By Kif Leswing
Copyright cnbc
Apple, as expected, tried to soften the price increase blow by pointing out that this year’s entry-level phones now all come with 256GB of storage, as opposed to the 128GB that was standard on last year’s phones. Apple did not mention tariffs or anything about how it manufactures iPhones.
Apple charges users more when they get extra storage on an iPhone. Upgrading to 512GB of storage on an iPhone 17 Air costs $200 this year.
“iPhone 17 Pro starts at $1099, the same great price as last year’s 256 gigabyte iPhone 16 Pro,” said Apple’s chief marketer Greg Joswiak during the launch event.
Apple is judicious about raising hardware prices in the U.S.
This is the first time that Apple’s entry-level Pro phone has gotten a price increase over $999 since the debut of its predecessor iPhone X in 2017.
On Tuesday, Apple kept the starting price of its entry-level phone, the iPhone 17, steady at $799. Its most premium device, the iPhone 17 Pro Max, didn’t get a bump either.
Apple left prices the same for the other new hardware items it announced on Tuesday. Its new AirPods, which can translate conversations in real time, still retail for $249, the same price as the first AirPods Pro in 2019.
Apple also kept Apple Watch prices stable.
The Apple Watch Series 11 is $399 for the smaller version, the same price as it has been since 2018, when Apple was on Series 4, and Apple’s high-end sport watch, the Ultra 3, remains $799 and up.
