The mystery of whether Apple will come out with a lower-priced iPhone has taken a new twist.
The Reuters news agency this morning cryptically withdrew a story it had written yesterday pegged to remarks purportedly made by Apple's Phil Schiller in China. That story had been based on a report in the Shanghai Evening News, which Reuters now says, ever so tersely, "was subsequently updated with substantial changes to its content."
That's it -- "substantial changes," with no elaboration. Intriguing, yes. But also frustratingly vague.
We've spent a good part of the morning scouring the Web for further details. We've turned Google Translate loose on the Shanghai Evening News site. But so far, it's been an exercise in futility.
We put the question to Reuters, too, about what exactly changed in the report out of Shanghai. When we hear back, we'll let you know.
So what is it that Schiller, Apple's SVP of worldwide marketing, is supposed to have said in his interview with the Shanghai Evening News? This, as related by The Next Web: "Despite the popularity of cheap smartphones, this will never be the future of Apple's products. In fact, although Apple's market share of smartphones is just about 20 percent, we own 75 percent of the profit."
The comments attributed to Schiller came in the wake of reports this week suggesting that Apple, whose popular iPhone is pricey compared to many alternative smartphones and less powerful feature phones, may in fact be considering adding a lower-cost iPhone to its product lineup for emerging markets.
Just yesterday as well, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster mused that a lower-priced iPhone -- set at, say, $199 -- could open up a vast new market for Apple, on the scale of tens of millions of potential new buyers.
"We believe the opportunity for Apple is too large to miss as the low-end market is growing significantly faster than the high-end smartphone market," Munster added.
"We note that the cheapest iPhone, the
iPhone 4, currently costs $450 off contract and more in many countries where additional taxes are levied," the analyst said in a separate note this week. "We note that an off contract iPhone 4 is ~$490 in China and $750 in Brazil, thus the sub-$199 price would be a significant discount. Historically, we believe lower-priced products have had a measurable positive impact on overall revenue (iPad Mini,
iPod Nano,
iPad)."
The Bloomberg news agency earlier in the week reported, citing sources, that Apple could set a price as low as $99 for a budget-minded iPhone. Both Bloomberg and Munster indicated that Apple could come out with said new iPhone sometime later this year.
New intrigue on trail of cheaper iPhone
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New intrigue on trail of cheaper iPhone
