iPhone 14 series sees big price increases in South Africa

While Americans won’t be paying more (in dollars) for the iPhone 14 line-up from Apple, South Africans aren’t as lucky: pre-order pricing from iStore shows big increases — of up to 20.3% — compared to last year’s iPhone 13 models.

No doubt a weaker rand has been a major contributing factor: on Wednesday morning, the rand was trading at R17.59/US$, a substantial weakening – 18.1% to be precise – from R14.40/$  a year ago. This weakening is in line with the percentage increases in the prices of the latest iPhone models (see details below).

South African consumers who want to get the very best of the iPhone 14 series – the Pro Max model with 1TB of storage – can expect to cough up an eye-watering R41 499 for the privilege (up from R35 299 for last year’s 1TB Pro Max model at launch).

Here’s the pre-order pricing for the various models, with the percentage increase in price compared to the iPhone 13’s launch price in South Africa a year ago:

iPhone 14

• 128GB: R20 599 (R17 299, so a 19.1% increase)
• 256GB: R23 199 (R19 399, 19.6% increase)
• 512GB: R28 499 (R23 699, 20.3% increase)

iPhone 14 Pro

• 128GB: R25 699 (R21 499, 19.5% increase)
• 256GB: R28 299 (R23 699, 19.4% increase)
• 512GB: R33 499 (R28 699, 16.7% increase)
• 1TB: R38 599 (RR32 999, 17% increase)

iPhone 14 Pro Max

• 128GB: R28 399 (R23 699, 19.8% increase)
• 256GB: R30 999 (R25 899, 19.7% increase)
• 512GB: R35 999 (R30 899, 16.5% increase)
• 1TB: R41 499 (R35 299, 17.6% increase)

iPhone 14 Plus pre-orders are not yet available in South Africa, while last year’s iPhone 13 mini model has been discontinued.

Read: Apple keeps prices steady as it unveils iPhone 14 series

Despite the price hikes (and perhaps because of them), iStore said it has increased the cash-back deals it’s offering South African Apple fines, providing up to R20 000 when trading in an old iPhone and upgrading their contract.

Read: Apple shares spike on strong iPhone 14 Pro Max pre-orders

It’s also offering a “free” extended warranty (two years), including screen replacement, and a R1 000 iStore gift card to the first thousand customers to pre-order the Pro models (R500 gift card on the base models).  – © 2022 NewsCentral Media

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