“The ‘big’ news is that Apple will be selling two totally distinct iPhones in September,” Seth Weintraub reports for 9to5Mac. “One will be a low-end variety that will address the cheap Android market, according to the source. The other will be a high-end device and will be an all new design. There will be no mistaking these two devices, they will be immediately discernible. The iPod touch, like it always has, will get updated in September as well.”
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“So that’s where the info path trails off, and to be frank, it isn’t all that surprising. There are currently two totally distinct iPhones on the market: the iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 4,” Weintraub reports. “The 3GS is at a cheaper price point while the iPhone 4 is the high-end line.”
Weintraub reports, “So we’ll have the same thing in September? iPhone 4 is the low end and iPhone 5 the high end? I’m not so sure.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Jax44” for the heads up.]
Put the same cameras in the iPod Touch that are in the iPhone 4 and I’ll buy 2.
Yes yes yes!
Two reasons why Android has a market: 1) Apple was exclusive to one carrier. 2) Carriers give Android phones away for “free” and in 2-for-1 “deals”. Once Apple addresses the cheap f*cks of the world (asuming they want to) Android’s ownership of the cheap-smartphone category will end.
Many of those Android smartphone buyers are just uninformed. They buy what the carriers advertise or push in their faces. I can only imagine salespeople telling consumers that would just as soon purchase an iPhone something like, “This Android smartphone is just as good as an iPhone and it costs less.” Consumers that haven’t done any research on a product are deceived like that all the time. They probably don’t have an ounce of loyalty to the Android platform or animosity to the iPhone. It’s a step up from what they had and that’s all that matters to them.
However, I’m sure that some certainly do want larger screens and some want physical keyboards and Apple won’t be able to address those consumers.
A sad but true story illustrating how most Android “Retard”phones get sold:
Had a sales rep pay a visit to my office. She pulls out a new Android phone.
“Yuck! Why didn’t you get an iPhone?”
“I couldn’t afford an iPhone”
“What did you pay for that thing?”
“$199”
“You could have bought an iPhone for $199”
“Yeah, But the guy at Verizon told me the service plan is a lot more on the iPhone”
“What’re you paying a month for that thing?”
“Around $105”
“Holy shit, man! That salesman saw you coming. I pay a lot less than that for my iPhone 4”
“He lied to me! He told me this was cheaper!”
And the cheaper one will come in multiple colors…
That’s exactly what’s happening. Related story, my friend’s Dad went to Best Buy to get an iPad 2 and when they were out, the sleazy sales dork pushed the Xoom on him and told him it was “from Google so it’s much better than the iPad.” So he bought it. Hates it.
He deserves it. Should have done his homework.
From Seth Weintraub, hit whore.
“I’m not so sure.” sums it up nicely.
Solar Powered Unicorn.
@TB2
And to add insult to injury, if he took it back to worst buy, they would charge him a restocking fee.
This is stupid. One of the biggest selling points of the iPhone is the App Store and the wide variety of apps available. A cheaper iPhone would require a smaller screen (the screen is one of the most expensive components), and that causes problems for app developers.
Also, Apple has no need to go after the low end of the market. Let Android have it. Who cares? There’s no profit in it anyway. Just ask Nokia.
It’s not ‘stupid’ at all: A lower-price iPhone, even if not profitable when it’s sold, will generate revenues and profits for Apple due to sales of apps and music from the iTunes store.
Ceding the lower end of the market to Android devices will cost Apple sales of music and apps.
Also, people who buy an iPhone and become accustomed to iOS commands will be more likely to migrate to Macs and other Apple devices.
The only thing to worry about is offering a low-price iPhone that reduces sales of high-price iPhones. That means a slower processor, less flash storage, a less capable camera (etc.) on the low-price phone so it won’t appeal to well-heeled consumers.
If a cheaper iPhone won’t have a smaller screen, then there’s no reason to design a “cheaper” iPhone. Just continue to sell the 3GS at a lower price. Apple likely would need to reduce memory or somehow reduce costs, and that may not be possible to squeeze more cost cutting than what is presently in the iPhone 3GS.
Why is that? New product releases have a long history of offering faster processors and more storage with little or no price increase. I would expect a low-cost Apple offering to offer more than the current 3GS, with the added benefit of supplier agreements better suited to current materials than keeping a legacy design alive.
I’m not so sure that a cheaper iPhone would require a smaller screen, at least not smaller than the 3GS which developers already support. Hopefully, prices for retina displays will fall quickly and make the older displays that much cheaper.
In addition to some wanting larger screens and physical keyboards, others also want more control over their phone. I had an iPhone 3G for a couple of years before switching to the first dual-core android phone back in February. I’m very happy with it — I can configure it exactly how I like. I can use different apps for mail, messaging, and even the dialer if I choose. Android gives me flexibility that I didn’t have with iOS. Actually, this control can be had with iOS if you’re willing to jailbreak. I did with my 3G, and I liked it a lot. But it seems that Apple is hell bent on squashing the jailbreak community — every update included measures to undo and prevent future jailbreaks. This was really annoying. I mean really — it’s my phone — let me do with it what I choose. If you won’t warranty it, I’m OK with that but let me choose what I can and can’t do with my phone.
This said, I’m sure I’m in the minority. Most people just want their phone to work without hassle. And the iPhone does this spectacularly. But there will always be a market for something different and more flexible.
One other reason why there will be a market for Android and other phones is simply that people want to be different and unique. Remember when the iPhone came out? It was a pretty big status symbol to have an iPhone — they were pretty rare! Not so today. iPhones are everywhere. If you want something different nowadays, you have to look somewhere other than the one-size-fits-all iPhone.
I can pretty much guarantee you’re in the minority; I personally know of over a dozen owners of iPhones, not including myself, and not a single one gives a toss about configuring their phones beyond what is native to the devise. There are more than enough apps for anyone to have their phone do what they want, without poking around in the OS, which most people, apart from the geeks, would almost certainly screw up anyway.
I’m another who just wants my device to work without hassle. Sure it would be fun tinkering under the hood with an Android or jail-broken iPhone, but I prefer being able to download an iApp without worrying as much that a nefarious piece of code will steal contacts or toast my telephone on the way to a business meeting. Some of those Cydia apps do sound interesting however, so I can understand where you’re coming from.
I’m not the kinda person that swaps his phone every 6 or 12 months, and I’m fairly happy with my iPhone, but I do agree that there is still a lot of improvement.
No I do not want the hassle to config an android phone, nor do I intend to jailbreak. But yes, I do miss the simple overview on my home screen that shows me my agenda or my todo list items. And I seriously hate the current alert system, but the last ine will be addressed soon, so they say.
After the terrible HTC I had sworn not to go smartphone again at all, even ignoring the iPhone. Then I got a 3GS and I learned that smartphones can work too.
But once you have a PDA that also allows you to make phone calls, you should also unleash the PDA part of the device. This means to me more than just the music player on the home screen. These days it means PDA and online data on your home screen. And since everyone has different needs, it should be configurable but make it hassle free configurable.
I still than that if anyone can do it, apple can. But it looks like google is going a great job on the presentation, just not on the configuration.
If Apple were hell-bent on squashing the jailbreak community, then you wouldn’t be able to jailbreak iPhones. The fact that a jailbreak solution comes out within days or even hours of an iOS update is evidence that Apple really isn’t that concerned about jailbreaking. More likely it’s a contractual obligation with carriers that Apple can’t allow the iPhone to be easily moved to another carrier.
The other problem with your philosophy is that any malware for the iPhone has only been a danger to jailbroken phones, and then, of course, the “open” Android phones. No thanks; I’ll keep my iPhone nice and secure and browse the hundreds of thousands of apps for a solution to what I need, rather than a few thousand apps, many of which may be spyware/malware waiting to infect my phone.
“iPhone 4 is the low end and iPhone 5 the high end?”
No iPhone 5 in 2011 folks. Deal with it.
Rumors consistently indicate an iPhone 4S. If that is the case, the older iPhone 4 would logically be the low end model.
Seeing is believing.
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