苹果一招鲜：新款iPhone继续提价

苹果在本周三推出了一年一度的iPhone系列产品，新一代手机的屏幕更清晰、芯片更快、电池连续使用时间更长。不过它们也附带了这家科技巨头最新的创新点：更高的价格。

苹果利用新一代手机延续着他们去年开始采用的战术。公司推测消费者愿意付出更多钱购买iPhone，尽管它们的价格已经比大部分竞争产品更高了。

最后，消费者果然乐意买单。

本周三，在加州库比蒂诺举行的年度发布会上，苹果推出的最廉价款iPhone是iPhone XR。它有着6.1英寸的LCD屏幕，背面配有一个摄像头，很像去年最廉价的机型iPhone 8（尽管后者屏幕更小）。新的XR售价749美元，较之去年的iPhone 8贵了50美元，售价提高了7%。

苹果指出，XR的屏幕比iPhone 8、甚至起售价799美元的8 Plus更大。

苹果还在本周三推出了售价更高的顶级机型iPhone XS Max。这款手机配备了6.5英寸的屏幕，起售价1,099美元，比去年的iPhone X贵100美元，售价提高了10%。诚然，iPhone X也没有XS这么大的屏幕，但它也曾是苹果公司最贵的手机。

统合考虑，定价达到新高的iPhone可以让苹果重复去年取悦华尔街的伎俩。尽管苹果在2017年底和2018年初的iPhone销售量比之前一年没有增长，但更高的平均售价还是让他们的收入增长了14%。

过去一年里，苹果的股价增长了40%，部分原因就在于他们收入的增长和对公司产品价格进一步提升的预期。就在几周前，苹果成为了美国第一家市值达到1万亿美元的公司。

三星（Samsung）、LG、摩托罗拉（Motorola）等使用谷歌（Google）开发的操作系统的厂商没有类似的提价之举。无论原因是什么，这些公司没有进行类似提价的意愿，或者是没有能力这样做。

苹果于本周三发布的最新款智能手表也涨价了。Apple Watch Series 4的起售价为399美元，而去年的Series 3起售价为329美元。此外，拥有蜂窝网络连接的款式起售价为499美元，较之去年的399美元同样有所提升。（财富中文网）

译者：严匡正

Apple debuted its annual lineup of new iPhones on Wednesday, with the usual sharper screens, faster chips, and longer battery lives. But those devices will also come with another more recent innovation by the tech giant: higher prices.

With the new phones, Apple is following a playbook that it successfully implemented last year. It bet that consumers would pay more for iPhones, despite them already being pricier than most rival smartphones.

In the end, shoppers were happy to pay up.

Apple’s cheapest iPhone introduced at its annual event in Cupertino, Calif. on Wednesday was the iPhone XR. It has a 6.1-inch LCD screen and a single camera on the back, much like last year’s cheapest model, the iPhone 8 (though it had a smaller screen). The new XR costs $749, $50 or 7% more than last year’s iPhone 8.

Apple points out that the XR’s screen is larger than the iPhone 8 and even the 8 Plus, which cost $799 last year.

Also on Wednesday, Apple introduced a pricier top-end phone—the new iPhone XS Max, with a 6.5-inch screen, that starts at $1,099. That’s $100, or 10%, more than the starting price of last year’s iPhone X. Again, the iPhone X didn’t have as big a screen, but it was the most expensive phone ever in Apple’s line up.

Taken together, the new higher priced iPhones could help Apple repeat a trick that pleased Wall Street last year. Although Apple didn’t sell more iPhones in late 2017 and early 2018 than it did a year earlier, the higher average sales prices led to a 14% jump in revenue.

Partly based on that gain and the promise of future price hikes, Apple’s stock price has risen 40% over the past year. Just a few weeks ago, the company became the first ever in the U.S. to reach a $1 trillion stock market value.

Competitors running software from Google, like Samsung, LG, and Motorola, haven’t been able to hike prices as much. For whatever reason, the companies mostly haven’t been willing-or able-to get away with the same kinds of price hikes.

Apple on Wednesday also raised the price of its newest smartwatches. The Apple Watch Series 4 will start at $399, up from $329 last year for the Series 3. And a model with cellular connectivity will start at $499, up from $399 last year.