Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) launched a revamped iPhone 6 last night at the Flint Centre for the Performing Arts in Cupertino, the same venue where Steve Jobs unveiled the first Apple Macintosh in 1984.
CEO Tim Cook unveiled two versions of Apple's spearhead smartphone, the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus.
The devices are all that we expected from Apple, and the new iPhone 6 smartpohones will be available in the UAE within this month, prices of the current iteration are sinking, and sinking fast.
Read: Etisalat to offer iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus on Sept 26; for free?
“This usually happens as a new iPhone is unveiled,” says a mobile phones retailer in Dubai’s Deira district. “It isn’t so much that Apple drops it pricing, but the retailers get eager to push out stocks of the previous version to make room for the newer device,” he told this website.
This indeed seems to be true. While the iPhone 5s was, until yesterday, listed on Apple’s online store in UAE for Dh2,599 (16GB), and the iPhone 5c starting at Dh2,199 (16GB), it is today officially cheaper by up to Dh500. The iPhone 5s is now available on Apple's UAE Store for Dh2,199 and the iPhone 5c can be had for a bargain Dh1,699 as of today.
With the official price drop, the 'older' Apple smartphones are now being offered at increasingly lower prices across other online and offline retailers.
The price of the 16GB iPhone 5s at major retail stores across the country, where one can buy the device off-the-shelf, averaged about Dh2,349, or Dh250 cheaper than the official price until yesterday, while the lower priced iPhone 5c is declining at an even steeper clip.
In what was until yesterday the cheapest going rate, Dubai-based retailer Sharaf DG was offering the iPhone 5c for as little as Dh1,699 in a marketplace deal . That was a decline of Dh500 over the listed price on Apple’s own online UAE store.
The same retailer also has an ‘exclusive’ online offer on the in-demand gold iPhone 5s, and is offering the 16GB variant of the smartphone for Dh2,349.
Carrefour, one of the country’s largest retailers, is offering the iPhone 5s for Dh2,399, and this is the same price at which other retailers including Sharaf DG are offering the smartphone.
Online retailer Souq.com is retailing the 16GB version of the iPhone 5s for Dh2,219, or Dh380 cheaper than the official suggested retail price, while AlShop.com is offering the same starting Dh2,249.
Expect prices of the iPhone 5s and the 5c to sink further as and when the new iPhone 6 becomes available here in the UAE.
There is a marked interest in new Apple iPhones from residents in the UAE, which has one of the densest rate of smartphone ownership in the world. Like in the past, UAE retailers will try every trick in the trade to make the new device available here in the country as soon as they can to satisfy that demand.
There is indeed a section of residents who don’t mind paying a premium over the official price to be among the first ones to flaunt a new iPhone. That naturally depresses the demand – and prices – of the previous iteration of the iPhone.
Other online retailers including LetsTango.com are offering the iPhone 5s starting Dh2,399.
Nevertheless, the price of Apple’s iPhone 5s and 5c held remarkably stable even after the launch of a slew of smartphones from competing brands such as Samsung Galaxy S5, HTC One (M8), and Sony Xperia Z3, etc.
Now, however, with the launch of the new iPhone 6, sales and prices of the iPhone 5 have finally begun showing weakness.
In fact, there are now plenty of other online retailers in the UAE, especially Dubai, offering the 16GB iPhone 5c at a discount to the iStore’s official suggested retail price of Dh2,199.
Shafqa.com is retailing the iPhone 5s starting Dh2,269 and the iPhone 5c starting Dh1,779. Silver Vision Trading is offering it for Dh2,299 while a number of other retailers are offering it for Dh2,399, including Arush.