According to Goldman Sachs, the iPhone 8 is set to be Apple’s priciest iPhone ever by quite a wide margin. A note from analyst Simona Jankowski claims the next-gen iPhone will carry the suitably next-gen price of $1,000.
More specifically, Jankowski predicts that the 128GB iPhone 8 will sell for $999, while the 256GB version will set you back a whopping $1,099.
By comparison, the current 128GB Phone 7 carries a price tag of $749. That means that the cheapest iPhone 8 will be 25 percent pricier than its predecessor, which is a pretty sizable jump for just one year’s worth of upgrades.
Jankowski thinks users will definitely get their money’s worth for that price, however. In particular, she singles out a larger 5.8-inch display, OLED screen and 3D-sensing augmented reality, the latter of which is a technology Apple is incredibly excited about.
“We think the higher demand for the larger (5.8″) form factor will be supported by the fact that the iPhone 8 will have compelling new features not available in the smaller form factors,” she wrote in her note to clients.
Goldman Sachs isn’t upset by the price, of course — the company caters to investors who are set to see stock prices soaring with the next iPhone upgrade. Just this week, Apple became the first company in history to pass the $800 billion value. A pricey iPhone 8 will only help the company as it skips ever closer to the fabled $1 trillion mark.
“The first $1,000 iPhone can drive meaningful upside,” Jankowski wrote. “The bottom line is that we are raising our FY18/19 EPS estimates further above consensus…. While our FY18 iPhone unit estimate is relatively in-line, we see significant upside in iPhone ASPs [average selling prices].”
She raised her Apple fiscal 2018 earnings-per-share forecast to $11.50 from $11. That’s a little over a dollar more than the Wall Street average of $10.40.
Pricey Apple anniversary editions
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard that the new iPhone may carry a premium price tag. Earlier this year, Fast Company floated the same $1,000 price, partly attributed to the greater costs for Apple of adopting an OLED display.
It also wouldn’t be the first time Apple ramped up the price for an anniversary edition of one of its products. This year’s iPhone 8 represents 10 years since Steve Jobs introduced us to Apple’s breakthrough smartphone.
Back in 1997, Apple introduced its feature-packed Twentieth Anniversary Mac (which, confusingly, celebrated 20 years of Apple, instead of 20 years of the Mac). That machine’s price? A massive $9,000 ($13,600 today), which made it one of the priciest computers Apple ever released. To be fair, for that price users did get the computer delivered to their homes and set up by a man in a tuxedo. Really.
Would you pay $1,000-plus for Apple’s next-gen iPhone? Leave your comments below.
Source: CNBC
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
8 responses to “iPhone 8 could start at $1,000”
Doesnt matter. Still will get it.
Seriously? This was a serious article? There is no way in hell the iPhone 8 will start at a thousand dollars. That is one of the most fantasy headline’s I’ve seen here. Oh, and for the record, Simona Jankowski is an idiot for even suggesting something so far fetched. Apple don’t bump prices by 25% in one year. They’re not a bunch of slobbering idiots. They know precisely how to market and sell their products at just the right price. Sure, the iPhone 12 may be $1000. But the 8? Come on. Let’s come back down to earth shall we?
The price of the iPhone 7+ with 256GB is $969, so if there is a price over $1000, it will be for the 256GB model, and small storage options will be less.
But there are countries where the currency exchange rates and added taxes push the price over $1000 which they include in the price.
it’s including AirPods. That’s why.
This will not occur.
bet it does…
My guess is that it’ll include AirPods to make up for the price difference. I wanted Apple to do that with the iPhone 7. If you want to show that you believe in a wireless future, make it default.
This will not occur…