Thinking of treating yourself to an iPhone 15 Pro when it comes out? Here’s some bad news from the rumor mill: the smartphone, doubtless set to rank highly among Apple’s best iPhones, and its Pro Max sibling, might be $100 (around £80 / AU$155) more expensive than the equivalent iPhone 14 models – or possibly pricier still.
Yes, this is not the news would-be buyers want to hear, though we should bear firmly in mind that it is just chatter on the grapevine, as reported by DigiTimes (a hit-and-miss source in our experience, so extra skeptical mode should be activated here).
The theory is that Apple might ask between $1,099 to $1,199 in the US for the iPhone 15 Pro, compared to $999 for the iPhone 14 Pro. With the iPhone 15 Pro Max the asking price is purportedly set to be pinned at $1,199 or $1,299, as opposed to $1,099 for the current-gen model.
So, that’s either a $100 or $200 price hike in the US for both Pro models of the next-gen iPhone – and the latter level of increase would be a bit of a shocker indeed.
We can presume Apple would plump for similarly proportional price rises across the board in other regions, if this happens.
Analysis: Let’s hope this one’s off the mark
What’s worth remembering is that even if this is Apple’s plan now, it may still be under discussion, and the final launch price could still change.
But sadly, this is not the first time rumors of price hikes have been mentioned regarding the Pro models of Apple’s iPhone 15 range – far from it. In fact, there has been chatter for quite some time now that Apple will finally price the Pro phone to break the $1,000 barrier, and the most common rumor we’ve heard is a $100 price hike (for the Pro Max, too).
The idea of Apple going further, and upping pricing by $200, is a rather scary prospect, but one that we’d treat especially carefully at this stage.
As we chew over in our discussion of iPhone 15 price predictions, the most likely route for Apple to take is a $100 price rise based on multiple past rumors. It is also possible only the iPhone 15 Pro Max will jump in price – but the general consensus seems to be that both Pro versions will.
Those increases could well be wrapped up in the extra cost for Apple to produce the Pro version of the iPhone 15 compared to the iPhone 14. Fancy new features like titanium sides, super-thin bezels, a superfast CPU, more memory, and a larger battery don’t come cheap, of course. (Those are the main rumors, among other potential upgrades for the iPhone 15 Pro).
Broadly, then, the weight of speculation points to a price rise for Pro handsets, but not one of the gravity that DigiTimes presents in a worst-case scenario.
The better news is that the usual Apple experts and leakers are equally united in the belief that Apple probably won’t hike the price of the base iPhone 15, although again, apply some seasoning there – we can’t be sure of anything until these phones are actually launched.
Via MacRumors
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