Apple is pushing its iPhone prices to new heights, and unfortunately for price-conscious shoppers, that includes the cheapest ones too. The price of the cheapest new iPhone that consumers can now buy directly from Apple has increased by $100 to $449. But that still pales in comparison to the most expensive iPhone on the market.
After testing the waters with the $999 iPhone X, last year, the company has pushed the envelope again with the iPhone XS Max, which starts at $1,100. In other words, there’s now a $1,000 gulf between the iPhone’s most and least expensive models — an all-time record.
Apple’s star product — which brought in more than half (56%) of the trillion dollar company’s revenue in the third quarter — now tops out with the iPhone XS Max. Next up is the iPhone XS from $999, then the iPhone XR at $749, and the iPhone 8 at $599. Bringing up the rear is the iPhone 7 at $449. Apple announced the new models on Wednesday.
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Wednesday’s launch event made no mention of the two previously cheapest iPhones, the SE and the 6, which sold for $349 through the Apple AAPL, -1.24% website until Wednesday morning. Now people who want to buy one of those less expensive models will have to do so through an “authorized reseller,” according to Apple’s site. (The company did not respond to a request for comment.)
Some first edition iPhones are even more valuable than the latest iPhone XS MAX. Last year, Bob Kraft, a retired business owner in Madison, Wisc., received an offer of $11,000 for an unopened iPhone that came in a factory gift box from Apple with a red ribbon — and he turned it down. His asking price was $15,000. “That was tempting,” he told MarketWatch. “But I’m not in a hurry to sell it.”
He was one of at least a dozen sellers of the 2007 iPhone who was hoping to make hay from the 10th anniversary of the iconic smartphone last year. He has discounted the phone from $18,000, the price he first listed it for on eBay EBA, +0.03% He’s hoping a collector will see value in the original. “If you open it, it’s only worth a couple of bucks,” he said.
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