Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro lines are official. The company debuted the latest models of its most important product on Tuesday at an event at its Cupertino, Calif., headquarters. And while the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus are certainly improvements over their predecessors, the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max are clearly the more impressive devices.
Packing more powerful Pro-level chips, customizable Action buttons, and lighter titanium cases, the iPhone 15 Pro line is designed to entice consumers to shell out more cash thanks to its unique set of features.
That’s been Apple’s go-to iPhone strategy for a while now. This year, however, it’s taking an even bigger step in trying to get customers pony up more for their top-of-the-line iPhones: raising the starting price of the iPhone 15 Pro Max an extra $100.
The Pro Max is the only iPhone getting a price increase this year. The iPhone 15 still costs $799 and the iPhone 15 Plus still rings up at $899. The iPhone 15 Pro costs $999. But the Pro Max will now set you back a whopping $1,199.
Apple was sure to point out that the $1,199 price point comes with the same amount of on-board storage as a similarly priced iPhone 14 Pro Max. Still, the fact remains you’re no longer able to purchase a new Pro Max for $1,099.
To get consumers to take the leap, Apple outfitted the iPhone 15 Pro Max with the same triple-camera setup as the iPhone 15 Pro, but added a 5x optical zoom. The 5x zoom is an important piece of the Pro Max’s appeal as it allows users to zoom in closer to their subjects from further distances without the kind of distortion you’d get using digital zoom.
It’s a powerful tool, and one that consumers who are likely to run out to buy a new iPhone when they hit store shelves will almost certainly be tempted to buy.
“Typically, we estimate 40%-50% of iPhones sold in the first couple of quarters post launch are either a Pro or Pro Max model,” UBS analyst David Vogt wrote in an investor note following Apple’s event.
Apple has previously offered a slightly better zoom on the iPhone 12 Pro Max than the iPhone 12 Pro, with the Pro Max offering 2.5x zoom and the Pro coming with a 2x zoom. But this is the first time that the Pro and Pro Max have such a dramatic difference in their camera capabilities.
If consumers do choose the higher priced iPhone 15 Pro Max, as BofA Global Research’s Wamsi Mohan pointed out in an investor note, it could “drive a better mix of high end phones.”
According to Morgan Stanley Research’s Erik Woodring, the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s higher price could help offset any potential issues that arise from the Chinese government’s reported ban on government workers using iPhones. China’s foreign ministry, however, says the company hasn’t instituted any such bans.
“Apple continues to synthetically drive iPhone [average selling price] ASPs higher, despite no change to like-for-like pricing, which helps to offset the risk to iPhone shipments in China that we now embed in our model,” Woodring wrote in an investor note following Apple’s event.
“The net impact of these changes is largely neutral, as the increase in iPhone ASPs more than offsets the reduction in units such that we now forecast FY24 iPhone revenue of $221B, up 9% [year-over-year],” he added.
Now Apple just has to make sure it can get enough of its latest devices into consumers’ hands when they go on sale Sept. 22.
Daniel Howley is the tech editor at Yahoo Finance. He's been covering the tech industry since 2011. You can follow him on Twitter @DanielHowley.
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