The rand has lost over 13% of its value since the start of December, and more than 30% during the whole of 2015.
Local retailers have warned that our weakening currency will cause the price of goods to increase dramatically, while economists said South Africans should prepare themselves for a tough 2016.
The extent of the price increases we can expect have started to become apparent, following Apple’s recent warning that its prices would go up in South Africa.
Prices in the App Store have already increased, and the SA iStore has increased its prices after warning customers in December that it would have to do so.
The table below shows how much the price of the iPhone 6s has increased since its launch in South Africa on 16 October 2015. Prices taken from iStore and Digicape.
| iPhone 6s model | Launch price | New price | % change |
| iPhone 6s 16GB | R11,799 | R13,299 | 13% |
| iPhone 6s 64GB | R13,599 | R15,299 | 13% |
| iPhone 6s 128GB | R15,499 | R17,299 | 12% |
|
| iPhone 6s Plus 16GB | R13,599 | R15,299 | 13% |
| iPhone 6s Plus 64GB | R15,499 | R17,299 | 12% |
| iPhone 6s Plus 128GB | R17,499 | R19,499 | 11% |
At cellular providers these increases may be worse, with major price hikes on phones and tablets expected from February.
An industry insider said that the cost of an iPhone 6s would go up by 22%, while an iPhone 6s Plus would cost 16% more.
Samsung told MyBroadband it currently has no plans to increase mobile product prices, adding that it “understands the present economic pressure on consumer spend”.
“Despite the recent aggressive depreciation of the rand, Samsung is committed to managing potential increases in local product pricing throughout the first quarter of 2016.”
Samsung said it would continue to monitor the rand’s performance against foreign currencies, and based on that, review its product pricing for Q2 2016.
