Áilín Quinlan? How much for a new, space-age, state-of-the-art iPhone?!
We’ve entirely lost the run of ourselves.
Apple, according to a google search, sells more than 636,000 iPhones every day. Or about 442 every minute. That’s seven iPhones sold every single second.
Unfortunately for me, I recently had to become one of those buyers.
There was simply no option.
I had to change my phone because the battery was severely degraded and kept running down. An iPhone 6, it was a bit over five years old, which everyone else seemed to view as virtually Jurassic. I repeatedly heard about how incredibly lucky I was that it had lasted so long.
Five years is long?
I checked the price of the latest iPhone.
An iPhone 17 Pro Max 2 TB (TB means it has a 2 terabyte internal storage chip, which is a significant amount of storage) is now nearly €2,500 in some stores, though Black Friday deals may cut that a little.
To enrage myself further, I read a review of the iPhone 17 Pro Max which kicks in at “only” around €1,500.
One would gather from this review that this phone, which, from what I can gather, was only launched last month, is of critical importance to the world.
The iPhone 17 Pro Max, raved the reviewer, boasted the “first new design in ages” an “upgraded camera,” “serious performance”, and a “longer battery life”, making this “a stand-out year.”
It has seen the destruction of Ukraine.
It has watched America go slowly insane.
It has brought an eye-watering increase in the number of homeless people on Ireland’s streets while property prices surge beyond all credibility.
This year has brought a terrifying amount of road accidents, injuries and fatalities.
The past 11 months has seen ever more of our beautiful coastal villages and towns go dark as locals are forced out by escalating property prices.
Houses are being snapped up by wealthy buyers from across the globe who come for a few weeks in the summer, leaving whole neighbourhoods empty for most of the year.
Our urban landscape has become crime-ridden, our news headlines daily scream about rapes, murders, unparalleled brutality, violent burglaries and horrific examples of road rage, as our society apparently spirals out of control, while a whole Pandora’s Box of horrors flew open around the world.
But here, don’t worry about any of that; 2025 is a real standout year because Apple brought out an upgrade.
The sheer effrontery of it.
Neither the iPhone 17 Pro Max nor its big sister, the 2T thing, were ever going to make it into my backpack.
Nor was the plain, unadorned, iPhone 17, which prices in at nearly €1,000.
Its little brother, the iPhone 16, nor any of its spawn would be going to my house.
Irate at the cost of these things, I considered investing in a much more reasonably-priced android phone.
Until someone a lot more tech-aware than me explained that, while I could get an android phone at a much more reasonable cost, the switch-over from an iPhone to an android would be significantly more complicated than just moving from an older iPhone to a newer one.
“Believe me, given the way you are, it’d melt your head,” he said, earnestly and, sweetly, very kindly.
True, I’m the first to admit that tech is not my bag.
Well, I don’t need the stress of that, I thought.
But that was only the start.
This price, I learned, included €20 in phone credit which I didn’t need, but which, according to the assistant in the phone shop, was mandatory.
So, on top of being gouged for the thing itself, I was forced to spend €20 more on credit I didn’t need.
The next unpleasant surprise came when I came home and opened the suspiciously slim-line box.
As I’ve recently learned to my chagrin, the dogs on the streets know this – but I didn’t. While the iPhone now comes with a lead, Apple no longer supplies a charging plug.
This apparently is because not supplying you with a new charging plug reduces electronic waste and supports Apple’s “environmental goals” and furthermore, they’ll explain, you probably don’t need a new one anyway because your old plug will work just fine with the new phone.
Oh yeah, I thought nastily, very convenient, Bill.
The old charging plug from my old iPhone 6, is not, of course, compatible with the new lead.
A new charging plug, available only as a box of two, now had to be ordered online, extra, at a cost of €19.80.
I also had to order a protective case plus a screen protector, which came to another €73.68.
It should be pointed out that the new phone’s box did not include any earbuds this time. I failed to invest in new earbuds.
In the end, and without earbuds, my new iPhone cost me the guts of €800 before I made a single call – and it wasn’t even the latest version.
My friend who has always used android phones, told me he’d recently purchased a Chinese one, the Ulefone, for half the price, at €400.
It came with a charging lead and a plug, and not one but two screen protectors. His phone didn’t need a case because, he explained, it is a “rugged” phone which means it is extremely robust.
He tried to comfort me by demonstrating how the switchover from old iPhone to new iPhone was far from complicated – you simply sit the old iPhone beside the new one and follow the instructions. Well, I watched while he did it. It turned out to be quite a bit more complicated than that. God knows what would have happened if I’d bought an Android phone.
My tech advisor added that the iPhone camera was better than his and iPhone technology generally was absolutely superb - space-age.
“But I don’t buy a phone to get a hi-tech camera,” I said sourly. “And I’m not in outer space living in a can and surviving on an oxygen bottle. I don’t need NASA-standard technology.”
Here’s my appeal to Apple.
Pile ’em high and sell ’em cheap, like Tesco founder Jack Cohen so famously said.
And be done with the high prices.
But here - we’re worse because we are gratefully buying into the madness.
It’s time to shout stop.
App?
