Finally, smartphone fans’ prayers have been heard! Apple will release a more affordable version of its flagship product, the iPhone!
This information was reported by Wall Street Journal only a few hours ago. According to the source of the daily newspaper, Apple Inc. is currently working on a budget-friendly iPhone. In that way the company will try to sustain its market position.
Wait, there’s more good news! The budget-friendly iPhone may hit the stores by the end of 2013. Insiders also reveal that the Apple’s cheaper smartphone will probably be based on the traditional iPhone. However, it will have a cheaper body parts like polycarbonate plastic shell. The rest of the device’s components would either be the same as the standard ones or they may be recycled.
Barclays PLC has rolled out a long research report on the iPhone 5 Bill-of-Material recently, where it outlined some approximations of the BOM for iPhone 5, according to which a relatively stable pricing has been witnessed in iPhone 5 in December. Using Apple’s 32 GB iPhone 5 as a standard model to work out BOM for a typical iPhone, Barclays estimated $215 as the total materical cost for a typical iPhone 5 that excludes the value of warranty, manufacturing costs, significant logistics expenses and other cost components.
Apple did not wish to comment on the latest news as usual. So, we just hope the company hasn’t or won’t change its mind about the smartphone. However, that is rather unlikely to happen since lately Apple has been pushed by intense market competition to develop more affordable iPhone. Meanwhile, Apple’s biggest competition, Samsung announced that 2012 was its best year so far.
It is clear that Apple needs to add more choice to its product lineup if it wants to stay relevant. The giant already made its first steps in that direction after it launched a smaller version of its iPad tablet. Now it is time for an iPhone mini. It has been almost 6 years since Apple released its first smartphone. Still, the company manages to keep the prices for its products higher than these of its competitors.
WSJ’s sources reveal that the tech giant started to discuss the idea for a cheaper iPhone 4 about four years ago. In addition, Apple Inc. reportedly had even prepared the designs for the affordable devices in 2010. However, they were never officially unveiled. The reason – people at Apple thought that another smartphone will make things more complicated for them.
Actually, that is somewhat true. A low-cost smartphone may drastically cut down the profits of the company. That is because investors don’t like big changes. On the other hand, a cheaper iPhone may also attract a whole new type of consumers .
An affordable smartphone is a huge risk for Apple. However, it may eventually turn into a gold mine.
