No huge surprises from Apple’s “Glowtime” event… unless Apple actually selling its new iPhone 16 lines for less than an iPhone 15 would have cost yesterday counts as a surprise. Which I kinda think does…
Most of what was predicted for Apple’s just-concluded “Glowtime” event was pretty much on the money, with the Cupertino tech giant taking the wraps off the Apple iPhone 16 family complete with Action Buttons across the range and a new camera control haptic feedback mechanism, new slightly larger Apple Watches and updated AirPods 4 devices. Apple also touted new colours for the Apple Watch Ultra 2 — but not actually new hardware, it seems — as well as the upcoming ability for AirPods Pro 2 to work as hearing aids, which is kind of neat.
Also read:
Apple iPhone 16 Glowtime Collaborative BTTR/AlexReviewsTech/Pickr Live Blog!
Let’s be honest here, everything that Apple announced this morning will be all over the tech sites that you regularly read (and that’s fine), but what really caught my attention was the pricing for Apple’s updated iPhone lines.
As you might expect with a new generation coming in, older generations go by the wayside, so the iPhone 13 no longer exists as an option, and likewise last year’s iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max lines are no longer officially sold by Apple. That’s to be expected, as are price cuts to the iPhone 15/Plus and iPhone 14/Plus lines.
What’s really surprising however is that the new iPhone 16/Plus and iPhone 16 Pro/Pro Max lines are actually a little cheaper than last year’s models were just yesterday, which isn’t the trend we’ve seen from other smartphone manufacturers. It’s not often that Apple presents as the “lower cost” option, now is it?
To give this some context, here’s the Australian pricing for Apple’s iPhone lineups as of yesterday, as per Apple’s web site at the time:
So now that the local pricing -- availability for everything from the 20th of September in Australia, by the way, with pre-orders from 10pm on Friday the 13th -- is available, what does the pricing picture look like?
So, $100 cheaper for the iPhone 16/Plus and iPhone 16 Pro models, though only $50 less for the iPhone 16 Pro Max model if that's more to your taste. The other models predictably get a price cut so that Apple can present a range of price options, though there's some rather silly buys there; it would be inadvisable for example to drop $1799 on an iPhone 14 Plus 512GB when the same money could buy you either the iPhone 16 Pro 128GB or iPhone 16 Plus 256GB variants, for example.
The only model not to see any price action? The now very long in the tooth iPhone SE. Yes, it's Apple's "cheapest" iPhone, but it could really use with an update any day now, if anyone in Cupertino is listening...
Additional observation: Once again, we're getting slightly lesser iPhones -- the US models of the iPhone 16 Pro/Pro Max phones are mmWave 5G compatible, but the Australian ones are not. Maybe that's why they're slightly cheaper?