Apple would only enter the lower-end phone market if it could deliver a handset capable of outdoing cheap Android smartphones, some of the tech giant highest-ranking execs have reportedly revealed.
Rumours of a cut-price version of the iPhone using recycled parts from older-gen Apple smarties have been rife for months. Analysts claim that the move is aimed at competing with kits running Google’s Android OS, which currently dominate the low-end smartphone market.
However, for all that consumers are crying out for a more affordable Apple phone, it seems that the battle for market share alone isn’t enough to compel the company to launch a cheaper phone right now.
According to Apple COO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer, whose brains were picked by a rep from market analysis firm RBC Capital Markets, the company would only ever consider bringing out a cheaper handset if they’re sure it can offer an "innovative, category-killer experience”.
A cut-price phone from Apple would mark a paradigm shift in its business model for handsets, which has focussed on selling premium products at a premium price.
The remarks from Apple’s top brass come after a report from Bernstein Research recently claimed that a lower priced iPhone “would expand Apple’s addressable market six-fold”.
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