“Apple Inc. is working on new versions of the iPhone… according to people who have been briefed on the plans,” Peter Burrows and Greg Bensinger report for Bloomberg.
“One version would be cheaper and smaller than the most recent iPhone, said a person who has seen a prototype and asked not to be identified because the plans haven’t been made public,” Burrows and Bensinger report. “Apple also is developing technology that makes it easier to use the iPhone on multiple wireless networks, two people said.”
Burrows and Bensinger report, “Apple has considered selling the new iPhone for about $200, without obligating users to sign a two-year service contract, said the person who has seen it… While Apple has aimed to unveil the device near mid-year, the introduction may be delayed or scrapped, the person said. Few Apple employees know the details of the project, the person said… The prototype was about one-third smaller than the iPhone 4, said the person, who saw it last year.”
Read more in the full article here.
The main question here is, how many people are out there carrying a small dumbphone and a regular (non-touch) iPod. These would be the prime candidates.
Keep in mind, a cheaper iPhone is not just a cheaper phone; it is a cheaper plan. There are quite many people who simply can’t afford (or justify) $80 per month (almost a $1,000 per year — two iPads!) for a mobile phone plan. In fact, there is an enormous market out there in the world for pre-paid (i.e. full price, no plan) phones, where an iPod with a phone (which doesn’t demand a data plan) would thoroughly trounce all those Nokias.
If an iPod nano (previous generation, with click wheel) cost $150, the same device with a phone and some slick user interface changes could go perhaps for $220 and still hold onto the healthy profit margins Apple requires before even considering making/selling the device.
Let’s not forget, all these devices plug into the entrenched iTunes ecosystem.
I guarantee that an iPhone mini would run iOS. In other words, it has to be a smart phone.
The business opportunity for a dumb phone is just too small to interest Apple. They’re a platform company, and a feature/dumb phone is no platform. Dumb phones are not long for this world. Soon, every phone will be a smart phone. (That said. I still wish someone would show the world how to make a well-designed dumb phone.)
If you read the linked article, you’ll see that the idea is to make a smaller, cheaper version of the previous year’s iPhone—similar to how manufacturers make smaller, cheaper versions of game consoles after a few years. Think XBox.
This is just a test
I suspect that there are real limitations in antenna physics (concerning size versus cell reception) that these rumors are completely ignoring.