You thought paying $1,000 for an iPhone was a lot? It may be just the beginning. : Paying a thousand bucks for a phone is no longer laughable. In fact, it's probably the new normal. When Apple broke the $1,000 barrier for its iPhone X last September, critics scoffed at its exorbitant price. They doubted people would reach so deeply into their wallets for a phone that outpriced two other perfectly good iPhones, the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus. The critics were wrong.