CEO Tim Cook says iPhones are worth the high prices

iPhones are notoriously expensive and compared to previous models, they have increased in price dramatically. Still, Apple CEO Tim Cook thinks customers will continue to pull their wallets, even in tough economic times.

During Apple’s earnings call on Friday, a Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst asked Cook whether it was “sustainable” to continue increasing the overall price consumers pay for iPhones.

Cook said that because the iPhone has become “integral” into people’s lives, with everything from debit cards to health data to access to smart homes, people will “really go out of their way” to pay for the technology.

Apple’s reported quarterly earnings were a “stunning miss” for the billion-dollar company, according to Apple CNBCclocking in below analyst estimates of earnings per share and revenue.

The company also reported the largest year-over-year drop in quarterly revenue since 2016.

iPhone sales for the quarter were down about 8% compared to the same quarter last year, the company reported. Apple previously reported manufacturing issues in China with its iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Max, citing that as a reason for its struggle to sell the phones in its most recently reported earnings period during the call, according to CNBC.

Related: Apple says COVID-19 restrictions in China will delay iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max

Meanwhile, iPhones are getting more and more expensive. If Insider calculatedthe most expensive version of the iPhone 3GS, released in 2009 (a descendant of the first iPhone, which came out in 2007) with storage and memory, would cost $962 today, adjusted for inflation.

The 14 Pro Max, along with one terabyte of storage, cost $1,600, an increase of about 66.3%.

The Washington Post noted in 2018 that the company is still trying to accommodate those with less cash on hand, by selling older iPhone models at lower prices.