- You'll be able to buy the new iPhone 14 in South Africa from 23 September, Apple says.
- But it has yet to say how much those will cost, in rand terms.
- We do know what you'll pay for an iPhone 13: less than you would have last week.
- But not all that much less.
Apple's new iPhone 14 will be available from 23 September, iStore South Africa announced on Thursday, putting South Africa in the second wave of availability for the new devices.
In more than 40 other countries, including the US, UK, Australia, parts of Western Europe, China, and Japan, the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus will be available from 16 September, Apple said this week.
Among the countries that have to wait an extra week, alongside South Africa, are Turkey and Malaysia.
In the United States, the standard iPhone 14 will cost $799 – the equivalent of R14,000 – and the iPhone Plus will cost $100 more, or not much under R16,000.
iStore and other retailers have not said what they will charge in South Africa, where Apple devices can carry a big premium over the direct currency-converted price charged in the US.
But we do know what you'll pay for its predecessor, the iPhone 13: a little less than you would have last week, but not as much less as you might have expected.
The top-end iPhone 13 Pro Max 1TB was worth an eye-watering R35,299 when it was the latest and greatest iOS device you could buy, back in 2021, before significant inflation in the year since. Right now, you can pay R38,599 if you buy it directly in South Africa, and it is not alone in charging that much.
But go to a major retailer with stock that needs to go, and you can have it for R33,499, a technical discount of some 13%, or R5,000.