“Apple is set to relaunch the 8GB version of the iPhone 4 in the Indian market after losing sales and market share in the middle segment to rival Samsung in the last quarter after pulling out the model as part of a global strategy,” Writankar Mukherjee reports for The Economic Times.
“The US company, pressing hard to raise its market share in India, will price the device at around 15,000 through buyback and EMI schemes compared with its old retail price of Rs 26,500, Apple’s four top trade partners in India said requesting anonymity due to confidentiality clauses,” Mukherjee reports. “The model launched three years ago has been succeeded by the 4S, 5, 5c and 5s, the last of which starts at Rs 53,500.”
“Since Apple stopped production of the iPhone 4 last August-September, the company is likely to source unsold inventory of the model from around the globe for the Indian market. However, this could not be independently verified,” Mukherjee reports. “‘Apple’s iPhone 4 8GB model used to rank amongst the top three selling models by unit sales and fight neck and neck with Samsung, but with its exit the company lost much ground,’ said a senior executive at a top electronic retail[er].”
Read more in the full article here.
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I hope they’re running iOS 6 on the iPhone 4 which would complement it well. iOS 7, on the other hand, makes the iPhone 4 run like a dog. Plus it’s buggy as hell even on the latest iOS hardware.
Had an iPhone 4 running iOS7 with no problem. Have iOS7 running on iPhone 5s, no problem. Perhaps you’re experiencing operator error. It is a pretty sophisticated device.
If iOS 7 is inducing operator error, then iOS 7 itself is error strewn and not as simple to operate as iOS 6 which didn’t induce operator error. Apple touts iOS devices as so simple to operate that a 5 year old ought to be able to do it. That was true under iOS 6. iOS 7 is neither simple to operate or to understand due to the thin fonts and hard to understand lousy flat icons.
You just prove my point that IOS 7 is a buggy POS (piece of shit).
TROLL !!!
I am reading this on a 4 running iOS7. I even have a five year old who has absolutely no problems using it. Maybe BLN should go back to kindergarten. After all you really need to know you learn there.
Gotta love how you make up versions of what others are saying so you can shoot it down in blames to fit your own contrived opinion. Seems you have buggy comprehension skills. Probably best to downgrade to Neanderthal 10.1.
iOS 7 can be very buggy on an iPhone 4 (my current setup). Keeping it running smoothly requires lots of free disk space and a full restore, not just an overlay install. Maybe that will help you BLN.
Also, are you going to change your username after MS gets a new CEO?
Thanks for the tip. I’ll have to check it out. Mucho gracias.
As for changing my nick, I don’t know. I haven’t decided yet. Chances are I’ll keep it. There’s a smidgen of a chance Ballmer might still make a comeback.
Oh god. I hope he doesn’t go all Brett Favre on us.
Company I work for deployed iPhones to all managers last year. If you chose the 4 or 4S our IT department highly recommended iOS6 over 7 for speed and functionality (icons that make sense).
IT departments often make recommendations based on criteria that have no relevance to the users of that technology. If an IT department were to take into account the look of the icons, I would be very dubious about their decision making, which appears to be somewhat suspect if they were deploying iPhone 4 or 4S for managers when the 5 ( and from September 5S ) were already on the market.
Any IT dept. that has trouble with iOS 7 icons isn’t worth spit. There isn’t anything confusing, since most of the icons are the same symbols, just no longer shaded with depth. It’s hardly enough to stagger a human mind.
The other icons are actually far simpler to understand.
PEBCAP
iOS 7.1 dramatically improves situation, so not need for 6.
As to iPhone 4, it was obvious from very beginning that Apple will lose some market if it cuts off its cheapest device.
The internals of this devices are so cheap that there is no argument that keeping iPhone 4 would lower margin percentage. The issue for Apple was absolute margin figure, which could suffer with keeping cheapest iPhones available.
Margin is profit. By keeping the cheapest iPhone at the cheapest cost to build, Apple would increase its margins not lower. Whatever are you talking about anyway?
You do understand the difference between margins percentages and the margin in absolute figures?
Even with very good percentage of margins for cheap devices Apple will not earn as much money as they would with more expensive products. Instead of buying more expensive device, many buyers would choose buying cheaper version simply because it would be available.
If the cheapest option is cancelled, they would have to buy more expensive phone. So Apple will earn much more by not having cheapest devices versus having them.
This is the reason why by default Apple never released cheaper than $400-phone in all the recent years. The sheer volume of blown-up sales of cheap phones would not make up for loss of net profits on more expensive devices.
My wife and I are still using our iPhone 4 models with iOS7, and we haven’t noticed any problems. Other than the fact we have crappy AT&T we are doing okay.
AT&T works great where I live.
Since no Apple device (not even Apple TV or iPod touch) currently uses the A4 chip, and Apple was the only customer, Samsung is probably no longer producing those parts? “Unsold inventory” of iPhone 4 is not going to last very long.
But I guess about six months all Apple needs, because when the next lineup is released, Apple can drop the iPhone 4s price and instead of stopping production, keep making them “indefinitely” for the India (and other “emerging” markets). The current model is already 8GB, with a dual core A5 chip (instead of the single core A4). The iPhone 4s is still a VERY competent smartphone, with classic good looks that does not seem “dated” at all.
Anyone with enough money to buy an iPhone is a customer. No matter where they live. Anyone determined to spend their money purchasing an iPhone is a customer. No matter where they live. Apple doesn’t care where you live or how much money you have. As long as you purchase their product. They are in business to make money, not to impress you. India is second only to China in the number of potential customers for Apple. They are not about to overlook this vast number of potential sales. Maybe they will have the right approach and maybe not? Only time will tell. But they are not going to overlook all those customers. Apple isn’t selling Gucci handbags. They’re selling cell phones, tablet computers and desktop computers. They are not trying to impress you. They’re trying to sell their goods. So dismount from your arrogant, haughty, high horse attitude. You should be ashamed of calling those people in India downgrade. Prick.
Wall Street is always pointing out how people in emerging nations are dirt-poor bastards. Apple offers an iPhone to those people and the first thing analysts say are that those piss-poor consumers can’t afford iPhones and Apple won’t be able to sell very many. Wall Street is basically telling Apple to stop wasting their time trying to sell high-quality iPhones to those losers. Wall Street is disrespecting those consumers long before Apple even starts selling products there.
Too many people on this site consistently blame Wall Street for all the woes of the world. Including Apple’s. Apple doesn’t listen to Wall Street regarding it’s strategic analysis. Wall Street doesn’t control or manipulate Apple or it’s share price. Investors, institutional and otherwise, either invest in Apple or they don’t. It’s as simple as that. As for manipulation, all equities and companies are fair game on Wall Street. Something that most here just can’t comprehend. But of course that’s why so many here are underwater in AAPL. Apple is a company run by its directors and management team. They either make good decisions or they don’t. Wall Street doesn’t have anything to do with that. They’re not manipulated by Wall Street. That is just something that is conveniently thrown out of there by people who do not know how to invest. I have no idea if Apple will succeed in selling their wares in India? As a longtime Apple customer and investor I certainly hope they do succeed. But if Apple or I fail I certainly won’t blame Wall Street. Wall Street, Wall Street, Wall Street! It’s all you see on this site. Just read the comments and count the number of times that Wall Street is mentioned. As we are taught when we are young, take responsibility for your own actions. Don’t blame others. Be responsible for what you do or don’t do in life. Don’t blame others. It’s the way I believe and act. You can be certain that Apple does the same. Apple never blames Wall Street for its failures or gives Wall Street credit for Apple’s successes. They can’t because Apple is responsible for what Apple does. Everyone needs to quit blaming Wall Street. It’s embarrassing.
Apple is constantly losing huge amounts of market share to Android smartphones and selling a few million more low-cost iPhones in India sure isn’t going to make much of a difference to Apple’s revenue stream. There’s nothing Apple can do to bring back that lost market share that Wall Street demands by selling an 8 GB iPhone. Google’s combined free Chrome OS and free Android OS strategy is just better for market share than any strategy Apple can possibly come up with. So if Apple decides to sell a cheaper iPhone in India they must be doing it because they see some long-term benefit from offering iPhone services.
Apple needs to develop a long-term low-cost iPhone strategy where Apple helps to finance those smartphones to consumers in emerging nations. I still don’t think it’s going to have any immediate effect by showing gained market share, though. It’ll just slow the loss of market share by tiny amounts. Unless something goes very wrong with Android’s ecosystem, Google as a company will continue to grow wealthier and stronger. Almost no consumers or companies can resist the lure of free Android. Google’s free Android OS bait is proving irresistible and it appears Windows OS is likely to be pushed aside for the most part.
And Porche needs to develop a low cost car to try to sell to emerging nations to increase their sales also. Laughable laughing idiot. Market share isn’t everything. Quality and performance is. Take another hit on that Laughing Gas tube.
Simple math. If google makes .01 on every Android customer (since they pay nothing for the OS, nothing for the support, and spend far less on apps/books/stuff), it doesn’t matter if they sell 1000x what Apple does. Apple makes triple that from just 25% of the customers.
You obviously don’t know that Apple makes double the amount from its app store as the Android market makes Google, with just 25% of the downloads. Why? Android customers are basically worthless financially. They don’t buy anything. It’s ok to use a loss leader, if people buy other stuff. It fails miserably when they come for the free and that’s it.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/tonybradley/2013/11/15/android-dominates-market-share-but-apple-makes-all-the-money/
That’s not all. Google’s record valuation is still $130 billion short of Apple’s as of Oct 2013. $130 BILLION! Apple is worth more than Google and Microsoft combined right now. Keep dreaming about Google changing that by giving everything away for free. Free doesn’t put money in the bank, buddy.
Oh my various gods!
sir its true what new iphone 4 8gb relaunch india 26 jan. plese tell me