Low Cost iPhone is at Apple’s Charts – Product Rumors Are In The Air!

iPhone fans can get a low-cost device now, as Apple is going to launch that sooner. Some say the low-cost Smartphone would be either fully plastic body or a combo of metal and plastic. It would be a downgrade from the previous metal or glass design, sources revealed at DigiTimes.
DigiTimes said without mentioning the supply chain sources that the main purpose of using a plastic body in the device is to cut the manufacturing cost of the phone. However, some other sources revealed that the phone would have a mixture of plastic and metal, with internal parts visible from outside.

Another rumour about the phone is that the device would be manufactured by a U.S. company supplying electronic products; however, Foxconn didn’t comment over this report. Sources disclosed that the phone parts are being manufactured and the finished phone would be available in the market during the second half of 2013.

Despite all the things revealed by DigiTimes, it’s not possible to accept them blindly. How it can be confusing to accept these rumours? Here is some insight into this matter.

It’s not easy to believe that Apple is going to launch a low-cost iPhone with a plastic body; at least this plastic thing can’t be true. Apple has its repute in the Smartphone industry, so using plastic means destroying its image. However, there could be some other options to keep the cost as low as possible, but not the plastic body option.

Plastic and metal combination to be used in the phone’s body can be a possibility, but still, it’s hard to believe that Apple could go for some cheap options just to keep the cost low.
The last thing revealed at DigiTimes is that the phone would be manufactured in the U.S. seems to be something exciting. Although Apple has assured that soon, there would be more productive in the U.S. and Foxconn has also confirmed to expand the operations in North America. Despite all these confirmations, it’s not possible at least this year to launch a big scale manufacturing unit in the U.S. just for the sake of low cost. It would be an expensive venture to launch a phone in the U.S. at the moment, compared to the cheap Chinese production.

Although there were rumours about the low-cost iPhone, hype to this news was given by the latest reports published in Bloomberg, DigiTimes, and The Wall Street Journal. Several analysts like Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray, Peter Misek of Jefferies, and Neil Mawston of Strategy Analytics, have added to the speculations.

Many of the reports claimed that the phone would be launched at the end of 2013, as Apple wants to give its competitors a tough time. The company also wants to grab the market share of the developing countries from Samsung.

Apple hasn’t confirmed any of these reports officially, which is a usual strategy of the company. Shanghai News has cited some comments of Phil Schiller, Apple’s marketing VP, saying that the company wouldn’t launch a low-cost phone to win over the larger market share, but the news was later revised, which gives some weight to the rumours of a low-cost iPhone to be launched sooner.
Even if Apple launches a low-cost iPhone in the market, the consumers will have to buy iPhone software to make the device lock-free. Would it be fine to buy the phone, only to spend the money on unlocking software? Apple should consider this aspect as well.