Apple launches first £2,000 iPhone
Apple has released the first £2,000 iPhone, its most expensive smartphone ever, as the tech giant ramps up its prices following Donald Trump’s tariff blitz.
Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, unveiled a series of upgrades to the $3.5 trillion company’s flagship product, including a new iPhone 17 Pro Max handset which is priced as high as £1,999 and which features advanced processors and redesigned cameras.
At the launch on Tuesday, the tech giant also released a regular version of the new iPhone 17, which will start at £799, as well as a thinner and lighter iPhone Air.
While the iPhone 17 will cost the same at launch as last year’s standard iPhone 16 device, the tech giant tweaked its range, removing a cheaper version of its Pro handset and pushing consumers towards more expensive models.
This means its premium, and popular, device will start at £1,099 compared to £999 last year, although it comes with extra storage. Mr Cook called it “by far the most advanced iPhone ever.” The £1,999 Pro Max version includes 2TB of storage.
The price changes come as Apple is buffeted by Mr Trump’s trade war. Apple has been repeatedly threatened with tariffs and switched much of its manufacturing to India to avoid a crackdown on China.
It sees Apple follow rivals that have already released higher priced models, such as folding devices costing more than £2,000.
However, Ben Wood, an analyst at CCS Insight said Apple’s £2,000 flagship phone represented a “new milestone in smartphones.” He added: “Apple know people will pay for it.”
Mr Wood said the changes to the Pro models were “significant,” saying: “They are the most profitable part of Apple’s iPhone portfolio.” More than 40pc of Apple buyers in Europe and the US opt for its more expensive device, according to Mr Wood.
Apple generated more than half of its revenues from iPhones last year, equal to $201bn. While this was down from a peak in 2022, smartphones remain a crucial driver of profits at the tech giant.
The tech giant’s stock is down around 4pc this year amid uncertainty over tariffs and the wider economy.
It has pledged to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in the US in an attempt to appease Mr Trump.
Apple has also been battling doubts over its position in a race against rivals to develop artificial intelligence (AI) technology. Its stock fell 1.8pc on Tuesday.
AirPods ‘can live-translate foreign languages’
Alongside its new iPhones, the company revealed new Apple Watches and AirPods Pro headphones, which will allow buyers to translate conversations in real time by linking to its AI software.
The AirPods Pro 3, billed as “the ultimate audio experience,” feature live translation in English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish, while Italian, Japanese, Korean and a simplified version of Chinese should be on offer by the end of the year, according to Apple.
The aim is to make face-to-face translation easier through this a “hands-free capability (that) is powered by computational audio and Apple Intelligence to help people easily connect.” They have a starting price of £219.
It can work as a user speaks naturally with AirPods, according to the tech giant.
It adds: “To interact with someone who doesn’t have this hands-free capability, there’s an option to use iPhone as a horizontal display, showing the live transcription of what the user is saying in the other person’s preferred language.
“When the other person responds, their speech is translated into the user’s preferred language with AirPods.
“It’s even more useful for longer conversations when both users are wearing their own AirPods with Live Translation enabled from their iPhone.”
John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, claimed it takes “personal audio to the next level” as its features also include heart rate sensing during workouts, extended battery life, improved stability and fit plus active noise cancellation.