iPhone Index 2021: How Many Days Do We Need to Afford the New Gadget?

This is an archived report. The latest ranking is available here.

Picodi.com team juxtaposed iPhone 13 Pro (128 GB) prices and average earnings in various countries to count how many days people need to afford Apple’s latest flagship.

In Malaysia, the official price of the basic iPhone 13 Pro (128 GB) will amount to RM4,899. Similar to the previous year, buyers will find neither a charger nor earphones in the box. The only exception is France, where the law requires Apple to include earphones.

According to the latest Numbeo data, the average wage in Malaysia is RM3399.17. This means that a statistical Malaysian would have to work for 30.3 days to afford the iPhone 13 Pro (assuming they spend all the earned money). Compared to last year’s iPhone Index, Malaysia’s result deteriorated by 1.2 days.

This is what the iPhone Index looked like in previous years:

• 2018 – 41.3 days
• 2019 – 30.1 days
• 2020 – 29.1 days
• 2021 – 30.3 days

A Swiss can earn money for the newest iPhone the quickest — just 4.4 days. An average American can afford the latest gadget after working for 5.9 days, and Australian — after 6.4 days.

Among the considered countries, the worst result was noted in Turkey, where the iPhone is worth 92.5 working days. The second and third-worst results belong to the Philippines and Brazil — 90.2 and 79.2 days respectively.

Although the new iPhone can be a rather expensive gadget, it is possible to buy it cheaper through official resellers. All you have to do is sign up to Picodi.com and activate cashback while shopping in stores such as digi, Lazada and Shopee.

Methodology and data source

iPhone Index is an annual iPhone price to average wages ratio carried out by Picodi.com since 2018.

The iPhone Index 2021 has been calculated based on the iPhone 13 Pro (128 GB) prices announced publicly on local Apple or authorised seller websites. The average salaries come from the countries’ official ministry or statistical office pages and are up to date with iPhone prices published in each country. Net wages were obtained using local salary calculators. Monthly salaries were divided by 21 — the average number of working days in a month. In countries where statistical offices use weekly wages, we divided the salary by 5.

Public Use

Data from the report ‘iPhone Index’, including infographics, may be freely used for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. We only ask that you credit the author of the research (Picodi.com) with a link to this subpage.