More than half of Apples products dropped in price after new launches

When should you buy new gadgets?

Apple is hosting a virtual event on September 14th, with rumours that we might get to see the new iPhone 13, Apple Watch 7 and possibly the AirPods 3. But should we buy new products when they launch, to get them at a good price?

New research from PriceRunner analysed price fluctuations on popular Apple products from when they launched between 2019 - 2021, showing that it pays to wait if you want a good deal.

The analysis of 44 different configurations shows that the tech giant often lowers prices on slightly older products once it has released newer models on the market. The findings even showed you can make a great deal on slightly older models a week after the launch of a new product.  

Commenting on the results, Christine Gouldthorp, Consumer Expert at PriceRunner, said:

“I’m not very surprised by these findings. Apple usually lowers their prices on older products when launching newer models. If you don’t need to have the latest gadgets and are able to wait, you can quite often save a lot of money by doing so. Of all the products we analysed from last year, more than half saw a price decrease a week after a newer model of a product was launched.“

Prices on older products already on the market decreased a week after the launch of a newer model, compared to the week prior to the product being released and available to purchase. The average price drops for iPhones, Apple Watches and iPads were slightly different: 

When looking at prices on individual products, price drops were even greater. Some products had almost a third of the price slashed a week after newer launches:

What will actually be released on September the 14th is still to be announced, but one thing we will know for certain is that savvy shoppers will be able to make a good deal on slightly older models during the next few weeks. 

To find out if a product has dropped in price or not, use the function called "statistics" found on each product page on our site, as on the Apple iPhone 11GB for example. 

Another clever way to find out when products drop in price is to set a price alert on the products you're after, getting a notification when the price starts to go down. Easy peasy!

Note: The analysis looked at minimum prices on products a week prior to the launch of the latest model in the same product range, comparing it to a week after the launch date. Observed launch dates were in 2019, 2020 and 2021.