“Apple Inc. may be developing lower-cost flavours of its iPhone smartphone in order to attract attention of the mass market, an analyst said in a note to clients. If this is truth, then even large makers of cell phones may need to start to worry, as if the iPhone faces similar success like the iPod, the numbers could exceed several hundreds of million units,” Anton Shilov reports for X-bit labs.
“‘Apple needs to round out its iPhone product line at lower price points (similar to iPod) if it expects to replicate the success of its iPod with sales of 100 million units,’ said American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu in a research note, reports TechWhack web-site. The market observer also said that he had received information about ‘lower cost iPhone prototypes for release at unspecified future dates,'” Shilov reports.
Full article here.
No sh-t.
I wonder how much blood the iPhone is going to get on its virtual keyboard?
I want ALL the bells and whistles
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I’m waiting for the iPhone Shuffle which just dials numbers in my Address Book at random.
Just bought more AAPL stock.
Remember the line in Forest Gump, “It was some kind of fruit company…..”
Let’s practice a few phrases, just to be ready to use them in a few years:
“Beleaguered Nokia”
“Beleaguered Samsung”
“Beleaguered Sony Ericsson”
“Beleagured Motoroloa!”
I’ve been practicing this one for a long time: “I hate my Razr.”
I will be really surprised if that happens. What are they going to butcher out? Do they make Tiger-light…I don’t think so. I do think they will lower the price of the existing unit and keep the same current price point on new models with hardware and/or space upgrades, but not software upgrades. The iPhone is quite a longer term investment as it can be pumped with software upgrades periodically and 3rd party GPS type accessories can plug in. I expect about 500 of the current 3000 widgets to be converted to run on the iPhone. After 3G and GPS built-in, what upgrades would be next? XM? Space will be the most desired feature, I believe. I like my 30gigger and would like my iPhone purchase to be the same, with movies, etc.
“Apple Inc. may be developing lower-cost flavours of its iPhone smartphone in order to attract attention of the mass market, an analyst said in a note to clients. “
He said MAY be. It’s not fact.
Please……. Just another analysis who knows nothing but spouting the same old BS.
I want a Vulvo priced like a moto scooter. I am sure it will happen.
Yep, it may, in 5-10 years or so. If you want a cheap phone to make phone calls on, get one. There are plenty around.
—-Actually not really. All phones seem to cost $300 with out a plan. I cannot figure out why the cheap ones seem to cost as much as the expensive ones, I guess its just the telcos stealing our money.
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MDN word white as in “Its the White Houses fault. ” LOL funny but true.
Chris. Right there with ya on the RAZR sentiment.
I don’t think so. Apple has preferred to add features and keep price (and profit) points.
Tommy Boy – I LOVE IT.
Even though his Steven-ness eluded to this in the keynote (3G etc.)
I feel like a huge load has been taken off of my shoulders.
I’LL NEVER HAVE TO BUY A POS SAMSUNG, MOTO, OR NOKIA AGAIN.
FREEDOM!!!!!
In other news, dawn is working on a highly-touted successor called ‘dusk’.
Bah… this model will lower in price in a couple years and a newer, more robust model will be released at the same price points as the current line. They won’t come up with a “lite” version of the iPhone. Instead, you’ll see future copies with 32 gb of flash memory and more….
EVERYONE LISTEN CAREFULLY….as apple introduced the iPod it started with the high end model with a coresponding high end price point. Over time, apple introduced models at lower price points by scaling back capacity and other features. All apple has to do is remove the iPod from the iPhone and you will have a lower price point. Apple is not complicated. Steve makes the same moves every time. He is just a master of deception.
Doubtful. They’re not going to be able to keep these on the shelves at the current price points, why make anything cheaper. Should sales be disappointing, which I don’t see happening, then maybe.
This new product, “Dusk”, would it be a “Dawn Killer?!?!?!?”
Well, it would make sense. It would be rather stupid to do a Motorola. IE: Come out with a RAZR then sit on it……
You’re missing the big picture:
Five more stories and MDN hits 14,000. Hopefully, the stars won’t go out one by one.
And doesn’t the Mac co-star in a 2 hour long movie with Bruce Willis debuting June 27th?
@AG Pennypacker
“Dawn Killer”
I love it . . .
“an analyst said” always dismiss unidentifed sources.
This could absolutely happen. Scale down the screen size, don’t have web surfing, photo storage, movie playback, etc. Think iPod nano v. iPod – you’re trading small size and light weight for features.
I can’t play most games or movies on my nano. If I want to do that, I buy an iPod video. If I just want to make phone calls, keep an address book, calendar, maybe even e-mail, I buy iPhone nano. Think of it more as an iPod nano that can make phone calls, not a scaled down iPhone.
iFlip
You heard it hear first.
Guys, this is the first device in a new platform, so yeah, there will definitely be more phones at lower price points. Look at the iPod and how that evolved from just one to three main models that suit different users/uses. Perhaps eventually Apple has only two models of phones, but I would expect them to get down into the $200-300 range sooner than you think to drive mass adpotion.
You will understand why when the business model is fully disclosed – i.e. how much AT&T pays Apple each month per subscriber to have access to iPhone services (exactly like RIM for blackberry service). Apple will be more than willing to give up margin in the hardware to lock in that VERY high margin recurring “service” revenue stream from users. Believe it.