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back to article Report: Apple seeking to raise iPhone 6 price by a HUNDRED BUCKS

Apple is reportedly talking with wireless carriers about pricing for its upcoming iPhone, but not about reinvigorating a stalling smartphone market by lowering prices, instead about raising the cost of its top-of-the-line handsets. "Our checks indicate Apple has started negotiating with carriers on a $100 iPhone 6 price …

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        1. NumptyScrub
          Reply Icon

          Re: I think the article is wrong

          quote: "If they can arbitrarily increase the price of the iPhone 6 just because it is a bit larger than the 5s, why didn't they do it with the 5 when it was a bit larger than the 4s?"

          Fear. They weren't sure if there would be the same product uptake with a change in form factor, especially when the size of Samsung's contemporary devices was being lambasted as "too big" by a lot of their target demographic.

          However the 5 and 5s sold like the proverbial hot cakes, so a price increase is inevitable; it's difficult to convince someone your device is orders of magnitude "better" than the last one unless it is also significantly more expensive. Betcha that the increase is claimed to be down to the sapphire glass, even though they are apparently negotiating the price (rather than simply stating it).

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  2. Markus Wallett

    lol@gamechanger. What's it do? Teleport you back and forth to Mars while providing you a bubble-suit of o2 at the same time?

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  3. Vociferous

    Yep, it'll work.

    Apple is a prestige brand. Apple gear are status symbols. You buy it for the same reason you buy designer jeans or a ferrari -- because you're rich enough and want to show it. That's why Apple phones can sell at twice the price of better-specced Androids, and why the gold bling-phone did so well.

    Raising price by $100 is a good move. Making the phone bigger is also a good move -- after all, the whole point is that other people can see that you're using an iPhone. NOT producing cheap phones is an absolutely necessary move, as it damages the brand.

    I'd also suggest making a point of using exotic materials (gold, titanium, magnesium, jade...).

    5 7
    1. DainB Bronze badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Yep, it'll work.

      "You buy it for the same reason you buy designer jeans or a ferrari -- because you're rich enough and want to show it."

      Or, more likely, because you're on contract and pay nothing out of pocket.

      Yep, latter one, otherwise how come I'm surrounded by so many rich people on the train to CBD ?

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      1. Kye Macdonald
        Reply Icon

        Re: Yep, it'll work.

        Actually I think people now buy either an android or an iPhone in a form of psychological lock-in. I was an early adopter of android and at the time the iPhone was more polished than my HTC Desire. Now I have an LG G2 and I find the iPhone dinky and a bit crap looking, particularly the lack of widgets and animations.

        The biggest thing though is I find the iPhone cack to use. I miss the back button and the menu button massively. On screen widgets with my next appointments and shortcuts on my lock screen are also missing. So I find the usage of the iPhone unpleasant.

        But the flipside is I have stopped trying to show iPhone users the different options when their contracts come up for renewal. Pretty much I say get another iPhone. They find android hard to navigate. Things are in the wrong place. I'm sure there are other things they miss that I don't even know it does.

        Apple will continue to sell iPhones to existing iPhone users. The battle will be won or lost in the new users entering the market. Did you start iPhone or android. That is where you will be in the future.

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        1. Watashi
          Reply Icon

          Re: Yep, it'll work.

          I do think there's a fear of Android for many iPhone users. I've used Symbian (first), iOS (second) and Android (third) of various versions and iOS is the one I find least intuitive. It's like the difference between a planned new town and an old town that's grown naturally. The old town is like Android - it's easy to navigate because it's natural. There's more to learn, but somehow there's more fun in it and this engages the user on a deeper level than iOS. iOS is like a new town - it's simpler and more structured because it's been planned out for the user. For those who started on iOS, it must be clean and simple to use, but it lacks charm and allows no interesting diversions so the user can't develop their own ways of getting around.

          From an Android user perspective, iOS is fairly easy to navigate once you accept that you have to think the way the planners want you to. Moving from iOS to Android must be quite hard, though, as all that controlled order is missing. Long-serving iPhone users are a little institutionalized, which means that Apple has a higher customer retention rate.

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      2. Tom 13
        Reply Icon

        Re: how come I'm surrounded by so many rich people

        He didn't say "rich" he said "status symbol". Easiest way to separate a fool from his cash is to get him thinking it makes him look rich, which is the very definition of "status symbol".

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    2. Duffy Moon
      Reply Icon

      Re: Yep, it'll work.

      Corrected version:

      "Apple is a prestige brand. Apple gear are status symbols. You buy it for the same reason you buy designer jeans or a ferrari -- because you're a wanker"

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      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Yep, it'll work.

        Are you suggesting, sir, that everyone who owns one of the aformentioned brands is a wanker or that every wanker owns one of the aforementioned brands ?

        Either way, would you not consider this perspective a bit narrow ?

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      2. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Yep, it'll work.

        "Corrected version:

        "Apple is a prestige brand. Apple gear are status symbols. You buy it for the same reason you buy designer jeans or a ferrari -- because you're a wanker""

        Oh dear, the envious are out in force today.

        Fuck you all, because I can (and have done so) and you cannot. Suck it up you poor wannabees who never will, and who feel compelled to abuse those more successful. A pox on you all.

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  4. chipxtreme

    Probably increasing the price so that the next Apple v Samsung court case they can claim $3 billion in damages for lost earnings - from people that would never buy an iphone in the first place anyway.

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  5. ManiK67
    Boffin

    How to milk sheep?

    Bring out a new iPhone...

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    1. Gareth Gouldstone
      Reply Icon
      Happy

      bah!

      If it has a bigger screen than the iPhone5, this sheep ain't following the herd!

      I want a phone (y'know, calls, text, bit of t'internet) not a portable cinema.

      baaaah!

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      1. D@v3
        Reply Icon

        Re: bah!

        I could deal with a slightly larger screen than my 5s, but wouldn't want a much larger phone, so if they can work some 'magic' with the bezel, good luck to 'em, otherwise, I'm out.

        Just a shame that this seems to be the way things are going, with not many higher-end phones that aren't on the rather large size. We have a galaxy mega at work, the thing is a joke.

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  6. southpacificpom
    Devil

    iRaise you

    To be honest, if your average shopper is willing to pay extortionate prices for goods in the first place it just sends the signal to the marketers that they might pay more for it in the future.

    Confucius say, product is worth what buyer is willing to pay.

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    1. Dazed and Confused
      Reply Icon

      Re: iRaise you

      The 5c is conclusively proved that people don't want to pay less for an iPhone, so logic surely says ask them to pay more.

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      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: iRaise you

        I think all the 5C showed is that there wasn't enough of a price differential between the 5S and 5C to make people think it wasn't worth the couple of extra pounds a month to go for a 5S.

        If it has been £100 cheaper than it probably would have sold a LOT better

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  7. john devoy

    I don't see the reasoning behind an iphone phablet costing more, surely the extra space lets them use slightly cheaper bigger parts.

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  8. and-job

    Well that's nice...

    ...now people can feel that their iPhone is ultra-premium instead of merely premium. Let's see their market share collapse when those that could only just afford that subsidized fee now decide that the extra $100 is just a little more than they really can afford.

    I used to pay their premium. Switched to Google's Nexus 5 last november and it does everything the iPhone does except...

    ...it transfers pictures across to my Mac faster than Apple and 'iCloud' ever did. No 15 minute wait for 5 or 6 pictures to even start showing up and it doesn't go through that god awful photo app they have on the mac.

    Not only that, the pictures are available on my PC at the same time and I don't have an iCloud app in the system bar on the PC that crashes the OS every few minutes.

    Either way, they have to increase profit margins on their devices to offset the cost of the perpetual legal proceedings they spend their time in chasing every tom dick and harry over patents. Maybe they should just lease their patents to "Rockstar Consortium" their majority stake in it would be advantageous and they could use them to do all the donkey work in that area and get a nice income from people that previously didn't breach the patents over other little things.

    Just think the slide to unlock could allow them to chase any maker of sliding locks used in garden gates....tee hee hee (shouldn't give them ideas)... as they shoehorn patents to every possible case.

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  9. Hubert Thrunge Jr.
    Thumb Up

    "You buy it for the same reason you buy designer jeans or a ferrari -- because you're rich enough and want to show it."

    Along with the shell suits, Burberry caps, and jazzed up Mk5 Escorts that you also buy alongside your iPhone cos you is rich an cleverer innit.

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  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Reassuringly Expensive

    Rather like Gold-Plated Turds.

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  11. Chairo
    Meh

    Excellent marketing at work

    Apple saw that people rather buy the 5s instead of the 5c, even though the differences in spec are marginal. So it is only logical to push the price for their top model up. It's just good product placement.

    It might also have to do with the premium, the carriers enforced on their customers by pricing LTE deals significantly higher and at the same time outphasing 3G models. (At least in the country where I live - and no, they don't accept 3G only contracts for LTE capable phones). Apple naturally wants their slice of the loot.

    If this works out, people with smaller budgets or people that want a compact phone will go for the 5c and the rest will probably swallow the 6.

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  12. poopypants

    An extra $100? Sure, why not?

    It's working really well for the XBox One.

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  13. Sp0ck

    The reason the 5C didn't sell wasn't because it was cheaper than the 5S. It was because it was cheaper AND looked it too. My daughter has a 5, my missus a 5S, they look identical. The 5 was free on a contract and is £10 pm cheaper than the 5S, the S also cost £159 up front :( My daughter is more than happy with the 5, I gave her the choice between the 5, the S and the C, she said the S wasn't worth the extra and the C looked cheap and nasty.At the time (when the S & C were first launched) the C was more expensive than the 5 it was replacing.

    For the record I run a SGS II as I can't stand iPhones.

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    1. Spiracle
      Reply Icon
      Pint

      I got a Moto-G, which seems to do 95% of what the iPhone does, for £99 outright and £7/month for a 1GB contract. Over 24 months, compared to a similar £29/month iPhone contract, this seems to save me a shade under £430, money that I shall spend on beer. That's two years of FREE BEER for not using an iPhone!

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      1. NumptyScrub
        Reply Icon
        Pint

        quote: "Over 24 months, compared to a similar £29/month iPhone contract, this seems to save me a shade under £430, money that I shall spend on beer. That's two years of FREE BEER for not using an iPhone!"

        That has to be one of the most compelling arguments I have yet seen for considering the "non-premium" mobile device market. Motorola would do well to add that to their marketing repertoire ^^;

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    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      sp0ck

      http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/03/22/apples-iphone-5c-failure-flop-outsold-blackberry-windows-phone-and-every-android-flagship-in-q4

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  14. andreas koch

    well, that was to be expected.

    See my comments here:

    http://theregister.co.uk/2013/10/16/apple_cuts_iphone_5c_order/

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  15. the J to the C
    Facepalm

    And now for something different

    I had a iPhone since the second one and one of the main reasons I have stuck with an iPhone is the investment in apps, the price increase goes some why to negate that, so whats next Windows phone or Android, there is little chance its going to be a iPhone

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: And now for something different

      If only app makers could have one unified store, so you only need to buy an app once....

      Would Android allow it? AFAIK you can install alternate app stored...

      Windows Phone? not sure...

      Would Apple allow it? No way...

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  16. Glostermeteor

    Someone's got to pay for all those lawsuits

    A good reason why not to buy an iPhone.

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  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Bring in the sheep, we will go rejoicing ........

    Obviously, if they do not agree, any bets on these new devices permanently awaiting Apples infamous network test procedure?

    known in the real world as as that Apple 4G black list.

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  18. PaulM 1

    What everyone needs is a £280 Nexus 5

    I have previously used Samsung phones with their annoying touchwiz interface. When I upgraded to a Nexus 5 running Android Kitkat I was surprised how well thought out the true Android Kit Kat experience was. The camera, together with the camera software is fabulous. My Nexus 5 has a very long battery life. The Nexus 5 is so much better than an old style small iPhone and is also half the price.

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    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: What everyone needs is a £280 Nexus 5

      Half the Nexus price will get you a Nokia Lumia 620 (or is it 625?). Which is a better phone address book and calendar, but much worse mobile computer. Or someone above says they paid £99 for a Moto G.

      I've currently got a work iPhone 5. Free is obviously best - but when I pay for a smartphone myself, the limit is about £250. There's some really good stuff at about £100-£150, but it may well be worth springing for the latest Nexus. Except I want an SD card, so I can replace my ageing 120GB iPod.

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      1. PaulM 1
        Reply Icon

        Re: What everyone needs is a £280 Nexus 5

        The £99 Moto-G is great but the £99 model only has 8 Gb of on phone flash memory, which can not be expanded. Also the Moto-G camera does not get good reviews. From what I can see, you need to pay at least £180 for an Android phone with an 8 megapixel camera (Sony Xperia SP).

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        1. Brenda McViking
          Reply Icon

          Re: What everyone needs is a £280 Nexus 5

          And why is a shedload of megapixels a requirement for a phone camera? My old Sony DSLR has 10MP, and due to the physical size of the sensor and the quality of the glass in front of it, It'll still take a far better photo than the 41MP Nokia, EVERY SINGLE TIME.

          I have an S4, with a 13MP camera. It still takes shite photos. My Nokia N95 with a 5MP camera had a much better lens and took much better pictures. I miss that phone...

          Buying a phone camera based on megapixels is a game only the uninformed play (and don't salesmen know it!) - there are far far far more important things to consider, and anything above 5MP is only really useful if you happen to be printing images the size of motorway advertising billboards, head over to photography forums and they'll tell you all about it.

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          1. PaulM 1
            Reply Icon

            Re: What everyone needs is a £280 Nexus 5

            The Nexus 5's camera is very good. I was recommended an SONY Xperia SP when looking for a cheaper Android phone with a good camera. I was told that like the Nexus 5, the Xperia SP includes a quality SONY camera mechanism. I do not know personally if the Xperia SP has a good camera. What I do like about the Nexus 5's camera is that you can take a photo at sunset and on phone processing makes it look like the photo was taken at midday.

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            1. Vociferous
              Reply Icon

              Re: What everyone needs is a £280 Nexus 5

              > The Nexus 5's camera is very good.

              And I guarantee you that a 5MPix dSLR will take better quality photos.

              Once you're over about 4MPix, more pixels don't really matter much. Instead, what matters is lens quality, dynamic range, and size and quality of the sensor -- none of which any cellphone has.

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  19. Kristian Walsh Silver badge

    Carrier reluctance....

    This is referring to the US carriers, and their reluctance is understandable given that Apple will want to do not one, but two things with pricing:

    1. Increase the price of iPhone 6 by $100

    2. Hold carriers to the current with-contract pricing.

    After all, bleeding the US network operators has been Apple's key to success. But don't start cheering yet - Verizon and AT&T aren't the victims: drawing blood from the network operators means forcing those operators to increase charges to their non-iPhone, and non-smartphone users.

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  20. All names Taken
    Paris Hilton

    (untitled)

    if that is what the public want, expect and will pay for where is the harm in that?

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  21. PeterM42
    Flame

    Ah!

    ANOTHER hundred reasons NOT to buy an Apple phone.

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  22. JaitcH
    WTF?

    Does Apple have a short memory, or what?

    I guess Apple has forgotten they were nailed for price fixing e-books.

    It seems to me the only difference between the earlier price fixing and the new scheme is they are now fixing iThingy prices.

    Price fixing is illegal in many countries.

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    1. Tel
      Reply Icon

      Re: Does Apple have a short memory, or what?

      There's a significant difference between (supposedly) forcing other people to keep their prices high everywhere if they want to use your e-commerce platform and setting your retail pricing for your own products. Apple can charge whatever they like for stuff they manufacture and sell themselves. You clearly don't seem to understand the difference though.

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      1. NumptyScrub
        Reply Icon

        Re: Does Apple have a short memory, or what?

        quote: "Apple can charge whatever they like for stuff they manufacture and sell themselves."

        But what they are currently doing is talking to network operators regarding the price those operators will charge, are they not?

        If all that is happening is that operators are bargaining Apple down on their volume pricing then all is fine. "Our MSRP is $X and we'll sell to you for $Y" is perfectly legitimate business.

        If Apple are attempting to influence the end-price of their product via the operators, however, then that starts to sound an awful lot like price fixing. "Our MSRP is $X and you must sign this contract agreeing to never sell our product below $Y or we refuse to sell any to you" would usually be considered less than legitimate. Apple can choose what price they will sell to Vodafone at, but Vodafone should have free reign in deciding what price they will offer it to consumers at. Any attempt by Apple to influence that end price is an attempt at price fixing, IMO :)

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  23. Tel

    Why do people think the 5C is somehow a failure?

    All the market surveys I've read (and not sourced from Apple) suggest the 5C has been roundly outselling the Galaxy 4S. And considering that the 5C is essentially a repackaged plain old '5, that means it's 2012's tech and yet nobody seems to be interested in hearing about how much of a 'fail' the Galaxy 4S has been.

    It's inconsistent with facts and illogical to call the 5C a 'failure'. It sells less than the 5S, yes... being essentially last year's model, and all, but if it sold more, than the 5S would be the 'failure' instead... How can Apple 'win' (or even draw!) if people and, more particularly, journalists who should have some sort of obligation towards truth, keep insisting that black is white?

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  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I think we're missing the point

    This IS Apple's plan to conquer the "cheap" end of the market. They simply will redefine what cheap is. $200 will be a "cheap" phone because their other phones will cost $300, $400, $500, etc.

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