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Consumer Electronics

An iPhone 6s for $949

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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Most of the purchase plans for the new Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus are those that cost a few dollars a month. However there is one that most of us would never need at the price of $949 for an unlocked iPhone 6s. This smartphone has 128 GB of storage. This price does show that Apple understands the 1% of high end users is important.

Based on promotions for the iPhone 6s customers by Apple and its carrier partners, almost anyone can afford the base version of the phone. Most analysis by industry experts show that Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) has the most aggressive plan. It has a 22-month program for customers with “good credit.” This allows the customer to get the iPhone 6s with 16 GB of storage for $0, and then $15 a month to pay off the price of the phone. There is a catch. The buyer has to take a Sprint wireless plan for at least $60 for the same term.

As price wars among the carriers escalate, and Apple offers its own “payment over time” iPhone, the price point will drop. That drop may trigger losses for the carriers, desperate to keep market share.

The 1% who want the $949 iPhone 6s could endlessly shop carriers for the best fees. The process has to be complex, but the owner gets his freedom to choose any carrier.

ALSO READ: Apple Short Interest Soars

Apple still has a marketing challenge to make customers buy an upgrade they may not really need (even if it is cheap), regardless of pricing of the iPhone 6s sold via Apple store or carrier store. It may not be enough of a change from the iPhone 6 for people to believe that it is worth the money. Apple has hedged it bets, bringing the cost of entry for the iPhone 6s down to nearly nothing. However, for the consumer with the skill to pit carrier against carrier, $949 may be cheap.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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