Price evolution of an iPhone in the United States

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

Introduced in 2007 by Steve Jobs, the iPhone is arguably one of the most groundbreaking devices ever created. It not only transformed the mobile phone landscape, but also how we communicate, consume information, spend our free time and virtually everything else we humans, living in modern society, do.

The iPhone also created the ecosystem for Apps to develop, creating a multi-billion dollar industry on top of the sales that this device brings in by itself.

Today the iPhone is, without a doubt, Apple’s flagship product, and it accounts for a significant portion of the company’s earnings.

The prices considered in this article are for the cheapest option of the regular iPhone at any given point in time. For example, the cheapest iPhone, 6, 7, 8, X… All these devices also came in higher prices when you added more memory, but those are not considered here. Also not considered are Pro version, Plus versions, Mini, XR, etc.

Price evolution of an iPhone

The average price of an iPhone between 2007 and 2023 was $705, with the lowest price being $499 in 2007 and the highest $999 in 2018 (at least within the timeframe we have data for).

Absolute price of an iPhone per year

Our data source for this article was: Venture Beat .

The absolute price of an iPhone in the the United States has gone from $499 in 2007 to $799 in 2023. That's an absolute increase of $300, or 60.12% 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 iPhone actually decreased year over year 1 times, in 2020.

The biggest absolute price decrease in the price of an iPhone was in 2020, when the price dropped by $-300, or -30.03%. The biggest price increase was $300, or 42.92% in 2018.

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

Inflation-adjusted price of an iPhone 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 iPhone 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 iPhone also peaked in 2018, when it cost $1,255 (in today's money), and was at its lowest in 2007 when it sold for $762.

The biggest drop in adjusted price happened in 2020, when the inflation-adjusted price dropped by $-383 (-31.27%). Even when adjusting for inflation, the biggest price increase of an iPhone was still in 2018. However, the $300 jump actually felt like $358 to the consumer due, to the effect of inflation.

The average price of an iPhone during this period of time, adjusting for inflation, has been $912, and the most current price of $799 is 12.43% below that average. Enjoy it while it lasts!

Conclusion

The absolute price of an iPhone has increased by $150 ($23.11%) in the last decade, and $300 (60.12%) since 2007. But that comes as no surprise, as prices always tend to increase over time due to inflation.

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 iPhone, we see that it has varied ± 27.02% over this period of time, and is currently 12.43% cheaper than the average over these years.

Even when adjusting prices for inflation, an iPhone prices are still higher in 2023 than they were in 2007. Although, considering the complexity of the economy, that price increase is not huge.

We can consider that the price of an iPhone has remained maily stable over this period of time. It sure had some ups and downs, like in 2018 and 2020, but considering the magnitude and complexity of the global economy its price has mainly kept up with inflation.

FAQs about the price of an iPhone in the the United States