14 DAY TRIAL // If you’re thinking of selling your current iPhone to save a buck on your upgrade to the new iPhone 6, think again. There’s a rumor flying around suggesting that the high-end version of the phone could reach a price point of up to $1,000/€1,000.
Pacific Crest Securities analyst Andy Hargreaves rose Apple to “outperform” with a $635 (€458) price target on its stock, boosting it several points in trading this week.
The reason? “...he believes the next iPhone, which he calls the iPhone 6, could be priced higher than the iPhone 5s, and return growth to Apple in fiscal 2015,” reports The Street.
Sold with a two-year contract, the iPhone 6 should cost $299 (€215), because of the new technologies inside it, including the newer processor, the bigger screen, the sapphire covering its display, and the potentially more expensive chassis, among other things.
Unlocked, a 64GB iPhone 5s today costs $849 in the States and €899 across Europe. Add another hundred to the mix and what you get is an iPhone 6 that would theoretically retail for almost $1,000, or exactly €1,000 if you live in Europe.
And if you consider the possibility of Apple doubling the storage capacity on the high-end iPhone 6 to 128GB of Flash memory, those figures start to sound even less like fiction.
Hargreaves wrote in a research note handed to investors, “We believe Apple can sell a 4.7" iPhone at a subsidized price of $299, which should generate incremental gross profit on replacement sales and attract new customers that had previously purchased Android phones specifically for a larger screen.”
However, there’s no reason to be alarmed just yet. Even when faced with high costs for manufacturing, research and development (R&D), and new materials, Apple usually pulls a rabbit out of its hat and manages to keep the sweet-spot price of $199 (€144) for the entry-level (16GB) models on contract.
Phones with more storage capacity typically have another hundred dollars/euros added to their bill, but that’s normal.
On the other hand, Android phones with huge screens (Galaxy Note 3) already sell for the amount cited by Hargreaves, which gives Apple an excuse to do the same. After all, profits are one of the top priorities for any big corporation, and as much as Apple loves to please the customer, it is also compelled to generate a handsome bottom line for every executive, director, and shareholder invested in the company.