The cost of an iPhone in days worked, across Asia

Ever wondered what you’re really going to pay for that shiny new iPhone 6S? Not in terms of what comes out of your bank account, but in the broader what-comes-out-of-your-life sort of sense? Look no further:

If you’re wondering about the methodology, we took 2012 International Labour Bureau data (via this handy CNN global wage tool) to determine the average yearly salary for the above countries in US dollars. Then, we broke that down into a daily, per-workday cost assuming 22 workdays per month and no holidays. Once we had what each country’s workers earn per workday, we took the local cost of a 16 GB iPhone 6S (again, in US dollars) and divided it by the local daily wage figure to determine how many days it would take to earn enough to buy the phone (assuming that 100% of income earned was being saved for the purchase).

Obviously this is inaccurate in a number of ways. First, while 2012 was the most across-the-board consistent source of wage data we could find, salaries have risen in most countries since then, so buying power in real life is probably a little higher. Second, Indonesia and Vietnam don’t have official iPhone pricing yet, so we’ve just used the American price for those calculations – even though the official price will ultimately be a bit higher. Finally, in actuality it would take an average worker longer than this be able to actually buy an iPhone 6S, since nobody can really afford to spend 100% of their income on a phone; some must be set aside for food, transportation, shelter, etc.

Still interesting to compare though, isn’t it? Given that Apple’s phones reportedly have a profit margin of nearly 70 percent, one wonders why the company can’t cut Apple fans in developing countries a little slack.