“In a research note this morning, Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi reports on a meeting he had last week with Apple COO Tim Cook, CFO Peter Oppenheimer and VP of Internet Services Eddy Cue,” Eric Savitz blogs for Forbes. “His high level takeaway is that the executives ‘projected a very confident tone,’ and that Apple is focused on ‘the right things,’ in particular expanding the market for the iPhone and capitalizing on ‘explosive’ tablet demand.”
“Cook referred to the iPhone as ‘the mother of all halos,’ noting that the iPhone has expanded Apple’s sales of other products, particularly in emerging markets,” Savitz reports. “The analyst says Cook ‘appeared to reaffirm the notion that Apple is likely to develop lower priced offerings’ to expand the market for the iPhone. Cook said the company is planning ‘clever things’ to address the prepaid market, and that Apple did not want its products to be ‘just for the rich,’ and that the company is ‘not ceding any market.'”
Read more in the full article here.
It is not like they haven’t done this before. First iPods used to be very expensive. Eventually, they delivered the Mini ($250), and later on, the Shuffle ($150). Obviously, they all became less and less expensive, so the cheapest Shuffle can be had for $45 today (and that original $150 was for a 1GB model…).
Addressing the pre-paid market may be meaningless in the US (anyone know anyone who uses Boost, MetroPCS or Virgin Mobile USA?), but the rest of the world is quite big on the concept. You buy your phone(s) and just stick/move SIM card from one to another. In fact, in developed countries on GSM, many women like to have several phones of different colours, to match their outfits/purses. They just move their SIM cards from one to the other.
Addressing the pre-paid market with cheaper phones can open up another avenue of massive growth.
Give me a $200 – $300 GS-level iPhone with a combo CDMA/GSM chip and no contract and I will buy them for my entire family.
It’s not surprising that the prepaid phone market sucks in the US because the pre-paid phones suck and you’re still stuck with either CDMA or GSM phones, i.e. not truly independent of the carriers.
If Apple can produce an iPod touch for $229 with a much better screen and cpu than the iPhone GS, then an iPhoneGS-level iPHone for around $200 – $300 should be possible. Such a device would accomplish more for the consumer in the telco area than anything else up till now.
It would accomplish what Google fantasized about with the Nexus phone. Google tried to charge around $600, had very little retail distribution and zero customer support.
I don’t think there is a way to build a CDMA phone that can work on any US carrier. Even though they do have pre-paid plans, they don’t allow non-branded CDMA phones onto their networks, for some reason. For example, Virgin Mobile has their $25 per month unlimited data/text plan, but you can’t bring a Droid (or the new CDMA iPhone 4) to it; it has to be Virgin’s own phone.
With AT&T and T-Mobile, you can put that SIM into any unlocked GSM phone that supports those frequencies and it will work — even on two-year plans.
I would be very happy if Apple had an unlocked T-Mobile-compatable iPhone. They seem to have the best prices on data plans, either individual or family and that would really put the heat on AT&T and Verizon.
If Apple introduces a pre-paid iPhone, we will shortly thereafter know *lots* of folks on Boost, MetroPCS, Virgin Mobile or whoever gets a prepaid iPhone. I agree with you that addressing the pre-paid market could be huge, with Apple re-writing the rules in that segment of the market as they have elsewhere. This also puts dumb-phone/feature-phone makers like Nokia in a bit of a pinch, being attacked from two sides by Apple.
Would love to see simple, colorful iPod phones with a new series of “Silhouettes” ads…
Yes, please. Lower priced offerings for everything across all Apple product lines, not just the iPhone.
So when can we expect the first $800 iMac then?
When you’re a cheapskate you’re a cheapskate – get an android POS.
I didn’t realize Android made PCs. But since you’ve got your head stuffed so deep up Steve Jobs’ ass it must be quite dark in there, so you’re quite blind it seems.
The left nut is as close to the ass as anyone who pegs himself with a Balmer’s left nut ID. Get some disinfectant.
Cheap is cheap no matter what Apple alternative you deserve, android, chrome or brown.
I get a good laugh every now and then when that I rile up a few fanboys with my nick.
It’s a nick. If you want to read deeper into that be my guest.
Doesn’t detract from the fact though that you enjoy having your head dunked in the RDF as far as fancy prices are concerned.
Don’t flatter yourself Crotch Stink Boy, you couldn’t rile up an exterminator with an army of rot.
Cheap is an inherent character trait.
Actually we see the light better!
Hell, I’d love to have cheaper Apple products, and I’ve been a mac owner since 1988.
I spent $1,700 on a Mac SE and a dot matrix printer in 1987 when I was writing my PhD thesis. It took about a day and a half to print it out. At the time, it cost me about 15% of my annual income. Prices surely have dropped!
I get $600 iMacs all the time – on the used market. Still worth more than most new PC’s. I’ve gotten three in the last six months for family members moving up to Intel-based systems.
Apple plots to expand their iPhone marketshare?
Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit!
In other news, water is wet, the sun rose in the east this morning, and Microsoft is inept.
Hahhahahahahaha! Good!
This will be big!
The entry-level Macs do seem to have crept up in price in recent years. The old Mini I had as a back-up died, but I found replacing it far too expensive. So I didn’t. Also laptops really are double a Windows “equivalent” now. That’s not a premium. I was planning to convert a friend to Macs with a replacement for his ailing WIndows laptop, but the prices!
Alex McKenna, if you look at inflation adjusted pricing, Apple has done a damn good job at reducing prices.
But he is right about the prices. Between the highly situational and underpowered mini, the overkill with server parts Mac Pro and the “pro” notebooks with slow HDs and graphics of computers 1/3 of their cost, the iMacs and MacBook Airs are the only really good values from Apple at the moment.