Will iPhone 13 be too expensive?

Apple is holding its next online product unveiling on 15th September (3am AEST), where it is expected to reveal the iPhone 13 family.

There's always widespread speculation before every iPhone launch about what features and innovations Apple will bring to its new handsets, and how much we might have to pay for the privilege of using them. And in light of coronavirus putting people into tighter financial positions, we surveyed 1000 Aussie adults to get a sense of Australia's current interest in iPhones and our price sensitivity towards getting a new handset.

As you may have suspected, it's all about price

The prices of new flagship phones are rarely ever cheaper than the previous year's model, so going off the prices of last year's iPhone 12 models we can expect the iPhone 13 will start at a minimum of $1,349. It will probably be higher. An iPhone 13 mini should start from at least $1,199 while iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max models would start from minimum $1,699 and could easily reach up to $2,500 and beyond.

However, our survey shows that these conservative starting price points are higher than most Australians say they're willing to pay for a new phone.

According to our survey (which ran late August 2021), 50% of Australians say $1,000 is too much to spend on a new phone. 

This puts the entire current iPhone 12 range out of reach for this group, and almost certainly the entire iPhone 13 range as well. This high percentage of people not willing to pay over $1,000 for a new phone has remained consistent with when we ran the same survey last year ahead of the iPhone 12 launch.

The survey also suggested that buying the more expensive higher end iPhones (Pro Max or larger storage Pro models) would really hurt many Australians' finances, with over half (56%) saying paying $2,000 for a phone would put them into financial difficulty. 

Bearing this response in mind we would expect the majority of sales for the new iPhone 13 range to be for one of the standard iPhone 13 models rather than the top end variants.

In reality we still expect sales of the iPhone 13 to be strong when they become available. Australia loves iPhones. One in every two Australians uses one and despite the majority of people being unwilling to pay over $1,000-$1,500 for a phone, history shows that Australians have always gone out and bought new iPhones even when the research has suggested we're unwilling to pay the high price points. 

Australia's current interest in iPhones is certainly high, with 57% of us interested in getting an iPhone. That said, there is a trend towards people buying older iPhone variants once new models launch, thanks to the discounts that we’ve seen being made available when new iPhones come onto the market. Our survey suggests we’ll see this trend continue with ⅓ (31%) of people interested in getting a new iPhone opting for slightly older models rather than the newest and most expensive devices. 

In terms of value for money we think this is a great approach to owning an iPhone. Last year’s iPhone is still a really great phone, and we are seeing more and more great discounts become available on slightly older iPhones. Current iPhone owners that want to trade up to an iPhone 13 may be able to trade-in their current model for a discount. Or alternatively people could simply sell their current handset to help pay for a new iPhone 13. iPhones hold strong residual value and selling a more recent model could go a long way towards the price of a new iPhone 13.

One other interesting finding from the survey is that 5G technology is not yet a deciding factor for the majority of people when choosing a new phone. Despite the hype and interest in 5G technology only 42% consider it to be a reason for choosing a phone. This finding is reflected in other data we see from the WhistleOut site with lots of people researching 5G-capable phones on plans that don’t offer access to a 5G network, suggesting that 5G is still a ‘nice-to-have’ option rather than an essential need.

See our master guide for a comprehensive look at everything you need to know about iPhone 13.