Apple has now revealed the pricing for an off contract SIM free iPhone 5 in various European countries and if you thought last year’s prices were expensive this year will see those costs go up again. Last year Apple sold the iPhone 4S 16GB version in the UK for £499.00, this year, the iPhone 5 16GB model will be sold for £529.00; that’s an increase of around 6%. It's not all bad news as the price increase only appears to affect the iPhone 5 16GB model as the 32GB and 64GB models both hold the same price as last year. The story is the same in France and Germany too, where the 16GB iPhone 5 starts at €679.00, €50 more than last year.
United Kingdom
iPhone 5 16GB £ 529.00
iPhone 5 32GB £ 599.00
iPhone 5 64GB £ 699.00
France and Germany
iPhone 5 16GB € 679.00
iPhone 5 32GB € 739.00 (tbc)
iPhone 5 64GB € 849.00 (tbc)
Normally when prices increase Apple claims it is down to exchange rates but as this increase only seems to be for the 16GB model, we can only assume it is a manufacturing cost that can be made up on the higher capacity models. If you see the unlocked device prices revealed in your country, let us know if they have increased and which models have gone up in price. So far it seems that it is just the iPhone 5 16GB model that has suffered the increase.
