Here Are the World’s Most Expensive Places to Buy an iPhone
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The iPhone may not be the cheapest smartphone you can buy — and in some parts of the world, the price of Apple’s smartphone skyrockets far above what it costs in the U.S. If you’re curious, a new report by the Deutsche Bank shows just how much an iPhone will run you in certain countries.
Deutsche Bank’s “Mapping the World’s Prices” is an annual report put together and published by financial strategist Jim Reid, and for years it has included the price of an iPhone in 33 countries. The 2017 version of the report shows that Brazil has been overtaken by Turkey as the most expensive place to buy an iPhone. This year, Brazil was in second place, followed by Russia, Greece and Poland in that order.
“If you find yourself on holiday in Turkey, Brazil, Russia or Greece try to avoid the Apple store as iPhones are 25 to 50 percent more expensive than in the U.S. — still the cheapest place to buy,” Reid wrote in the report. “Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Canada only see a small premium on U.S. prices.”
That extra premium in high-cost countries pushes the iPhone’s prices into quadruple digits. In Turkey, for example, the average price for an Apple flagship is $1,200 — compared to around $815 in both the U.S. and Japan. A combination of factors, including political instability and a strengthening U.S. dollar against the Lira, contributes to the staggering price in Turkey, according to Business Insider.
That high price isn’t the only obstacle in obtaining an iPhone in the country, however. According to current exchange rates, $1,200 equates to about 4,270 Turkish Liras. The monthly minimum wage in Turkey has recently been raised to 1,777.50 liras (about $503), Bloomberg reports. That means that a Turkish citizen earning that wage would have to save up nearly three month’s salary to buy an Apple flagship.
Curious where other countries rank? Take a look at the list below. The prices shown reflect a 128GB iPhone 7, and were sourced from Apple’s website and local online retailers.
