With its share of the smartphone market slipping, Apple plans to launch a lower-cost iPhone next spring to win customers in emerging markets and retake ground in China lost to Huawei Technologies and other rivals, sources said.
The new model would be Apple’s first low-cost smartphone since the launch of the iPhone SE in 2016, which started at $399. Though the name and price of the new model hasn’t been decided, it is viewed as the latest generation of the iPhone SE…
Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, acknowledged in January that “price is a factor” behind weaker sales in emerging markets… The new, cheaper iPhone could boost sales for Apple next spring, when the life-cycle of new flagship iPhones — scheduled to be unveiled Sept. 10 — would naturally begin to slow. The original iPhone SE sold about 30 million units in 2016 and another 10 million between 2017 and 2018, according to Yuanta Investment Consulting…
The size of the new model will be similar to the 4.7-inch iPhone 8 that was introduced in 2017, three sources said. The model will share most of the same components with the flagship iPhones this year, and it will feature the lower-cost liquid crystal display that will help Apple achieve the lower starting price-tag, although the final pricing for the model is not yet settled, the people said… The cheaper iPhone next spring could be Apple’s only new handset that still uses LCD displays. The financially-troubled Japan Display would be its major supplier, while LG Display will also provide LCD for this model, the people said.
MacDailyNews Take: The iPhone 8’s dimensions are very close to those of iPhone X/XS:
iPhone 8: 5.45 inches (138.4 mm) x 2.65 inches (67.3 mm) x 0.29 inch (7.3 mm), 4.7-inch LCD
iPhone X/XS: 5.65 inches (143.6 mm) x 2.79 inches (70.9 mm) x 0.30 inch (7.7 mm), 5.8-inch OLED
By losing the home button and moving to a full screen “Liquid Retina HD display” like those featured in iPhone XR, the display could increase to something much closer to the 5.8-inch display offered by iPhone X/XS than the iPhone 8’s small 4.7-inch screen.
Regardless, such a model would be good news for Japan Display which needs all of the business it can get.