How long the average South African has to work to afford the new iPhone 15

Picodi.com has released its latest iPhone Index, which compared the launch prices of Apple’s new iPhone 15 with the average worker’s earnings in 64 countries – including South Africa.

The iPhone Index is an annual index of iPhone price-to-wage ratios, carried out by Picodi.com since 2018.

The iPhone Index 2023 was calculated based on the official prices of the iPhone 15 Pro (128 GB), presented either by the local branches of Apple or by authorised sellers.

The average wages were taken from the official statistics office’s websites and are up-to-date as of the release of the iPhone in each country. Monthly wages were divided by 21 – the average number of working days in a month.

According to Picodi.com, the iPhone Index 2023 was calculated based on the official prices of the iPhone 15 Pro (128 GB), presented either by the local branches of Apple or by authorised sellers.

In South Africa, the basic version of the flagship, iPhone 15 Pro (128 GB), was priced at R27,699 – R2,000 more than last year.

According to the latest StatsSA data, the average wage in South Africa is R25,304 gross monthly (or R21,564 net). This means that an average South African needs 27 man-days in order to purchase the iPhone 15 Pro, provided that all the money earned is saved for this purpose.

When compared to the number of days required in previous years, there is a clear indication of how the weakening of the rand has impacted the number of days required to work in order to afford the new iPhone.

During periods when the rand was stronger against the USD (2019-2021), the average formally employed non-agricultural worker only required 17.6 days of work (2019), 25.5 (2020), and 22.4 (2021) to afford the latest iPhone.

Interestingly, although the rand was stronger in 2018, that year remains an outlier, as the iPhone XS – the equivalent of a “Pro” iPhone for that year – was extremely expensive compared to its predecessors and successors.

Globally, the index showed that Switzerland is the leader in the ranking. The average Swiss needs only 4.2 man-days in order to afford the new iPhone 15, while the average American needs 5.3 days and an average Qatari requires 5.8 days.

On the other end of the spectrum, the worst result was noted in Türkiye, where the newest iPhone requires 123.7 days of work. The second and third worst place in this ranking belongs to Ukraine and the Philippines – which required 81.5 and 79.5 man-days, respectively.

The chart below from Picodi shows how many workdays the average employee would have to save to buy the iPhone 15 Pro in 64 countries.

Read: iPhone 15 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 launches in South Africa – pricing