Buying an iPhone 7? Here's the cost of staying loyal to Apple

It’s that time of year again. The kids are back to school, the leaves are about to change and Apple is rolling out another iPhone. Cue the headlines about record pre-orders and news teams breathlessly chatting with Apple aficionados lining up at 4 a.m. to be the first to pick up the latest model. But before you ditch your current iPhone and put your order in for your iPhone 7 we ran the numbers to determine what it costs to be loyal to the most iconic tech company there is. For simplicity’s sake, we’re assuming this rabid hypothetical fan purchased every model unsubsidized by their mobile carrier and we also aren’t including the egregious upgrading fees they would be charged for doing so. Canadians who rapturously purchased every new model of the iPhone since its release in 2007 (the first one ever cost $499—$574 in today’s dollars—for just four gigabytes of memory!) have shelled out a whopping $8,837 by now—not including tax. Die-hard consumers can expect to pay $1,049 for the new iPhone 7 Plus to stay current with the latest top-of-the line phone, according to today’s event. Put another way, if you’ve bought every generation of the iPhone and intend to buy the new iPhone 7 you’ll have spent nearly $10,000 on Apple products. Buying the latest iPhone every time Apple announces one isn’t exactly the most financially savvy choice. However, if you’re smart with your tech lust, there are ways you can save yourself a bundle. One of the most effective ways to subsidize your purchase by either trading in or selling your older device. Currently, an iPhone 6S Plus in excellent condition will get you a $325 Apple gift card (likely about 30% of what you paid upfront for the device in the first place). You can use this to lower your iPhone 7 cost to around $700 or so. It’s possible that you’d get a much better deal than this if you haggle in-store, however. Another, riskier but more lucrative option is to sell your older device on Kijiji, Craigslist or VarageSale, where some iPhone 6S’s are going for anywhere between $500 and $900. Or, you could start saving now and wait a couple of years, for when the crowd goes wild for yet another iPhone iteration and the model being showcased today will be old news—and hopefully a lot more affordable.

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