Following months of speculation, Apple CEO Tim Cook has all but confirmed that the firm will launch a low-cost iPhone.
Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet conference, Cook didn't confirm such a device's existence but didn't deny that a cheaper iPhone is in the pipeline. "We are making moves to make things more affordable," he responded when asked about a low-cost variant of Apple's flagship device.
He added that "our north star is great products ... We wouldn't do anything we considered a cheap product. That said we have done things to appeal to people more price sensitive." He referred to an example in the lower pricing for the iPhone 4 and 4S.
"When we came out with iPod it was $399, today you can buy an iPod Shuffle for $49. Instead of saying how can we cheapen this iPod to get it lower, we said how can we do a great product, and we were able to do that. The same thing, but in a different concept, in some ways."
He also shared similar remarks regarding the Mac division. "We concluded we couldn't do a great product, but what did we do - we invented iPad. Now all of a sudden we have an incredible experience and it starts at $329. Sometimes you can take the issue and you can solve it in different ways."
Although marketing VP Phil Schiller stated that Apple will never offer a cheap smartphone, a plastic iPhone without a home button was recently patented. The device, which is expected to generate upwards of $6.5 billion for Apple, will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.
Contact Us for News Tips, Corrections and Feedback
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Zak Islam is a freelance writer focusing on security, networking, and general computing. His work also appears at Digital Trends and Tom's Guide.
-
master_chen Hmmm...so now it will be "499$" instead of "500$"? Hell yeah Apple, now I'll definitely buy your products!Reply -
memadmax Translation:Reply
Cheaper, neutered versions of the gimmicks of the same product to get you to buy the "full" version of the original product....
Get it?
Good, now go buy it iSheeple!
BAH!BAH!BAH!BAH!BAH!BAH!BAH!BAH! -
wintermint All this apple bashing has gotten old.. so old.. I welcome the new edition of "cheaper" Apple phone because it will encourages other phone makers to provide better competition at the same price range.Reply -
RichoOssavitor Clever. They want a slice of the budget market, but they don't want to shed the brand hubris. Though they will never truly appeal to the informed consumerReply -
rohitbaran wintermintAll this apple bashing has gotten old.. so old.. I welcome the new edition of "cheaper" Apple phone because it will encourages other phone makers to provide better competition at the same price range.They already make better stuff than apple now.Reply -
TheBigTroll the word apple and cheap dont belong together. when apple means cheap, it still means 2x as much as other equivalents (i can buy a 5 dollar MP3 player that will do the same job as the 50 dollar shuffle)Reply -
goodegg wintermintAll this apple bashing has gotten old.. so old.. I welcome the new edition of "cheaper" Apple phone because it will encourages other phone makers to provide better competition at the same price range.Reply
You can already get the iPhone4 in contract for $0. How much cheaper should it get? It's not like the iPhone4 is a piece of crap. It's a very slick phone and works nearly identically to the 4S. The 5 is all different form and connection. So as long as they still offer last year's stuff at much less, why is this an issue? -
master_chen Reply10435501 said:All this Apple bashing has gotten old..so old..
If things don't change for so many years, why should we now stop on bashing? It's not our fault, it's Apple's assinine ways of dealing with people. :??:
As long as such conglomerate companies as Apple will continue do stupid things, people will continue to bash them. It's absolutely natural flow of things in the existence.
-
Marco925 goodeggYou can already get the iPhone4 in contract for $0. How much cheaper should it get? It's not like the iPhone4 is a piece of crap. It's a very slick phone and works nearly identically to the 4S. The 5 is all different form and connection. So as long as they still offer last year's stuff at much less, why is this an issue?Why can't i get today's phone for $0 on contract?Reply