The new iPhones have arrived in Israel (through parallel import) and Office Depot has published a price list for the latest smartphone models, at its Eilat store, where VAT is not charged. Even though the prices are without VAT, the new smartphones will be beyond the pockets of most Israelis.
The iPhone Xs with a 64 giga memory will cost NIS 6,000; the iPhone Xs with a 256 giga memory will cost NIS 6,950 and the iPhone Xs with a 512 giga memory will cost NIS 8,000.
The larger screen iPhone Xs Max will cost NIS 7,064 (64 giga), NIS 7,800 (256 giga) and a whopping NIS 9,300 (512 giga) - the highest price ever charged for an iPhone in Israel.
Office Depot VP trade and marketing Haim Goldstein, stresses that prices in Eilat do not include VAT and that the Eilat store was the first to receive the new models, which are already available for purchase. "We brought the phones to Israel before anybody else. We are currently bringing them into our stores nationwide and by Sunday many other branches around Israel will have them."
When Office Depot uploaded information to its website this morning, it quoted higher prices that those above - NIS 6,650 for the 64 giga iPhone Xs, and NIS 7,530 for the iPhone Xs MAX 64 giga. Goldstein claims this was the result of an error in calculating the prices, which were revised downwards.
Even so these prices are far more expensive than in the US where iPhones are not costing much more than the previous series - about $1,000 (NIS 3,600) for the 64 giga iPhone compared with NIS 6,000 in Office Depot and NIS 1,150 for the 256 giga version. The iPhone Xs Maxs cost $1,100/1,250 and $1,450 in the US.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 27, 2018
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