Apple’s latest iPhone costs 0.04 BTC now, versus its price equivalent of 162 BTC in 2011. CoinGecko, the world’s largest independent cryptocurrency data aggregator, investigates the cost of an iPhone in Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) throughout the years, since 2011 and 2015 respectively.
The research examines historical price data of Bitcoin and Ether, taken at the daily close on iPhone launch dates for each iPhone generation over the years. These prices were then mapped to the USD launch price of each iPhone, to determine the equivalent amount of Bitcoin (BTC) or Ether (ETH) to purchase one.
Overall, the cost of an iPhone in Bitcoin or Ether have both plunged 99%, since 2011 for Bitcoin and the inception of Ether in 2015. As the price of 1 BTC in USD goes up, the amount of Bitcoin required to purchase an iPhone goes down.
An iPhone 4S which retailed at 649 USD is equivalent to 162.2 BTC when it was first released in 2011, with BTC trading at around 4 USD. Fast forward to 2022, the new iPhone 14 retails 23% higher at 799 USD, which equates to 0.042 BTC – reflecting a 99.9% drop in the amount of Bitcoin required to purchase an iPhone.
This can be explained by Bitcoin and Ether price hikes of 471,387% and 211,178% respectively, which outpace the 23% price increase of Apple iPhones, since the 2011 iPhone 4S model.
The cost of an iPhone 14 in Bitcoin now, however, is 138% higher than the cost of an iPhone 13 in Bitcoin, last year. This is explained by the sharp decline of Bitcoin prices by -73%, from 69,044 USD during its all-time high in 2022, to 18,859 USD on September 7 during the iPhone 14 release.
The newly released Apple iPhone 14, set to retail from 799 USD, is equivalent to the price of 0.042 BTC or
0.510 ETH on the date of the announcement.
The research examines historical price data of Bitcoin and Ether on CoinGecko and Mt.Gox, taken at the daily close on iPhone launch dates for each iPhone generation over the years, from October 14, 2011 to September 7, 2022. These prices were then mapped to the USD launch price of each iPhone, and then divided by its respective price data to conclude the equivalent amount of Bitcoin (BTC) or Ether (ETH) to purchase one.
On a more technical level – there is a slew of miners who want to continue mining the Proof of Work version of Ethereum, which will likely result in the formation of multiple, contentious hard forks post-Merge. It is therefore unsurprising that search terms like ‘Ethereum PoW’ and ‘ETH PoW’ trend higher in these last two months.”
iPhone prices are obtained from official Apple Inc. announcements, with its 16GB (iPhone 4S to 6S), 32GB (iPhone 7), and 64GB (iPhone 8 onwards) base models selected for the study.
About CoinGecko
Since 2014, CoinGecko has been a trusted source of information by millions of cryptocurrency investors. Its mission is to empower the cryptocurrency community with an in-depth, 360-degree overview of the market. CoinGecko delivers comprehensive information from thousands of data points such as prices, trading volumes, market capitalization, developer strength, community statistics, and more. It currently tracks over 13,000 crypto assets from over 500 exchanges worldwide. For more information about CoinGecko, visit www.coingecko.com.
