This guest post is by Zoe Cohen.
The iPhone X, Your Next iPhone
The shiny new iPhone X comes with a shiny new price tag – at $1,000, it’s the most expensive we’ve ever seen a mainstream phone cost since phones became widespread. While many people scoff and mutter “not in a million years” under their breath, a surprising number of people have already embraced everything about this luxury model, including its price tag. Your next iPhone will probably cost more than $1,000 and you will be okay with that price. Why is that?
First and foremost is the cult of Apple. No matter what crazy decisions Apple makes with its products, there will always be a dedicated consumer base that will buy them anyway. Some do this because they just love anything Apple puts out. They have faith in the brand and the vision of its innovators and are willing to be the proverbial guinea pigs for tech that might make other people uncomfortable or even angry (think about the removal of the headphone jack from the iPhone 7). Others see Apple products as a sort of status symbol, like owning a Prius (everybody look, I’m helping the environment without openly bragging about helping the environment) or even a Fitbit (I’m in shape, and I care about fitness). Purchasing the iPhone X, or your next iPhone, shows they not only have the funds available but that they also value cutting-edge technology and the best products money can buy.
People are willing to pay top dollar for their next iPhone, as long as the quality is there. Okay, but that’s just a small contingency of the people who will be shelling out $1,000 for the iPhone X. What about everyone else?
One major factor is that the average (and “acceptable”) price of cell phones has been slowly, but steadily, rising. Just 10 years ago, you could walk into your wireless provider’s local branch and get a phone for free with a 2-year contract. But as the quality of cell phones has risen, so has the price, and the free-phone-with-contract situation has gotten less and less common. Phones have steadily risen in price since then, and by now, all of the mainstream competitive phones have price tags hovering around $600-$700. If these are the phones that everybody wants and can somehow afford to buy, it was only a matter of time before a higher-end, luxury phone (with the price tag to go with it) would be made available. That it happened with Apple, a company known for its high prices in comparison with competitors should come as no surprise. It’s the Audi TT of cell phones.
Another notable point is that cell phones have come an extremely long way since the day of the free-with-contract phone. People are using their phones for more and more functions, they’re spending more time on their phones, and for many, phones represent a crucial part of their lives they’d be hard-pressed to live without. To keep up with demand and draw in more customers, cell phone companies have pushed the boundaries of what a phone could do further and further.
The Cost of Your Next iPhone
It used to be the case that all you could do with cell phones was make calls. The introduction of SMS messaging revolutionized electronic communications and the advances blossomed from there on out. No longer do you need an MP3 player, digital camera, or GPS. All of those functions have been localized in the smartphone, and they’re much better at these tasks than those devices were. The iPhone X includes all of that tech and adds to it in the form of facial recognition, a huge crystal-clear display, and even faster and better processing. So while many may balk at the price tag, in reality, it’s not for nothing that the price is that high. You are getting a huge amount of functionality with this device. Add in the fact that many providers (and also Apple itself) offer a much more palatable 2-year payment plan, and you might just convince yourself to buy one!
As our technology improves, so will the price of these smartphones that we love to carry around. Your next iPhone may cost $1,000 or even $1,100, however, as long as it simplifies your life, it will be worth the cost. You can read more about the history of the iPhone and you’ll understand why Apple is currently dominating the industry.
