$599 still feels like they're setting whatever price they can get away with. It's been 20 years, why don't we have sub $500 new iPhones yet?

Taking inflation into account, a $599 iPhone in 2026 would have been $380 in 2007. Given that the actual launch price in 2007 was $499, that's a pretty hefty drop.

The first SE in 2016, which wasn’t very far from flagship at the time, was only $399. It was a steal.

It's a luxury brand. You don't sell cheap and risk losing the people that are happy to pay $1400 for a new iPhone.

At least they increased the base storage to 256GB

Last time I complained about the pricing of the iPhone, people pointed out that inflation included the prices wasn't to far of from the original iPhone.

Still, I don't care that the phones are faster, have larger screens, better camera, FaceID, AI, are thinner light and what have you. The iPhone design peaked in 2015, from there they could just have release the same phone year after year, making it cheaper and cheaper and I'd still be happy with it.

The prices are, in my mind insane, and I'll be buying used, but those are also overpriced.

The iPhone SE was only $400.

I'd argue that is worth the money if you're going to be using a phone every single day of their life. People will drop a few hundred on fancy shoes and wear them once a month, but they treat phones as cheap commodities.

Can mess up the price ladder!

Because they know people will pay it.

Global crazy tariffs, supply chain issues, and RAM and storage shortages due to AI hype betting. Also greed.