“Contrary to some rumors suggesting Apple’s low-cost iPhone will have a larger 4.5-inch display, the company’s new entry-level handset will have a 4-inch display, matching the size of the iPhone 5,” Neil Hughes reports for AppleInsider.
“The details on Apple’s so-called ‘budget’ iPhone were revealed on Friday to AppleInsider by Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities, who has a reliable track record in predicting Apple’s future product plans,” Hughes reports. “The new, less expensive iPhone model is said to have a ‘super-thin plastic casing mixed with glass fiber.’ The material will make it stronger, thinner and lighter than typical smartphone plastic casings, Kuo said.”
Hughes reports, “The phone will also reportedly come in a range of colors, much like Apple’s iPod lineup.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
PLASTIC, you don’t say…
Going backwards?…
Backwards?
Not sure: it’s LOW cost… So, if Apple does any, it will do it with some panache. Even if it can’t be with luxury unibody aluminium case…
Sure, they’ll use the current form factor to save production costs. And I don’t see anything wrong with a plastic case. I don’t need an aluminum or liquid metal case for a phone. I mean really who cares? As long as it doesn’t break easily and holds everything together that’s all a case is supposed to do. Most of us use a protective case of some sort anyway. So who cares if it has a fancy case? It’s what’s inside that matters. It’s not like it’s a new seven series BMW. It’s a phone. What’s important to me is how well it works. How dependable it is. How good the screen looks. I’d much rather see a screen that would resist scratches than a fancy liquid metal case. So I don’t care if the high-end iPhone has a plastic case if it saves money in production and that is passed along to me as a customer.
SVP–PS commented a few weeks ago, we are NOT working on a less expensive iPhone, enough already about this talk !
Why? Why you need a lower cost iPhone? Why chase the market where you don’t earn cash and don’t develop anything new? Nokia was selling 300 million phones per year and still losing cash.
It’s designed to be like the current iPod touch (which I think is one of the most amazing things Apple has made to date). Apple really excels at making things light and thin.
Even Apple’s low cost pho e will shame Samsungs POS no style, inferior build, unsupported and fragmented Android condom phones.
GUARANTEED
I dunno guys. Apple is known for surprises. Apple may yet act to squash Android through a more affordable iPhone. The iPhone 3G/S was plastic and that thing was a tank. They have they best OS in the world waiting in the wings, it just needs some Apple hardware to run on.
Yep, how quickly they forget that a short time ago iPhone WAS plastic. It also happened to be the most comfortable (in your hand) iPhone designs. Comfort was abandoned for Vanity with 4, leading to Antennaegate. I know for a fact that the switch to glass on iPhones led to a higher service rate that the 3GS. I still see people all the time with the glass shattered, still using the phone.
Just yesterday the MDN commenters were frothing about android phones being plastic, as if glass and aluminum are the only materials that can be highly polished and durable.
consider changing your handle to “Tupperware lover”
Careful, the fanboys will gang up on you here. Honest objective comments not allowed. And my old 3 GS is still being used by someone I gave it to two years ago. It’s not the case, it’s what’s inside that matters.
Plastic is fitting for a lower end phone. This plastic, however, will be stronger, thinner, and lighter than the competion’s high end phones.
We’re talking about plastic Jony Ive style, people. You better recognize.
The iBook was awesome, and the white MacBook even more so.
Funny… Now when I see the word ‘analyst’ I think, ‘doesn’t know how to read the landscape, usually draws erroneous conclusions, and is possibly a paid manipulator.’
lol! so true!
It’s not in Apple’s DNA to produce a ‘cheap’ anything.
Ming-Chi Kuo and I had lunch the other day. He told me he was going to be spreading this rumor.
He also told me that the cheaper iPhone will be made by fairies at the north pole.
Lucky Charms, they’re magically delicious
How about an iPod shuffle. That is cheap is it not? I have one of those also.
Something like this could have a liquid metal frame for support…
Low cost iPlastic?
iPhone 5-s ?
I would say, time to look for a HTC.
But I dont want Android.
So, i will stay with my beautiful and perfect iPhone 4.
For me, Apple has nothing interesting to offer for the near future.
What I would like?
Easy.., an up to date smartphone, 4,8″ Full HD,
precious design and no home button.