Apple iPhone 16 went on sale on September 20. Poland’s famous price comparison website also released the latest statistics, estimating the ability of the average salary in fifty countries to purchase this new phone. The country with the highest purchasing power is Switzerland, which only needs 4 days of work to buy a new iPhone. The country with the poorest purchasing power is Turkey, which needs 72.9 days of work to be able to buy it.
KRAKOW, POLAND (Merxwire) – Apple iPhone 16 was launched on September 20. The official selling price in Taiwan ranges from NT$29,900 to NT$58,900, maintaining the price of a noble mobile phone. The famous Polish price comparison website “Picodi” also released the latest statistics, using the price of the 128GB iPhone 16 Pro to estimate the ability of the average salary in various countries to purchase this new phone. Among the 50 countries, Switzerland has the highest purchasing power. They only take 4 days of work to buy a new iPhone. Turkey has the worst purchasing power. They have to take 72.9 days of work, which means it takes more than two months’ salary to buy it.
Starting in 2018, Picodi will conduct an Apple mobile phone purchasing power survey every year to understand the relationship between the price of a new iPhone and the average wage in each country, and to infer the iPhone purchasing power in each country. The 2024 test is based on the 128GB iPhone 16 Pro mobile phone, based on the US price of $999, and then divides the official average salary provided by each country by the number of working days per month (21 days), or divides it by the number of weeks first, and then calculates the daily wages. Divide the selling price by the daily salary to get the working days required to buy an iPhone.
Data shows that the country with the highest iPhone purchasing power in 2024 is Switzerland, and it only takes 4 days of work to purchase it. In the United States, it takes an average of 5.1 days to be able to make a purchase. Australia and Singapore both need to work 5.7 days to buy a new iPhone and are tied for third place. The fifth place is Luxembourg with 6.1 days, the sixth place is Denmark with 6.7 days, the seventh to tenth places are the United Arab Emirates with 7.3 days, Canada with 7.6 days, Norway with 7.7 days, and New Zealand with 7.8 days. The countries ranked 11th to 20th, except for Puerto Rico and South Korea, are all European countries, and they are all able to purchase new Apple iPhones within 10 working days.
On the other hand, countries with lower purchasing power, which means they need longer working days to afford the new iPhone, are ranked first in Turkey, which requires 72.9 days of working wages to afford the 128GB iPhone 16 Pro. The second is the Philippines, which requires 68.8 days of work to afford a new iPhone. Brazil ranked third with 68.6 days. The fourth to tenth places are Vietnam with 53.1 days, India with 47.6 days, Thailand with 42.3 days, Mexico with 40.3 days, Chile with 34.1 days, Montenegro with 30.8 days, and Greece with 26.6 days. The countries ranked at the bottom 10 all need 1 to 2 months of working days before they can afford to purchase a new one.
In this list, Taiwan ranks 31st, requiring working 18.3 days to purchase a new Apple iPhone, ranking in the middle among Asian countries, followed by Poland in southeastern Europe. Asian countries with stronger purchasing power include Singapore at fifth with 5.7 days, South Korea at 17th with 9.7 days, Hong Kong at 22nd with 10.4 days, and Japan at 23rd with 12.4 days. Asian countries ranking after Taiwan include China with 24.7 days, Malaysia with 25.3 days, and the aforementioned Vietnam, India, and Thailand.
Looking at Europe, there are obvious economic differences. European countries with strong purchasing power include Switzerland, Luxembourg, and the Nordic countries of Denmark and Norway in the top 10, as well as Ireland, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, France and Austria in the top 20, most of which are concentrated in the northwest. They could buy new Apple iPhones in less than ten days of work. In contrast, Southeast European countries such as Hungary and Slovakia need to work for 22.7 days and 23.8 days before they can afford to buy. Greece, which is also a member of the European Union, needs 26.6 days. There is an obvious imbalance.
With the popularity of smartphones, global smartphone shipments have shown a downward trend. However, the fan enthusiasm caused by Apple still makes Apple fans flock to it every time it launches a new phone and invest a lot of money to buy it. It sits firmly at 52% No. 1 in market share. Although it is slightly limited to using a single product to comment on people’s purchasing power, it can also be used to see the microcosm of each country’s economy. This is also an issue behind the numbers that can be further discussed.