Only 18% of buyers expected to spend so much on an iPhone 8

Aug 24, 2017 08:26 GMT  ·  By

The iPhone 8 will be one pretty expensive piece of technology, with estimates pointing to a starting price tag of $999, and analysts warn that only a few people are actually going to spend so much on a new phone.

Barclays’ Mark Moskowitz explained in a note to investors that only 18 percent of the buyers looking into iPhones might be willing to pay the $1,000+ price for the new model, pointing out that there’s a chance that Samsung benefits from this thing and attracts customers looking for a flagship device at a more affordable price.

“For Apple, we are concerned that the company needs to meet momentous investor expectations following the expected launch of three new iPhone devices in September. This could be made more challenging when considering that only 18% of potential iPhone buyers are willing to spend $1,000+ for a new device (Wireless Subscriber Survey; 08/09/17), which is below the 30-35% figure investors seem to be expecting,” the analyst explains in the note.

Samsung to benefit from the high iPhone 8 price

Furthermore, the analyst estimates that more customers would be tempted to move to the mid-range market, especially because of more models developed by Chinese companies that are growing at a fast pace, like Huawei, Oppo, and Vivo.

While the analyst does say that Samsung’s flagships could be the ones benefitting from the high price of the iPhone 8, both the Galaxy S8 and the Note 8 are also quite expensive and get pretty close to what the next iPhone is expected to cost.

Samsung’s recently-launched Galaxy Note 8 will be available from $929 in the United States, but pricing also varies by carrier, with T-Mobile, for instance, selling it for $930, while Verizon will make it available for $960.

At the same time, it’s worth reminding that Apple has always had iPhone configuration that got very close to the $1,000 price milestone, so even though the iPhone 8 will indeed be a little bit more expensive, this doesn’t push it too far from the previous generations.