14 DAY TRIAL // Apple is getting ready to begin shipping the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, an in addition to several new features, the new generation also sets a new record as being the most expensive iPhones in history.
With iPhone XS Max topping at $1,449 in the United States, Apple continues a push that was first started with the iPhone X last year and which brought smartphone prices to a new level.
The original iPhone X launched in 2017 started at $999 in the United States, but with the addition of more storage for the 2018 series, customers need to pay even more to get the top model.
In an interview with Nikkei Asian Review, Apple CEO Tim Cook explains that this is the cost of the high level of innovation that the new smartphones bring, and the customers that the Cupertino-based tech giant is targeting are willing to pay for it.
“We always thought … that if you provide a lot of innovation and a lot of value, there is a segment of people who are willing to pay for it. For us, it’s a large enough group of people that we can make a reasonable business out of it,” he was quoted as saying.
“A lot of things you were buying are now so convenient in one [gadget] and it has taken those things so much further than they could have ever ventured as a stand-alone device. The role of the iPhone has become much larger in people’s lives.”
An iPhone for everyone
Cook also explained that the introduction of iPhone XR and the more affordable iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, which continue to be sold, unlike the original iPhone X, is part of the company’s strategy to make an iPhone available for everyone.
“We want to serve everyone. We understand that there is a wide range of what customers are looking for and a wide range of prices that people will pay,” he said.
iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max are currently available for pre-order, and shipments will begin in the first countries on Friday.