“Pictures of candy-colored entry-level iPhones with rounded corners have started circulating,” Tero Kuittinen writes for BGR. “Many have branded them hideous, crude atrocities. They need to be.”
“Apple is facing a unique dilemma: Because of the stellar success of the iOS app universe, the entry-level iPhone has to have nearly the same specs as the flagship iPhone,” Kuittinen writes. “The display has to be large. The processing power has to be substantial. Apple cannot afford to fragment the iPhone device base… Still, the budget iPhones have to be something that affluent and aspirational consumers despise.”
Kuittinen writes, “Apple cannot have the bulk of its customers trade down to the budget phone from more expensive devices. It must make the entry-level model look so vulgar and cheap that most iPhone users will stick to the main line models, even if they have to pay a $200 to $400 premium. The budget phones have to look tackier than the new iPhone 5S, but that is not enough — they must also be less desirable than the iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S… yet still appear more desirable than low-end Android phones. This is a very, very tricky maneuver to pull off…”
Read more in the full article here.
