Your iPhone is More Expensive Than You Think

How much do you think it costs to own an iPhone? When you decide to buy a new phone, are you only thinking about the purchase price of the phone?

When the original iPhone came out in 2008, it was priced at $499. I remember laughing at that, thinking “who would be dumb enough to waste that much money on a phone?” Now here we are, 11 years later, and the average cost of a new smartphone in the US is $567, with most people upgrading their phone every 32 months. The newest iPhones always have models priced over $1000, too. 

On top of all of that, network providers have done away with two-year contracts, and everyone celebrated it. You know what two year contracts did really well? They made smartphones affordable- you got a huge discount on a new phone every two years. Now, you either pay full price up front or you pay a monthly fee to essentially lease your phone. 

Between the skyrocketing cost of the phones themselves and the monthly bill for cell phone service, you’ll spend $75,000 on your phone over the course of your life. And that’s just based on the average costs; if you’re buying the top model iPhones, it’ll be more than that.

That, folks, is a lot of money. There may not be much of a choice here; smart phones and data plans have become necessities in modern life. Still, it’s hard not to wonder what else we could use that $75k for.