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It costs how much?

Yesterday was a big day for the Apple fanboys.

The latest and greatest iPhone dropped, the iPhone Duo.

This new phone is a foldable smartphone that boasts some great specifications and, as always, has some unique features that Apple hope will keep its existing customers loyal and attract defectors from the Android camp.

The internet lit up with countless videos yesterday with folk demonstrating, evaluating and rating this new hand-held device but one thing which seemed to be somewhat overlooked was the price.

I want to talk about the price of the iPhone Duo here in New Zealand.

As a foreword it's worth remembering that everything costs more today than it did even a few short months ago.

Power, fuel, food -- you name it, it's now more expensive than ever.

It should come as no suprise therefore, especially in light of the massive spike in RAM and GPU prices, that the Duo is also more expensive than previous iPhones.

However, hold onto your hat because I find this unbelievable...

If you want the top-tiered specification of Duo, it will cost you just shy of NZ$7,000. A princely $6,599 to be precice.

Excuse me whilst I pause to recover my senses.

Who the hell can justify spending more than the price of an okay used car on a smartphone?

This becomes even more unbelievable when you look at the anticipated life of such a device.

That used car might serve as your daily drive for another 10 years but the smartphone you buy today will be superceded within a couple of short years and at the very least, its value will depreciate at an eye-watering rate.

Unless you're someone who can claim back the cost and leverage the depreciation to reduce your huge tax bill, justifying such a huge spend on a phone is a pretty tall order, surely?

The iPhone Duo is almost $1K more than a similarly spec'd Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, that margin is what they call "The Apple Tax" I guess.

[Looks at his $29 bar-phone to see if it needs recharging after a week of use... nope, still got two bars]

No doubt there are going to be more than a handful of people who'll queue up to get their hands on one of these flagship phones and be very happy with their purchase but suffice to say that I won't be one of them. I also suspect that those who do buy these phones will be seen to get them out in public at every opportunity because -- well why not?

To be honest, would I have one of these phones if they were $29? Hell yes, of course I would. However, although they may be the best thing since sliced bread, there's no way I could get $7K worth of value out of one, even though I guess some people can.

Where to from here one must ask?

How long before flagship smartphones crack the $10K barrier?

What a funny world we live in today.

Carpe Diem folks!

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