The iPhone 14 price did go up — Apple just didn’t tell you about it

The iPhone 14 price hike is real across the UK and EU, as we’re seeing increases of up to £150 and €200 — making the standard iPhones and iPhone 14 Pro models vastly more expensive than they are in the US.

I get that inflation is difficult right now. European currency values are dipping and Apple has a relative hatred towards VAT at times, but surely a $3 trillion business doesn’t need to overcharge for their devices quite this significantly.

What’s the damage?

Remember when we were reporting a potential price increase for the iPhone 14 Pro? That $100 increase drew out a lot of anger, which then led to analysts claiming it won’t be as bad as we feared — eventually leading to Apple ditching it entirely and just charging the same price for the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro models.

Instead, the company has increased prices in Europe without saying a word. For context, that $999 price for the iPhone 14 Pro translates to roughly £870 GBP or €1,000. Let’s see how far the prices have gone up.

That means the standard iPhone models are going up by £70 and €100 respectively, whereas the Pro models are rising by an eye-watering £150 and that same €100 jump in Europe. When converting currencies to USD, people across Europe are expected to spend up to 30% more than US customers.

Outlook

We’ve talked about flagship phones with flagship pricing being a difficult purchase in the midst of a cost of living crisis before, but Apple doesn’t seem to have gotten the message.

The first question is obvious: why did the company increase the prices so dramatically? I’ve reached out to Apple for comment and will update this piece once I hear back.

But I would have hoped for some greater sensitivity from the company and its bottom line at a time like this. We all love new tech, especially new iPhones, but many of us can’t bear the brunt of this price hike. Maybe it's more worthwhile waiting for the iPhone 15 and waiting for this inflation storm to pass over.