's still an interesting example.

:)
 
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Apparently this does not apply to their computers, I remember paying $3400 for my power book, What kind of laptop can you get today for $3400?
 
Yet apple still wonders why not everyone updates their phone every year. It’s ridiculously expensive, and I refuse to upgrade my X until the iPhone gets usb c, Which I’m aware may never happen. Not to mention there are less and less reasons to upgrade these days
 
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I would argue that its usefulness and ability to be an average person’s main computing device (at least on the larger devices) has increased by a factor of 100. Well worth it.
 
Well, that just does it. Everyone knows Samsung phones have decreased 10% in those same years. Yah right.

Funny how something that is competitively priced with phones of equal quality (not talking about the low end of the market) is such a fake scandal for increasing in price along with the competition. Fake Indignation now!
 
gank41 said:
This. I was going over the article and saw no mention of carrier subsidies and how those aren't offered anymore. Used to be if you stayed with your carrier and signed a 2 year contract, you'd get a cheaper phone. Of course prices have skyrocketed if you compare the cost of subsidized phones to just buying a phone now..
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Yup they didn't mention that phone companies stopped subsidizing the phone costs all together. Both investing in apple and paying part of the retail cost with contracts and renewal programs. I remember reading a report somewhere that the first iPhone actually cost $800 when you took away both subsidies.
 
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I dunno. In the early iPhone days, each upgrade was worth it, which meant that whatever iPhone you had, it probably didn’t last as long before you wanted to upgrade it. These days, an iPhone from the last 5 years could more than meet your needs for as long as you can keep it in one piece.

Also factor in the very easy trade-ins process Apple offers today, and then throw in carrier discounts and incentives. For example, I traded in a very worn out 6S for the XR, and Apple gave me $200 for the 6S. When I went from XR to 12 mini, after trade-in and carrier instant rebates and credits (buying outright, not financing), I think I was net $349 out of pocket for that upgrade. After a year, I sold off the 12 mini for $505! Doing the math, I upgraded iPhones a couple times for a few hundred bucks net. In other words, just looking at the average sticker price doesn’t tell the whole story. Take care of your stuff and leverage the clearance sales, Apple refurbished store, trade-ins, and carrier kickbacks, and you won’t be paying anywhere near what this study suggests.
 
Phantom iCloud tabs said:
You should look at the prices of average and high-end laptops in 1995. The higher end ones ran up to 4 or 5 thousand dollars.

Edit: and the cheaper laptops at the time were 2k.
Click to expand...

High end is always hard to compare. You can easily bring a macbook to over $6k today.
What configuration would you use for a fair comparison? There won't be a satisfying answer to that. I guess you could compare the cheapest entry points. But even then it is hard to find a fair comparison.

Example:

1995 is years before we ever had an iPhone... But i guess you could take the "first smartphone" from IBM in 1994, which was $1,100.

Today you can get smartphones with android for like $60. (And probably cheaper too)

There you go, much cheaper and still better than what was available back then ;). But i guess even compared to the first iPhone it is way cheaper and better.

It's really just impossible to compare, because the evolution of smartphones or mobile phones in general is much different from the evolution of laptops. And also the priority it has in most peoples lifes.
 
Nozuka said:
High end is always hard to compare. You can easily bring a macbook to over $6k today.
What configuration would you use for a fair comparison? There won't be a satisfying answer to that. I guess you could compare the cheapest entry points. But even then it is hard to find a fair comparison.

Example:

1995 is years before we ever had an iPhone... But i guess you could take the "first smartphone" from IBM in 1994, which was $1,100.

Today you can get smartphones with android for like $60. (And probably cheaper too)

There you go, much cheaper and still better than what was available back then ;). But i guess even compared to the first iPhone it is way cheaper and better.

It's really just impossible to compare, because the evolution of smartphones or mobile phones in general is much different from the evolution of laptops. And also the priority it has in most peoples lifes.
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Seriously, though, browse a wide range of laptops (not just one manufacturer) around 1995-1997. Try to find some relatively inexpensive ones. Look at the specs. I know it will be an anecdotal experiment, but you'll struggle to find laptops that, especially when adjusted for inflation, are under 2,000 dollars. And that includes low-end laptops. The general trend in all technology is that it improves while cheapening. Smartphones have certainly improved, but they don't seem to be cheapening too much.
 
TheGhostWalker said:
Adjusting for inflation, the original iPhone would cost $660. Not too far off the $699 for the iPhone 13
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Not doubting the veracity of the report, but there could also be a little apples and oranges comparison.

Inflation and changes in VAT rules over the years accounts for some. Changes in component costs accounts for some. Changes in SCM and transportation accounts for some. Also the iPhone was only available in a handful of countries at release. The report is not clear as to how the change is calculated for non-launch countries. Even if it is correctly using the date of release local to the country does that really apply back to the original 2007 release for comparison?
 
gank41 said:
Mine was CellOne that later became Cingular.. Just now realizing I've had the same number for a long long time :oops:
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Cellone, that one pre-dates me for sure. I still remember going over the minutes and getting into trouble with my parents. Good times.
 
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Darmok N Jalad said:
I dunno. In the early iPhone days, each upgrade was worth it, which meant that whatever iPhone you had, it probably didn’t last as long before you wanted to upgrade it. These days, an iPhone from the last 5 years could more than meet your needs for as long as you can keep it in one piece.

Also factor in the very easy trade-ins process Apple offers today, and then throw in carrier discounts and incentives. For example, I traded in a very worn out 6S for the XR, and Apple gave me $200 for the 6S. When I went from XR to 12 mini, after trade-in and carrier instant rebates and credits (buying outright, not financing), I think I was net $349 out of pocket for that upgrade. After a year, I sold off the 12 mini for $505! Doing the math, I upgraded iPhones a couple times for a few hundred bucks net. In other words, just looking at the average sticker price doesn’t tell the whole story. Take care of your stuff and leverage the clearance sales, Apple refurbished store, trade-ins, and carrier kickbacks, and you won’t be paying anywhere near what this study suggests.
Click to expand...

This is honestly the best explanation yet. Everyone needs to do this, and you’ll never pay their ‘inflated’ [not my words] prices again.
 
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Grimace said:
Flimsy math on this headline.

Phone carriers used to subsidize the iPhone cost by $200 or more when you renew your contract - they stopped doing that a few years ago so that subsidy was passed onto the consumer who pays full price.
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Gee I wonder if the researchers maybe thought of that and used the full retail price of each device.

Also, 2 months after the iPhone came out, they dropped the price by $200. I bought mine two days later for $399.
 
lazyrighteye said:
Anyway... Fast-forward to 2021, and $1,000 seems on par with the $600 of 14 years ago. Not that I like that, but seems on par.
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Well, technically 600$ in 2007 is only about $795 today, with a cumulative %33 true inflation since then. It’s certianly less than historical numbers would indicate.
 
This is meaningless unless you actually show inflation and show other comparisons, eg cost of an “average” laptop, cost of gasoline, a gallon milk and such …
 
Wait, the original iPhone wasn't subsidized in the US, right?
I had a contract, yeah, but it didn't have any equipment fees. The phone was full retail price without any installments.
 
A lot of people have mentioned carrier subsidies as being one thing that had kept "list" iPhone prices a little lower in the past, but with the first few models, most countries had an exclusive carrier. In the US, it was AT&T. Beyond any per-unit subsidies, didn't they pay some extra friendship money for that privilege?

Also, according to some inflation website (https://www.officialdata.org/2007-dollars-in-2017), $100 2007 dollars is worth $132 today, so the $600 launch iPhone would cost a little shy of $800 if it launched today (you know they'd round up to $799). Which is, in fact, exactly what they charge for the base iPhone 13 model.

Of course, Apple dropped the launch model price down to $399 just a few months after launch. I don't foresee any imminent price-drops for the iPhone 13 down to $520 or even $599. However, it was _impossible_ to unlock your launch iphone without jailbreaks. When it did become possible, it added hundreds of dollars to the cost of the phone.
 
One thing that a lot of people love to forget is that the original iPhone, even though it was $599, also required you to get a special plan for it that costed more than any other plan for any other phone at the time.
 
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adamjackson said:
I paid $599 for my first iPhone before tax and waited 3 hours for Cingular's servers to actually activate it. Fun times:
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yea, but that's because you weren't buying an unlocked phone. that price came out of you being locked into a 2 year contract. of course some people bought these and took them overseas, but that wasn't really apple's plan.
 
Just another screw-up by the Biden administration... increasing iPhone prices by 80%!





/s
 
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