Tech

Tim Cook uses fuzzy math to justify iPhones’ hefty pricetag

Tim Cook should try the calculator on his new iPhone.

The Apple CEO went on “Good Morning America” Tuesday to defend the new iPhones’ high price tags, insisting that you’ll end up paying around a dollar a day for a model priced at $1,000.

“The way most people pay for these, as it turns out, is they do a deal with a carrier and they pay so much per month,” Cook told Robin Roberts. “So if you look at even the phone that’s priced over $1,000, most people pay about $30 a month for it. So it’s about $1 a day.”

Most carrier contracts, however, are 24 months. Using Cook’s math, a person paying $30 per month would cough up $720 over the life of the contract.

That’s short of the $749 entry price of the cheaper iPhone XR, let alone the cost of the iPhone XS and XS Max, which start at $999 and top out at $1,449.

The $999 iPhone runs you about $1.37 per day if you pay it off over two years — and that’s before you include tax. As such, Cook’s estimate was nearly 40 percent off.

Indeed, customers on the iPhone upgrade program available on Apple’s own website are given pricing for the iPhone XS starting at $49.91 per month for the cheapest model.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment.