On the 12th of September, Apple Inc. introduced their latest products, including the most expensive smartphone in the company’s history—iPhone XS Max.
The Analysis Department of Picodi decided to check how many days South Africans and citizens from other countries have to work to afford the novelty from Apple. The results of the research are based on iPhone XS 64Gb prices in various countries and official statistic data about average wages in each of them.
You could suppose that the best average wage/price ratio would be in the US—the most important market of Apple. However, it turns out that the ones who would be able to afford Apple’s newest product the fastest are people in the developed countries and the UAE. For example, an average Swiss would have to work 5.1 days, the citizens of Luxembourg—less than 7 days, and Norwegians—7 and a half day. Among the countries where you have to work the least amount of days are also the United Arab Emirates—money earned for 7.6 days are enough to buy the newest iPhone. In the US, on the other hand, one would have to work 8.4 days.
In Kenya, on the other hand, the average net salary amounts to 44,135 KES (according to Kenya National Bureau of Statistics) and the iPhone XS costs 125,000 KES. This means that an average Kenyan will have to work almost 60 days to afford the new Apple device. It’s double the time South Africans need.
It’s already known that in South Africa the latest iPhone will cost R22,000 which is about Ksh 160,523. Under the assumption that average gross wage in South Africa—according to data from Statistics South Africa—amounts to R19 858 per month, it would take 26.9 days for an average South African to earn enough to buy the new iPhone. Of course, assuming that the other living costs would be zero.
The longest time to afford the iPhone XS would have to work the Filipinos—over 156 days. It won’t be so easy also in Pakistan—with the local earnings and prices an average Pakistani would have to work over 88 days.
This analysis was by Picodi based on the official prices of iPhone XS 64 GB in 42 countries and publicly available data about average wages in those countries for the year 2017 or the last period accessible.
