“The pre-paid market in the US is fairly anemic, but dominates Asia and Africa and holds a fair portion of the market in Europe and Latin America. This huge potential market is likely making Apple’s shareholders salivate and would provide a burst of growth to the company if it were able to launch a product cheap enough to appeal to a non-subsidised pre-paid customer,” Matthew Panzarino writes for The Next Web. “This is why rumors of a lower-end iPhone have caught fire so quickly. It makes good business sense.”
“But those rumors have been supplemented in recent weeks by talk of a thinner and lighter iPhone 5 ‘flagship’ model, an ‘iPad HD’ later this year and the iPod 3G,” Panzarino writes. “Many of these rumors are backed by ‘sources familiar with the matter’ and some of them are even contradictory. Why is it that we see so many people that are absolutely sure of the existence of new products coming from Apple? And why is it that many times they don’t materialize on schedule?”
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Panzarino writes, “There’s actually a very simple answer to this question. Apple has its device roadmap planned, and in some cases built, much further out than the iPhone 5, iPod touch 3G, iPhone light and iPad HD.”
“It is possible that Apple will address pre-paid customers through an entirely new line of iPhones at a more aggressive price. There are examples in the history of the company that speak to its desire to dominate an entire market, the iPod being a recent example,” Panzarino writes. “The appearance of a 3G-enabled iPod touch first, as a forerunner for a future ‘lite’ iPhone, feels like a more likely outcome at this point.”
Much more in the full article here.
Or maybe Steve has concocted a scheme to find leakers.
Agree.
I think this guy is shooting blanks. Unless Apple can make a full-function device, I just don’t see Apple making a lesser phone. Maybe they can make a less expensive iPhone 3gs in a nicer form, then maybe…
There are markets where prepaid is the consumers’ preferred mode of payment. That’s a given.
Apple knows this, and they almost certainly want to get into those markets. How they will do it remains to be seen, but should be interesting.
It’s more likely that Apple will start selling older models as pre-paid to bring more people into the fold and then lock them in when they are ready to commit to the latest and greatest model.
Let’s let Apple completely dominate the post-paid market first.
Once they have all the copiers and the so called killers begging for a little business break assembling Apple products, then go for whatever scraps they’ve been fighting over.
“This is why rumors of a lower-end iPhone have caught fire so quickly. It makes good business sense.”
Only to the sheep.
Yeah, Apple making a low or no-profit disposable phone in an effort to undercut their “premium” product image makes perfect sense … to those who entertain wet dreams that Apple will one day rule the world!
Look at how well “the low or no-profit” phones did for Nokia.
iPad 3G … What keeps it from being used as a phone? Not much; not that people would hold it up to their ear. The software would have to be changed, you would have to have a bluetooth earpiece (sure you could have a cord but … Really? NO!).
So if a iPod Touch is made with the requisite mobile hardware (3G, 4G, sim slots et al) … This isn’t a stretch at all.
What Apple should do is:
iPhone 3GS(Pre-paid) 8GB
iPhone 3GS(free two year contract) 8GB
iPhone 4 ($99 two year contract) 16GB
iPhone 4S/5 ($199, $299 two year contract) 32GB, and 64GB models.