Apple Making Moves to Make Its Products More Affordable

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.

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rohitbaran 5 years ago

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.
master_chen 5 years ago

Hmmm...so now it will be "499$" instead of "500$"? Hell yeah Apple, now I'll definitely buy your products!
rohitbaran 5 years ago

Move number one: Reduce the price

Other Comments

rohitbaran 5 years ago

Move number one: Reduce the price
master_chen 5 years ago

Hmmm...so now it will be "499$" instead of "500$"? Hell yeah Apple, now I'll definitely buy your products!
memadmax 5 years ago

Translation:
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 5 years ago

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.
RichoOssavitor 5 years ago

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 consumer
rohitbaran 5 years ago

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.
TheBigTroll 5 years ago

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)
goodegg 5 years ago

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.

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 5 years ago

Anonymous 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 5 years ago

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?
scannall 5 years ago

rohitbaranThey already make better stuff than apple now.

No, no they don't. Not even close.
Soda-88 5 years ago

TheBigTrollthe 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)

Yeah, but your $5 player won't come with single threaded iTunes.
90's called, they want their programmers back.

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?

Are you that naive? They get more than compensated through the contract's monthly rates.
kinggremlin 5 years ago

rohitbaranMove number one: Reduce the price

That's not the Apple way, though you are absolutely correct. If the company is the most profitable company in the world, it means they should be able to lower prices. But why bother doing that when people are willing to pay 50% or more than a comparable device if it has an Apple logo? Apple shouldn't be blamed for their jacked up prices, the consumers willing to pay those prices should. If people pulled their heads out of their butts and realized how much they were getting ripped off and stopped buying Apple products, the market would correct itself and Apple would be forced to drop prices.
master_chen 5 years ago

Anonymous said:

No, no they don't. Not even close.

Tell that to my HTC One X.
kinggremlin 5 years ago

Soda-88Are you that naive? They get more than compensated through the contract's monthly rates.

That's irrelevant to the consumer. The monthly service prices don't usually vary for similar phone models. 3GB of data is going to cost the same per month for a 2 year contract regardless of the brand of smartphone. The only difference in cost is the upfront charge for the phone. So if a phone is free, there will be no price advantage for competing products. It won't get cheaper than free.
sna 5 years ago

wrong move IMO

keep Apple expensive !
sliem 5 years ago

Why are they lowering price if they are not desperate?
Can't come up with new ideas, Apple reduces price and introduces new color iPad/iPad mini etc.
teaser 5 years ago

So tell me,in what country is apple going to find people to work for free.............!
largg 5 years ago

Looks like apple wants more of the prepaid business. I am fine with that since will force better offering from prepaid competitors.
Miharu 5 years ago

Apple business model is build an exclusivity. The latest phone have the Siri feature when the previous model won't have it. The previous phone should support it, but Apple'll just don't allow you to install the feature telling it's for the customer experience...

Cheap phones don't make sense because Apple want to sell software... the new features. It's here they make money. So the only place Apple can cut it's in hardware. What if Apple cut on hardware of the iPhone 5? You have an iPhone 4...
The only thing they can do it's take an iPhone 4... allow the new features, sell it as an iPhone 5s and upgrade the price as a 5s. Sell something old, telling customer it's new for more money.

It's Apple... what do you except?!?

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