As reported by The Wall Street Journal, Apple is preparing to release a budget version of its flagship smartphone this year.
Rumors about the company’s plans to release an inexpensive smartphone have been going around since 2010, when the iPhone 4 entered the market. But only now, according to analysts, there is a real need for such a product. At one time, budget devices allowed Android to gain strength, displacing “apple” devices from the market. And now, if Apple does not respond to Google’s challenge, it may face the dominance of the search giant’s smartphones in all segments.
According to the WSJ, the cheap iPhone external will not differ from the iPhone 5, however, its case will be made not of aluminum, but of plastic. Processors of previous generations of Apple smartphones will probably be used as a filling.
Analysts believe that the budget iPhone will be focused on emerging markets, primarily Chinese. Perhaps an additional impetus to release a budget version of the iPhone was also the result of successful sales of the iPad mini, which is in great short supply in the Chinese market.
Although it would seem, why would Apple undertake the manufacture of such devices, given that the old iPhone models are consistently successful in the markets, which, in fact, play the role of budget gadgets of the “apple” company.