As you probably know by now many rumours have been suggesting that Apple will deliver a lower priced iPhone 4 sometime in the near future that is hoped to address the Android situation, but just how will Apple make that new iPhone 4 cost less? Well apparently by giving the iOS smartphone less internal memory.
According to an article on Reuters, and by way of 2 people with “knowledge of the matter” Asian suppliers of Apple gear have begun production of the lower priced iPhone 4 model that will have a 8GB flash drive.
Apparently one of the unnamed people said that a Korean firm is manufacturing the 8GB iPhone 4, but refused to say which company it was.
Previous rumour has suggested that Apple will deliver a cheap iPhone 4 model for emerging markets that could possibly be made of plastic rather than glass to keep costs down, and it has also been rumoured that Apple would unveil the cheap iPhone 4 possibly at the same time as the iPhone 5.
iPhone flash drives are currently source by Apple from Toshiba in Japan and Samsung in South Korea, and apparently Apple along with Samsung has declined to comment on the matter which is expected.
Bonnie Chang, an analyst for Yuanta Securities says, “Apple may want to push into the emerging market segment where customers want to switch to low- to mid-end smartphones from high-end feature phones, which usually cost $150-200. But I think for an 8GB iPhone 4 the price is hard to go below $200, so Apple will still need a completely new phone with low specifications for the emerging markets.”
Furthermore one of the unnamed sources has apparently stated that Apple is indeed looking at an end of September launch for the iPhone 5 and that the 2 iPhone 5 makers have been instructed to prepare production for up to 45 million next generation iOS smartphones.