iPhone widget makers are turning the tables

Steve Jobs invented it, but parts manufacturers are the key to improving it

Best Buy won’t be selling the full-price iPhone X and iPhone 8 — the most expensive models Apple has ever made — because customers have complained that, with the retail company’s mark-up, the smartphones were too costly. Now, the store chain will only offer them on instalment plans. Clearly, iPhones have reached some kind of psychological threshold beyond which their price is not just high but outrageous — but it’s not about Apple’s greed: Smartphones are getting more expensive globally and across the entire price range.

Smartphone makers aren’t happy about it. But it’s getting harder for them to maintain their