The new phone will cost as much as the company’s entry-level MacBook Air laptop.
While we won’t know the exact specifications of the new iPhone until September 12’s keynote, what we do know is that the price is going to be steep.
Priced at a staggering USD$1,000 (S$1,340), the new iPhone will not only feature state of the art functions like facial recognition and wireless charging, but also probably be the most expensive phone you’ve ever owned.
The upcoming phone has been rumored to have a huge OLED and bezel-less display; a match-up to their rival’s S8. Remember the home button? You won’t need it anymore as leaks have shown that a status bar will be there to replace the lost space.
Is it justifiable to buy a phone that costs over a thousand dollars?
Apple has always been known to price their products at a premium, but that hasn’t stopped them from monopolizing the handheld market since the release of iPhone more than a decade ago.
Why Are iPhones So Freaking Expensive?
We’ve always known that no matter how much we cherish our brand new phones, something better (and more expensive) is always going to surface, so why do people still bother?
Let’s look at why Apple is able to price their items at exorbitant prices.
‘Products are priced at what markets think they are worth.’
A user on Quora wrote, ‘The iPhone could cost less than a cent to make and the cost to you, the consumer, would still not change. You know why? Because enough people are clearly willing to pay what’s being charged right now.’
No matter how much we groan and complain about how expensive it is, we still scrape up whatever savings we have and offer them to the temple of Steve Jobs. Anything to possess that sleek technological wonder.
You might call it exploitive, but it’s still ingenious marketing. Apple knows that we’re addicts hooked on the familiarity of their products, and pricing it a little out of reach makes people want it even more. Habits are hard to break, and when you’ve literally spent thousands of hours building one, they know you’re sticking for the long run.
When purchasing an iPhone, consumers are not just getting a ‘phone’. Users are immersing themselves in the ecosystem that allows for things like iMessage and Facetime that are bundled in for free.
Alongside with the iOS updates that allow for older models to be current, all of these elements are woven into the retail price of the product.
Hefty price tag or not, nothing will get in the way of the Apple fanboys/girls from flooding the streets of Singapore with the new iPhone.
After all, iPhone users would rather be caught dead than to be seen using a Samsung Galaxy.