Over the past few weeks, there has been a lot of hoopla surrounding the iPhone 8’s rumored $1,000 price point and how the device’s ambitious price might impact sales. While many analysts are of the mind that demand for the iPhone 8 will be incredibly high, others have expressed a more cautious, if not downright pessimistic, point of view. In fact, one analyst last week went so far as to claim that Apple should offer prospective iPhone 8 buyers a free year of Apple Music and iCloud storage in order to offset any buyer trepidation regarding the device’s $1,000 price tag.
In reality, though, there’s a good chance that Apple’s highly anticipated iPhone 8 will help anchor the largest iPhone refresh we’ve seen to date. For starters, the iPhone 8 will usher in the most drastic overhaul of the iPhone form factor in years. Equally as important, the iPhone 8 will come jam-packed with a number of new and advanced technologies that will offer users more bang for their buck and an unrivaled user experience. To this point, the incredibly strong demand for last year’s iPhone 7 Plus — with its dual-camera system — exemplifies that iPhone owners are more than willing to shell out extra cash in exchange for premium features.
So while an iPhone 8 priced at $1,000 or higher is certainly not cheap, there’s no denying that the iPhone 8 will offer users more bang for their buck than ever before. As a quick comparison, let’s take a quick look back at the iPhone 6 Plus. When originally released in 2014, paying full price for a 128GB iPhone 6 Plus would have set you back $949. Taking inflation into account, that’s about $980 in today’s dollars.
So what are iPhone 8 buyers getting for paying $20 more than they did for a maxed out iPhone 6 Plus? Well, a bigger screen with more advanced display technology is just the beginning. Indeed, the number of new features set to arrive with the iPhone 8 is rather lengthy and impressive. Aside from more RAM, faster internals, and improved water resistance, the iPhone 8 is said to ship with an OLED display, improved battery life, more storage, wireless charging functionality, advanced facial recognition and more. As far as new iPhones are concerned, I think it’s fair to claim that the leap from the iPhone 7 to the iPhone 8 — both in terms of design and features — will be as significant, if not more so, than the leap Apple took going from the iPhone 3GS to the iPhone 4.
All told, the price of the iPhone 8 will certainly be high, but it will also offer users much more bang for just a few more bucks. And besides, if any prospective buyers are turned off by the iPhone 8’s $1,000 price tag, Apple’s 2017 iPhone lineup will also feature more wallet-friendly options in the form of the iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus.
