Apple’s Tim Cook explains expensive prices of iPhone XS and XS Max

Stephen Lam | Reuters

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, speaks on stage for the start of an Apple Inc product launch event at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, California, September 12, 2018. 

Apple CEO Tim Cook defended the highest-priced new iPhones, telling ABC’s “Good Morning America” that “it’s the most advanced iPhone we’ve ever done” and replaces every other gadget consumers might need.

“The phone has replaced your digital camera. You don’t have a separate one anymore. It’s replaced your video camera. It’s replaced your music player. It’s replaced all of these different devices,” Cook said. “And so arguably the product is really important. And we’ve found that people want to have the most innovative product available and with that, it’s not cheap to do.”

Apple’s newest line of iPhones — the iPhone XR, XS and XS Max — cost as much as $1,449 for the most expensive model. That’s more than some Mac computers.

“The way most people pay for these, as it turns out, is they do a deal with a carrier and they pay so much per month. So if you look at even the phone that’s priced over $1,000, most people pay about $30 a month for it. So it’s about $1 a day,” Cook said.

Apple introduced a more affordable iPhone X model, the XR, starting at $749. It also dropped the starting price of the iPhone 7 to $449, and of the iPhone 8 to $599.