Apple is betting customers will pay $1,000 for its new iPhone

Apple will unveil its new headquarters on Tuesday, and new iPhones

(Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

published 11 September 2017

Apple is holding its annual fall product launch on Tuesday, but this year the company is expected to pull out all the stops because it is also publicly unveiling its new, spaceship-like headquarters and because it is the 10th anniversary of its first iPhone. The presentation will be in Apple Park's Steve Jobs Theater, and the marquee product is widely rumored to be a $999 iPhone X, an "anniversary" handset with a sharper OLED screen, no home button, and some sort of Apple magic that would presumably make you want to drop nearly $1,000 for a phone. Apple will also apparently unveil a new iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, a new Apple Watch with wireless capability, an upgraded Apple TV, and new iOS software that includes animated customized emojis and face-recognition phone unlocking.

Apple isn't the first one to introduce a high-priced phone — the new Samsung Note 8 sells for $930. Gene Munster, a longtime Apple analyst, says he expects about 20 percent of the iPhones sold over the next year to be the new $1,000 ones. "The iPhone has always had a way of defying the law of physics," he said, "and I think it will do it in spades with this higher priced one." Tech analyst Patrick Moorhead noted that iPhones can cost more than laptops now because many consumers use and desire them more. "People now value their phones more than any other device and, in some cases, even more than food and sex," Moorhead tells The Associated Press. You can learn more about the expected iPhone X in the AP report below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.