Price evolution of an Apple TV in the United States

1. Relevance of the price of an Apple TV
2. Price evolution of an Apple TV
   1. Absolute price of an Apple TV per year
   2. Inflation adjusted price of an Apple TV per year
3. Conclusion
4. FAQs about an Apple TV's price in the the United States
5. Price evolution table and full chart

The Apple TC is Apple’s entertainment hub. It bridges the gap between personal computers and televisions, turning any TV into a smart TV with a slick design and clean interface like only Apple knows how to make.

While the Apple TV didn’t have the impact that the iPhone or the iPad did in consumer electronics, it nonetheless plays a key role in bringing together Apple products and broadening Apple’s ecosystem.

The prices mentioned in this article refer to the entry-level Apple TV over time. That is the cheapest version from the latest release. Apple has always offered higher-priced options with more memory, resolution, etc. and sometimes also kept selling older versions of the Apple TV even after releasing a newer version, but this article considers the cheapest option from the latest release.

Price evolution of an Apple TV

The average price of an Apple TV between 2007 and 2023 was $138, with the lowest price being $149 in 2007 and the highest $179 in 2017 (at least within the timeframe we have data for).

Absolute price of an Apple TV per year

Our data source for this article was: WikiPedia .

The absolute price of an Apple TV in the the United States has gone from $149 in 2007 to $129 in 2023. That's an absolute increase of $-20, or -13.42% in a period of 16 years. (go to the next section for inflation-adjusted values).

This increment has not been linear though. During this period of 16 years the price of an Apple TV actually decreased year over year 2 times, in 2010, 2021.

The biggest absolute price decrease in the price of an Apple TV was in 2010, when the price dropped by $-50, or -33.56%. The biggest price increase was $50, or 50.51% in 2015.

With the price increasing most years, it comes as no surprise that the price of an Apple TV today is higher than what it used to be some years ago.

Inflation-adjusted price of an Apple TV per year

As accurate as the information above might be, it can also be somehow deceiving. This is because the value of money changes over time, usually decreasing. That means that $1 of today's money cannot buy as much as $1 in the past. This phenomenon is called inflation, and can make it complicated to compare historical pricing data. Luckily, we can adjust for it and calculate what a dollar value of the past would be equal to in today's money.

So let's not take a look at the evolution of the price of an Apple TV in the the United States, in that same 16 years period between 2007 and 2023, but adjusting prices to inflation (aka. in today's money).

When we adjust for inflation, we see that the price of an Apple TV also peaked in 2017, when it cost $230 (in today's money), and was at its lowest in 2014 when it sold for $131.

The biggest drop in adjusted price happened in 2010, when the inflation-adjusted price dropped by $-71.02 (-33.32%). Even when adjusting for inflation, the biggest price increase of an Apple TV was still in 2015. However, the $50 jump actually felt like $62.97 to the consumer due, to the effect of inflation.

The average price of an Apple TV during this period of time, adjusting for inflation, has been $180, and the most current price of $129 is 28.26% below that average. Enjoy it while it lasts!

Conclusion

While an Apple TV is $-20 (-13.42%) cheaper today than it was in 2007, its price has been climing during the last decade, and it's actually $30 ($30.30%) more expensive today than in 2013. This is a rare case, as prices always tend to increase over time due to inflation. We can only hope the recen spike does not sustain and that prices go back on a downwards trend soon.

Now, as we've explained earlier, the absolute price of a product does not necessarily represent its affordability fairly. For that we have to look at its inflation adjusted price, or in other words, the price evolution in today's money.

When we look at the inflation-adjusted price of an Apple TV, we see that it has varied ± 27.48% over this period of time, and is currently 28.26% cheaper than the average over these years.

So the price of an Apple TV is really going down! You don't find the price of many things going down over a long period of time, so let's take this win and hope the trend continues!

FAQs about the price of an Apple TV in the the United States