Jun 19, 2013 - 04:00 PM EDT — AAPL: 423.00 (-8.77, -2.03%) | NASDAQ: 3423.555 (0.00, +0%)

Apple to launch 4.5-inch low-cost polycarbonate iPhone in 2014, source says

Thursday, February 28, 2013 · 10:08 pm · 32 Comments

“Apple reportedly has a completely redesigned low-end iPhone in the works set to launch some time next year,” Zach Epstein reports for BGR.

“Japanese blog Macotakara, which has reported accurate details surrounding unannounced Apple products in the past, claims that this new iPhone will feature a polycarbonate body,” Epstein reports. “The new handset will supposedly feature a larger 4.5-inch display and will be slightly thicker than current iPhone models as well”

In their report, Macotakara cites “informed sources” who they “trust.”

Full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Dan K." for the heads up.]

Categories: Rumor

Tags: 4.5-inch iPhone, inexpensive iPhone, iphone, low-cost iPhone, Macotakara, polycarbonate iPhone, pre-paid iPhone, rumor

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Comment Feed

32 Comments

BMWTwisty

Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 10:12 pm · Reply

A YEAR from now??? That’s forever!
His Shadow

Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 10:17 pm · Reply

Oooh. BGR. I might as well ask my cat what Apple is going to do…
- billyjackblack
  
  Friday, March 1, 2013 - 10:44 am · Reply
  
  I don’t know about your cat but my cat’s pretty smart. she buries my brother’s Galaxy in the litter box whenever he’s in town.
Nomoremsbs

Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 10:23 pm · Reply

I would be extremely happy to buy an iPhone with a 5 inch screen designed to look just like the iPhone 5 or maybe with an aluminum unibody. I want the portability of an iPhone , but with more real estate to enjoy the experience, as well as more room for larger text for my old eyes. Are you listening Cupertino? Pretty please!
- GM
  
  Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 10:36 pm · Reply
  
  You, me and millions more. But if this rumor is true Apple shares will not be going up anytime this year. Not unless they come up with some brand new category that knocks the socks off everyone. A more affordable phone for the emerging markets will be great but that’s just not enough. And that’s if they ever get it to market? But they need the more affordable iPhone as well as a larger iPhone. And they need them now! Waiting until next year for the larger iPhone will be a disaster. Apple is already way behind the curve regarding the larger phone. This isn’t 2008. There are lots of large phones out there for people to choose from. Apple doesn’t own the market anymore. They missed being the first with a larger phone. Some terrible decisions have been made at Apple in this area. Somebody needs to get their ass kicked! Besides the investors who failed to sell AAPL last September. Ugly.
  - Jeff D
    
    Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 11:52 pm · Reply
    
    I agree that a larger5 inch phone next year will be a disaster but I do think that the next phone will only be a 4.5 inch and next year. Tim Cook could become a complete disaster for this great company. He stated at the shareholders meeting that the are looking at other markets. Looking? That sounds like at least a year or 2 away. Also some things like the current Apple TV interface seems to be going backwards.
  - hannahjs
    
    Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 11:56 pm · Reply
    
    You have your finger on the pulse, all right.
    
    Apple has been identified—branded—as a disruptor, a primal creative force welling up from the collective unconscious; nothing less than a product category redefinition will do, at this point.
    
    Being excellent is no longer good enough; new territories need to be conquered. Apple, being what it became, must constantly reinvent itself.
    
    Other companies can rise or fall, thrive or suffocate, but only Apple is held to the standard of Valhalla, and Ragnarok is happening now. Take cover quickly—but pray that duplicitous viceroys like Google do not emerge triumphant from the carnage.
    
    While gods do battle, mortals can only reexamine their fealty with trepidation, and wish to hell they had chosen differently, if only they had been gifted with the intelligence and foresight of MDN’s foremost commenters.
    - silverhawk1
      
      Friday, March 1, 2013 - 12:04 am · Reply
      
      Brings back some good thoughts of Ignacius Donnelly. Thanks!
- Dpr1961
  
  Friday, March 1, 2013 - 9:51 am · Reply
  
  I would love to have one. I also wish Apple would put a QualComm chip in the iPad & Mini so I could take the SIM card out of my iPhone and use either iPad with the data, & if I get a phone call, I can answer it with the iPad.
Laughing_Boy48

Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 11:43 pm · Reply

Abandon hope, all ye who enter Apple as an investor for 2013 if this story is true. Samsung smartphones will be the number one best-sellers in all of China and Wall Street will be ecstatic as they watch Apple shares fall below $400. Plastic is the preferred smartphone material for quick manufacture and Samsung can spit out cookie-cutter plastic smartphones like a GAU-8 Avenger.

Apple will lose about at least 5% global market share this year, all to Samsung and it’s going to get real ugly for shareholders. Considering Apple gained global market share in 2012, up as high as 25%, and the share price hugely tanked, it will be far worse this year. I understand Apple and Tim Cook’s position for not going after market share, but Wall Street doesn’t give a damn and Apple’s share price will be punished to the max. Apple’s P/E is likely going to the mid-9s and stay there for the rest of the year. I’ll just have to be satisfied with dividends which is the only thing that’s guaranteed from Apple. I’ll also have to listen to another year of trash-talk of Apple’s doom from everyone.
- Pridon
  
  Friday, March 1, 2013 - 12:17 am · Reply
  
  Once the appeals court overturns the judge JMOL overturning the juries GOOG guilty verdict on violating ORCl’s API copyrights, Android may be dead in the water cause all those Android players got to pay royalties to ORCL or change OS. Tizen sample I saw was poorly implemented. Mozilla and Firefox are starting from scratch. Apple may yet get injunctions against all the copycat Samsung phones – albeit very late. Penalties will be much higher because Samsung sold many more infringing phones of models that weren’t covered in the 1 Billion dollar judgement. Eventually justice will prevail im both of the aforementioned cases.
  - botvinnik
    
    Friday, March 1, 2013 - 1:18 am · Reply
    
    does anyone know if Samsung has actually coughed-up the billion it owes  from last September’s trial?
    - iinnsbrucktaos
      
      Friday, March 1, 2013 - 2:08 am · Reply
      
      Nope.
- ConfusedCountry
  
  Friday, March 1, 2013 - 9:29 am · Reply
  
  @Laughing_boy
  
  You need to stop calling yourself an investor because you are not. You are a speculator and no more. The original people who bought Apple stock invested and should have an interested in serving those people. They should have preferred status. The rest of us are just speculators when I sell my stock and you buy it, Apple gets nothing from the deal.
  
  If I buy a new car from a dealership, I have preferred status and the dealership notices me, because they benefited from the transaction, but when you buy my used car from me, you have done absolutely nothing for the dealership.
  
  It is possible I have an old Corvette and sold it at a classic for a profit, or maybe it is just old and rusted and I lost money on the deal. Should the dealership really care?
  
  I get tired of so called “investors” who invest nothing, speculate, and when they are losing money complain to the dealership and think they should get a free paint job or something.
  
  Apple owes you nothing, and nor should they care about you.
  
  I would like to see changes in our Trading rules where initial purchasers of a stock get preferred status, but once they sell it to speculators like you and me it loses it’s preferred status. Obviously the originally buyer who invested got their money and sold. They took the risk, bought stock, and gave that money to Apple.
  
  You and I trading shouldn’t be worth a damn to Apple. We are only trading in hope of our own profit, and do nothing for Apple, why should they step in and do something for us when we lose. Just my 2 cents from a guy who has spent years as a programmer on Wall Street.
  
  Almost none of us are “investors”
deasystems

Friday, March 1, 2013 - 2:10 am · Reply

Perfect. It will be built like—and look better than—Samsung’s POC Galaxy Sx phones but it will be priced low. Apple’s slap in the face to Samsung and its cheap-ass rip-offs…
auramac

Friday, March 1, 2013 - 3:24 am · Reply

I would see that as a step back. Talk about losing your cool- that’s not Apple. Make the best, and charge for it if you have to. We have enough companies making crap. And I am far from being prosperous…
Currentinterest

Friday, March 1, 2013 - 4:02 am · Reply

Yep, the world is demanding large screen phones so much that the iPhone 4S with a 3.5 inch display outsells the Galaxy S III.
- davecc
  
  Friday, March 1, 2013 - 6:26 am · Reply
  
  Exactly.
Woody

Friday, March 1, 2013 - 5:13 am · Reply

It just seems to be one misstep after another for Cook. Also with Ron Johnson failing at JCP one wonders….was it all Steve?
- Hellfish13
  
  Friday, March 1, 2013 - 7:00 am · Reply
  
  No, Ron Johnson is learning that it was easy to run a retail company with products that sell themselves and have no competition; it is another thing to have to compete for the lowest common denominator.
John

Friday, March 1, 2013 - 8:21 am · Reply

I said bigger screen three years ago. 4. Put a friggin phone in the iPad as well friggin no brainers. As dumb as not having stereo speakers. Or pro interface with file system . Or pro headset… Give a cloud with meaningful space. Not 5 useless gigs. Go into search. More than Siri. Go into google territory. Not just for market share but precisely because apple fans would prefer it to google. I’d like to see them make a screen that compensates for blurry eye site. Retina and more resolution is great but makes things smaller. …naw. Lets worry about inconveniencing app developers. As if Samsung doesn’t have the same problems but got the market right.
- tbone
  
  Friday, March 1, 2013 - 11:10 am · Reply
  
  That FRIGGIN phone must hurt your ear when you hold it next to your face.
Steve

Friday, March 1, 2013 - 8:22 am · Reply

Apple already has the Lion Share of profits and is 1 or 2 in market share in most of the developed countries. If there is a market for a larger lower cost IPhone with a bigger screen I say go for it. Qualcom will soon have a World chip. Volume always makes up for a slight margin drop. Different strokes for different folks. IPad mini os proof of that. I just want to see Samdung get what they deserve in the courts and that goes for goofle too.
Martin

Friday, March 1, 2013 - 8:36 am · Reply

Well if this is a new iPhone in the works, why does it have the old style doc connector.
Marciano

Friday, March 1, 2013 - 8:57 am · Reply

This is stupid!

Polycarbonate?: Apple did it already in 2008 and 2009

Low cost?: Apple doesn’t know what that means!
- quiviran
  
  Friday, March 1, 2013 - 4:41 pm · Reply
  
  Apple used to have a lot of polycarbonate stuff. Now they don’t. Why would they go back?
tbone

Friday, March 1, 2013 - 10:41 am · Reply

Polycarbonate = Plastic

This is the breakthrough we’ve all been waiting for.
Raymond

Friday, March 1, 2013 - 10:49 am · Reply

Dear big investors of AAPL, tonight Apple is hitting its 52 weeks low , I am already very scared and frustrated that I decide to surrender all of my AAPL I bought at $680 . I don’t want to see AAPL to fall to $300 . I give up !!
- tbone
  
  Friday, March 1, 2013 - 11:13 am · Reply
  
  Don’t be sad. Get out. Apple will be $350 in 6 weeks. The management team is committed to building the greatest products in the world. Apparently, they aren’t interested in preserving the monetary value of their company. And the $137 billion in capital reserves is just shameful. Not putting capital to work is sinful.
abone

Friday, March 1, 2013 - 12:10 pm · Reply

In related news, BMW will commence manufacturing trailer-park vehicles, starting 2014. Modestly appointed but competitively priced RV line will follow shortly.
Ch

Sunday, March 3, 2013 - 4:14 am · Reply

Hands up if you honestly care about share price, this Is just traders making a fast buck by short selling and doom mongering, why do we not hear about Samsung share prices, precisely because no gives a rats.
Apple created the market and is still the only original player in the market, android software just simply doesn’t work, Samsung hardware just simply falls to pieces.
Apple in my eyes does not need a bigger handset they have the iPad mini & the fact that the iPhone 5 is still outselling every other phone out their is proof of that, apple really needs to plough their own furrow on this one. I do however see the sense in a low cost iPhone share the apple greatness with everyone.
Prophet HUP

Sunday, March 3, 2013 - 7:06 am · Reply

A polycarbonate case would cost more to make than than the current case, just to make it look cheap and nasty.