Two years ago I wrote this article on how you can always have the newest iPhone for a reasonable price. I repeated the trick this week and it still works. So here is an update.
Apple launched a new iPhone again. Like always, everybody had some comments about is. For example about the pricing.
I’ll explain why I think the price is not that high.
Subscriptions
It seems interesting to take a subscription with your network provider. Because buying a device yourself is quite expensive. I bought the iPhone XR for €859.
Nevertheless, buying a device yourself is cheaper. A SIM only will cost you around €10 a month. A subscription with device is nothing less than a disguised loan that costs you around €50 a month.
This goes with a two years contract. So that means €1.200 in total. A SIM only will cost you €240 in two years, plus the device that makes €859 + €240 = €1.099.
Resale value
So you should definitely choose for SIM only to save €100 in the first place. Furthermore, Apple products have an incredible high resale value.
That means if you don’t wait too long to sell it. I chose to sell each device after two years. Then they are still in good condition and will still have enough value.
I can sell my iPhone 7 right now for €300 on eBay. So I have to pay €859 – €300 = €559 for a new one. €559 / 2 = about €280 a year. That’s €25 a month, half of the price that you pay when you have a subscription with “device included”.
€25 a month is less than €1 per day. I don’t think that’s expensive for this type of device that I use 3 hours a day.