Facebook<\/p>\n
Tweet<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Email Link<\/p>\n \n Back in 2017, consumers balked at the idea of a $1,000 iPhone<\/a>. Now, some shoppers may end up paying double that if they choose Apple\u2019s latest top-of-the-line model.\n <\/p>\n \n The iPhone 17 Pro Max, the larger variant of Apple\u2019s Pro phone that launches today along with the iPhone 17, 17 Pro and iPhone Air,<\/a> costs $2,000 if buyers choose the version with two terabytes (2TB) of storage. Phones with extra storage typically cost more, but this is the first time Apple has released a 2TB option for the iPhone, making it one of the most expensive phones on the market.\n <\/p>\n \n The launch comes as Apple faces mounting pressure to boost iPhone sales amid concerns about its AI strategy<\/a>. Offering a more expensive price tier for the iPhone allows Apple to generate more revenue without selling more units during what has been, until recently, a rocky smartphone market. Some analysts say<\/a> consumers, tightening their purse strings because of inflation and tariffs, have been cutting back spending on smartphones.\n <\/p>\n \n Apple\u2019s new iPhones should modestly raise the product\u2019s average selling price, or the average price iPhones are sold at, said Angelo Zino, senior vice president at investment research firm CFRA. That\u2019s a metric analysts monitor as a sign of how lucrative the iPhone is for Apple.\n <\/p>\n \n But Zino largely expects the price boost to be driven by demand for the iPhone Air, which is $100 more expensive than last year\u2019s iPhone 16 Plus. The 2TB storage option is a means for Apple to differentiate its high-end phones from the competition, he says. Samsung\u2019s Galaxy S25 Ultra and Google\u2019s Pixel 10 Pro XL top out at 1TB of storage.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI think it\u2019s an interesting kind of offering, in the sense that I don\u2019t believe there\u2019s another phone out there that offers a two terabyte internal storage,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n \n The $2,000 iPhone may be Apple\u2019s most expensive phone yet, but it\u2019s not quite as pricey as foldable phones from Samsung<\/a> and Google with 1TB of storage. The 1TB version of Samsung\u2019s Galaxy Z Fold 7 costs $2,419.99<\/a>, while the Pixel 10 Pro Fold with the same amount of storage is priced at $2,149<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n Many buyers aren\u2019t likely to immediately face that price tag since carriers typically offer trade-in deals and payment plans to soften the blow. Fifty-five percent of phone shoppers in the United States \u2014 including those who purchase flip phones and basic mobile phones \u2014 buy their device through an installment plan, according to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.\n <\/p>\n \n And it\u2019s shoppers looking for less expensive phones, not premium devices like the iPhone 17 Pro Max, that are more likely to hold off on upgrading.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cEconomic uncertainty tends to compress demand at the lower end of the market, where price sensitivity is highest,\u201d the International Data Corporation\u2019s Nabila Popal wrote in a report earlier this month.\n <\/p>\n \n Apple\u2019s Pro iPhones tend to sell better than the standard entry-level models, particularly in the United States, according to CFRA\u2019s Zino and Josh Lowitz, an analyst for Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.\n <\/p>\n \n The increased storage may also be another sign that Apple is marketing its \u201cpro\u201d iPhones towards content creators and video editors. Large multimedia files typically take up more space, and the Pro models also include support for tools used to sync video across multiple cameras. Apple said it filmed its September launch event on an iPhone 17 Pro.\n <\/p>\n \n Lowitz noted that 2TB is considered a lot of storage even for a laptop. Those who purchase 2TB laptops typically work in fields that require saving a lot of large files locally, like graphic designers who need to preserve hundreds of different design versions for projects.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cOther than people with extraordinary video usage, two terabytes is just \u2026 it\u2019s a crazy amount of storage,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n
\n <\/a><\/p>\n