Call it the iPhone 6$.
Apple’s latest smartphone — the iPhone 6, expected to roll out later this year — may cost you $100 more than its predecessor, according to one Wall Street analyst.
That will put the top-of- the-line iPhone, with a two-year contract, at $299 for the first time.
“Our checks indicate Apple has started negotiating with carriers on a $100 iPhone 6 price increase,” Jefferies analyst Peter Misek said in a research note.
“The initial response has been no, but there seems to be an admission that there is no other game-changing device this year,” he wrote in the note.
It is not known if the price increase discussed in the Misek report is for the standard 4.7-inch screen phone or for the larger 5.5-inch phablet-size screen Apple is said to be ready to roll out.
The Samsung Note, a popular phablet phone with a 5.7-inch screen, retails for $299.
Misek acknowledged that an increase may “seem farfetched” amid the move toward cheaper phones due to current market saturation. But a lack of “differentiation” is also a reason why
Apple thinks it can get away with it, Misek said.
“Carriers realize that the iPhone 6 will likely be the only headline-worthy, high-end phone launched this year and that they will lose if they do not offer it.”
Nonetheless, just a $50 increase in the average selling price of the next-gen iPhone could increase the Cupertino, Calif., company’s earnings per share by 11 percent, according to Misek.
To be sure, Apple keeps its production and pricing information very private, and analysts — with varying degrees of success — try many different channels to deduce future prices and features of future products.
Apple shares closed on Monday down less than 1 percent at $521.68.