If you think a new iPhone costs a pretty penny where you live, spare a moment of thought for the poor folks of Venezuela — a.k.a. the most expensive iPhone market in the world.
Due to a combination of limited supply and crazy inflation, iPhones in the country cost 300,000 bolivars, or around $47,678.
Yes, you read that correctly!
According to a report from Bloomberg, one of the most common crimes in the area is (unsurprisingly) mobile phone theft, with hundreds of robberies reported this spring as thieves regularly prey on people out walking or stuck in traffic.
“If you have a nice phone, they will steal it at some point if you ever show it in the street,” Tina Lu, senior consultant at Counterpoint in Buenos Aires, is quoted as saying. “And if you want to buy one, it’s going to cost you an arm and a leg.”
Only two or three stores in the country’s capital city stock new iPhones, since vendors must go through government channels to acquire their stock. The $47,678 price is roughly 41 times the monthly minimum wage — meaning that to pay off the cost of a new iPhone you’d be looking at working until 2019.
Although low-cost handsets are making in-roads in the country, “low cost” means something very different in Venezuela to the rest of the world. Even a low-end Samsung device will reportedly set you back $3,000.
What fresh hell is that?
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.
2 responses to “The one place in the world where an iPhone 6 costs $47,678”
This isn’t entirely accurate. I live in Venezuela right now and the reason the phone costs 300,000 bolivars is because that official exchange rate is almost impossible to get, and most products here are priced according to the black market exchange rate which is today 460 bolivars to the dollar (and rising) rather than the fake 6.3 bolivars to the dollar official rate
Luke, you fucked up. Just take it down, man. Just do it, before it’s too late.