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Is $1,000 Too Much For The iPhone X?

iphonex face recognition beach
iphonex face recognition beach

 

Instead of asking “what will be in the new iPhone?” people have begun asking “how much will the new iPhone be?” The new price of the iPhone X is $999, announced Tuesday during Apple’s keynote event. Given all of the new features in the upcoming release, is the increased price justified?

New features

New features in the iPhone X definitely put it a step above the iPhone 7 in terms of capabilities. One of the new design features is the larger screen, which covers the entire front of the phone. Since the screen will take up the entire front side, you can say goodbye to the home button. It was already starting to get phased out — the iPhone 7 didn’t even have a button that clicks when it’s pressed.

Facial recognition will replace Touch ID fingerprint scan found on the home button. Other new features include augmented-reality directions, wireless charging, smartcam and the new iOS 11. The price for the new phone is the biggest surprise, just like rumors suggested it will cost $999 for the 64 GB base model. The 256 GB model starts at $1,149.

Priced out

Apple’s new price for the iPhone comes as a shock, as they’ve never charged this much for an iPhone before. Sales for the iPhone 7 dipped slightly — Apple didn’t hit the projected 51.4 million in sales and instead only sold 50.8 million. Revenue did increase, however, with higher prices. Blame for the disappointing sales is being put on the release of the iPhone 8 and iPhone X.

Rumors about the upcoming release surfaced as early as January. Analysts blame the hype that came with the product release, which took place before the 10th anniversary of the original iPhone. Sales for the iPhone 8 are expected to make up for the dip that came with the iPhone 7 release.

Back in 2007, when the first iPhone was announced, the price was $599. It wasn’t known whether consumers would pay such a large amount of money for a new phone; five days after its release, Apple sold 1 million iPhones.

Is it worth it?

Adjusting for inflation, the original iPhone’s price tag of $599 comes out to $704 today. Are there enough new features in the iPhone X to justify the $300 increase? The original iPhone came with a 2-megapixel camera, a storage capacity of 4, 8 or 16 GB, a 3.5” and a 320×480 display. The iPhone X will come with a 12-megapixel camera, a storage capacity of 64 or 256 GB, a 5.8” and a 1124×2436 display, not to mention the large bevy of features added through the years and for this new model.

Just comparing the two phones, the changes are staggering. The improvements to the new iPhone are so extensive that they hardly compare to the iPhone it replaced. New features added after the first release include the front-facing camera, Siri, multitasking, third-party apps, iMessage, etc. The original iPhone couldn’t even copy and paste text. Advancements in technology have rapidly increased the capabilities of iPhones, with more and more being added with each release. So $300 may not seem like much when you look at what both of the phones have to offer.

Takeaway: The price hike is justified with the new additions

It’s hard to see the progression of the iPhone without just thinking about the current model. Apple’s original release didn’t have a lot of the key features that are synonymous with the iPhone today. When they were originally released, iPhones were a breath of fresh air. The invention was a bold attempt to take on established smartphone companies and show that things could be improved.

Ten years later, Apple is currently second in market share of the smartphone market. Apple’s price hike will not matter as long as people continue to buy iPhones, and even with subpar figures, iPhone sales still number in the millions. Apple already experienced blowback last year when it increased the price of its MacBooks by $200. iPhone X blows away even the iPhone 8, which itself is an improvement on the iPhone 7.

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Header image: Apple

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