The newly launched iPhone 16 series is priced lower than its predecessor, the iPhone 15, in South Africa, thanks to the strengthening of the South African rand against the US dollar. The story would have been similar in Ghana if the cedi had not continued to depreciate.
According to TechCentral, the rand’s recent improvement has led to a noticeable reduction in launch prices for the latest iPhones compared to the previous year’s models. As of September 13, 2023, the rand was trading at R18.80 per US dollar. By the time of writing, the rate had improved to R17.76 per dollar, a 5.9% gain in value. On the contrary the cedi has depreciated by close to 25% this year after depreciating by 27.8% at the end of December 2023.
The base model iPhone 16, with 128GB of storage, is priced at R20,999, (GH¢18,538.76) marking a 4.5% drop from the iPhone 15’s launch price. The 256GB and 512GB models are available at R23,999 (GH¢21,187.28) and R28,999 (GH¢25,601.48), reflecting price cuts of 4% and 4.8%, respectively.
The highest-specced iPhone 16 Pro Max, with 1TB of storage, now costs R39,999 (GH¢35,312.72), a 5.6% decrease from the previous model. In addition to the iPhone 16 series, the new Apple Watch Series 10 will also be available in South Africa starting September 20, with prices starting at R9,899 (GH¢8,739.23) for the Wi-Fi-only model and R12,399 (GH¢10,946.33) for the eSIM-enabled version.
