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Nightly price increases: Turkish side of the Apple Store
Photo: Apple
On Friday night, Apple drastically raised the prices for its current iPhones in Turkey.
While an iPhone 12 still cost 10,999 Turkish lira on Thursday evening, the same model was offered in Apple's online shop on Friday morning for 13,999 lira (converted at the daily rate around 1020 euros).
The nightly price increase of 3000 lira, the equivalent of around 217 euros, is higher than the currently applicable minimum wage in Turkey of currently 2825 lira (205 euros).
The price for the more modern iPhone 13 rose from 11,999 Lira to 14,999 Lira - a price increase of 25 percent.
"The lira has plummeted by ten to 15 percent, so you have to raise the prices," said customer Emirhan when leaving an Apple store in Istanbul.
At the beginning of the week, the media reported that the US company had stopped selling its gadgets on its Turkish website.
According to the reports, the online shop was still available, but almost all products were marked as not available.
Accordingly, they could not be ordered.
iPhones as an investment
On Wednesday, the blog "macReports" reported that people who wanted to buy new products were no longer allowed into Apple's stores in Istanbul.
Only customers who wanted to bring devices for repair or who wanted to pick up repaired ones were given access.
Nevertheless, long queues formed in front of the shops, it was said.
In the hope that in a year they might be able to raise more for it than they have to pay now, some Turks apparently wanted to invest their savings in expensive gadgets.
The background to the price increases is the dramatic loss in value of the lira.
The Turkish currency crashed 13 percent against the dollar on Tuesday alone.
The price fall came after a statement by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had affirmed that he would withstand the pressure and not raise the key interest rate.
The Turkish head of state wants to boost loans and investments through low interest rates and, against the backdrop of strong economic growth, would like to be re-elected as president in 2023.
According to the prevailing economists, however, higher key interest rates are an important tool in the fight against high inflation.
In Turkey, the inflation rate was recently around 20 percent.
mak / AFP