iPhone buyers in Australia are facing the real prospect of having to pay more for a new iPhone 14 in the future after the Australian dollar slumped to $0.68 to the US dollar.

Back in September 2021 you could buy the iPhone 13 from Telstra with 128GB for $1,349, 256GB for $1,519 and 512GB for $1,849.

The base model for the new iPhone 14 costs $1,389 for 128GB, $1,579 for 256GB and $1,899 for 512GB.

Prices tipped to rise if the dollar falls further.

Australia is not alone in seeing iPhone prices rise due to the rise in the US dollar.

In Japan and South Korea iPhone lovers will have to pay considerably more for Apple’s latest iPhones than they did for last year’s model due to a major slump in their currencies against the dollar.

The iPhone 14 series, which was unveiled this week, will go on sale on Sept. 16, with changes in price between this year and last differing wildly across markets.

In Japan, the cost for the standard iPhone 14 model with 128GB of storage is up 21% over the iPhone 13. In South Korea, it’s up 15%.

The sharp weakening of the Australian dollar could lead to further price rises as the next shipments are ordered claim analysts.

“The iPhone 14 stock arriving in stores now were ordered when the $A was over $0.72 the dollar is now $0.68 and falling and this could push up the price of the iPhone 14” one carrier insider said.

They claim that Apple with little choice but to raise prices of future orders to maintain profitability if the Australian dollar falls further.

Apple is also concerned that resellers in some Asian Countries including Singapore, Japan and South Korea are ordering stock for the China market where Apple is facing problems after the US Government raised questions about the sale of iPhones in China and the use of Chinese memory in iPhone 14 devices.

Republican lawmakers have warned Apple that it will face intense scrutiny from Congress if Apple procures memory chips from a controversial Chinese semiconductor manufacturer for the new iPhone 14.

Marco Rubio, Republican vice-chair of the Senate intelligence committee, and Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the House foreign affairs committee, said they were alarmed following a media report that Apple would add Yangtze Memory Technologies Co to its list of suppliers for Nand flash memory chips.

Hideaki Yokota, an executive analyst at Japan’s MM Research Institute said at the weekend “There has been a problem with resellers buying up iPhones in Japan and distributing them to China”, due to the relatively cheaper prices of the devices in Japan compared to other markets.

In China, the cost of an iPhone has not risen.

In China, the 128GB iPhone 14 costs A$1264 for a 128GB model Vs $1,389 in Australia.

The greater China region — including mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan — is Apple’s third biggest market.

According to Yokota, one possible reason Apple maintained its pricing in China is concern over the economic situation in the country. The country already saw a 2.65% quarter-on-quarter contraction of gross domestic product in the second quarter amid strict lockdowns in Shanghai.

“China is currently experiencing a real estate bubble and other problems [that affect the economy], which makes it difficult to raise prices in this economic environment,” Yokota said.

According to research firm Counterpoint, Chinese smartphone shipments in the second quarter of 2022 fell to 67.4 million units, around half of their peak in the fourth quarter of 2016.