Apple’s guy in charge of marketing, Phil Schiller, said in an interview recently that Apple has no plans of making a cheap iPhone:
“At first, non-smartphones were popular in the Chinese market, now cheap smartphones are more popular and non-smartphones are out,” Schiller added later. “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%, we own the 75% of the profit.”
Phil Schillers statement comes a few days after Wall Street Journal wrote that Apple will try to increase their market share by releasing a cheap version of the iPhone.
Phil goes on to say in the interview:
“[…] every product that Apple creates, we consider using only the best technology available. This includes the production pipeline, the Retina display, the unibody design, to provide the best product to the market.”
But the Devil is in the details, and so it’s likely that Phil has just very carefully selected his words. Apple may not release “a cheap iPhone”, but maybe they will release a “cheaper version than the existing iPhone”. Just like when Steve Jobs said Apple would not make a 7″ tablet because that market is stillborn, well, few years later, they almost did (iPad Mini is 7.9″, but close enough).
Apple focuses more on quality then just sales. That’s why it has huge loyal audience and ready to make purchase even though it costs more than other companies.
This is a great news that apple will not make a cheap iPhone. Nice post, thanks for this information.
I just read an article that the Associated Press is walking back a lot of these claims, as they say the “source article” has significantly changed.
So for whatever reason, they are walking these comments back. [email protected]
They will never release a cheap iPhone. Apple doesn’t want everyone to own an iPhone, than it won’t be so special anymore 😉
Apple is really awesome. It focuses more on quality then just sales.
I think apple should make a somewhat cheaper version of iPhone , as it is still restricted to rich people , and hasnt reached every hand who can hold an iPhone.
There’s no way in hell that Apple will create a cheap product to gain market share. It would tarnish their brand. Apple’s strategy is rather simple, they’re ‘cheap’ product is last year (or two years ago) product. It works great, but is not as fast and sexy as the new stuff. And that’s perfect, not every one needs the latest stuff.
It’s ironic because I remember that Steve Jobs use to mock the PC industry because their low end models where ‘last years’ model. Apple is now doing the same 🙂