Apple COO hints at cheaper iPhone, better prepaid plans

By on Feb 28, 2011 at 12:13 PM
mobile February 28, 2011

In a note to investors on Monday, Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi said that Apple is looking to expand its smartphone market share by addressing the cost of its handsets. Apple doesn’t want its products to be “just for the rich,” Apple COO Tim Cook reportedly told Sacconaghi in a meeting, a possible indication that the company is looking to offer a less expensive iPhone option or even work with carriers to offer better rates. Cook is also said to have told the analyst that Apple will be doing “clever things” in the prepaid market. Cook noted that Apple will continue to focus on the tablet market as well, where it has seen huge success. Sacconaghi believes tablets could soon end up being a $60 billion to $100 billion business for Apple, whose iPad currently owns the majority of the tablet market.

Read

Tags:
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
33 Comments

Related Articles

  • Apple Fanboy

    It wud b nice 2 c a cheapa iphone along wit a betta iphone it wud be betta 4 competition.

    • sirpaul

      So people who can’t afford it because they don’t have an education (like yourself) can afford one too, right?

      Oh wait…America has credit cards for that.

      • Brian

        Mayb dey cud have a gunmetel ifone, yo. lyke to mach my glock- but if it b cheaper i wud b beta cuz i jus bout rimz for my corrola

      • WTF

        Skkrrrttt. Hole-up. Ya thot my brah in da firs poss was serus? Hahaha. U b trippin. I Kant wait till me and my boys can cop us some prepaid ifones. Installous b bout to overload and crash.

      • Anonymous

        hmm. I didn’t use a credit card, just my check card, straight from my bank account for both my iPhone and iPad.

      • Anonymous

        @Sirpaul – I think you missed the joke. It wasn’t funny, but it is funny that you didn’t get it.

      • sirpaul

        I got the joke. What’s funny is that you think I didn’t get the joke.

      • Senor Chang

        What’s funny is how you say you got the joke after not getting the joke then saying how thats funny.

        I love all the commenters who fall for the Trolls. You bring us written entertainment.

      • Anonymous

        No, I got that you got the joke. What is funny is that you didn’t think I thought you got the joke.

  • Brian

    It’s about time apple starts making Cheaper handsets, like android! Seeing all of android handsets are poor build quality, and a sub-par OS I’m sure Apple will be able to dominate in that market as well as hold the superior built devices for the rich! Maybe Apple will allow their “cheaper” devices to imitate “fore close” notifications all the time too! Plus, maybe the battery will only last 3-4 hours and the next generation devices can come out every three to six weeks! Oh, Oh! and! each one will have a different build OS, each slightly different from the next!

    BRILLIANT APPLE! BEAT GOOGLE AT THEIR OWN GAME!

    … Now, do you see how that works class? Thats called trolling. It isn’t nice.

    • sirpaul

      Norm needs to give you lessons on how to troll, lol :) And Android devices aren’t as bad as you make them sound – people like to exaggerate the fragmentation problems…the same way people like to exaggerate antenna problems on the iPhone :)

      • Anonymous

        norm is the definition of s troll.

  • http://twitter.com/hawaiiinsomniac hawaiiinsomniac

    I got rid of my iPhone due to the crazy bill. Say what you want, but a $50 unlimited plan with Boost Mobile is the best.

    I’m surprised they just don’t use 1st gen iPhones for pre-paid, or even the iPhone 3G.

    • Boost Rep

      Yes, rebuilding a SIM based phone into a Non-SIM based phone is super easy. Before you say Nextel is SIM based, remember it runs on a whole diff frequency range. Boost internet sucks, you are essentially paying for unlimited talk and the ability to get your unlimited text messages whenever the hell they feel like sending them. (told from person who sells boost crap)

  • http://twitter.com/Davva360 David Moore

    I don’t think the phone itself needs to be cheaper. $200 for the newest phone on a 2 year plan is ok particularly as they usually keep the old model available at half price. It is the plans that are too expensive right now.

    I would love to get my son an iphone but I don’t want to pay another $30 a month for data so he currently uses my old iphone 3G as an ipod touch. He has a basic cell phone he can use as a phone only, no data. If there was an unlimited family data plan for about $60 per month I would jump on that.

  • Anonymous

    More apple and iPhone fragmentation. No one is ever gonna want this crap now. DROID wins.

    • Anonymous

      do you have a life?

  • Iphonemania

    If apple goes forward with a cheaper product this will kill the mystique of the product and make it no longer the hip gadget to have. By doing this it will no longer be separating itself from the rest of the competition. If it ain’t broke no need to fix it!

    • Notrevo

      You mean the current $49 iphone 3gs isn’t cheap?

      • http://twitter.com/Davva360 David Moore

        Thats why I wouldn’t bring out a cheaper phone. They already sell the old version at half price when the new one comes out. If you can not afford a $100 phone you probably should not have a smartphone because your monthly bill is going to be very close to that if not more.

  • iphonemania

    if i was apple i would focus more on improving the experience of the iPhone and less on competing with the norm. What kills andriod in my opinion is how saturated it has become. They introduce a new phone every wk and then a OS upgrade occurs and takes all the phones months to get up to date.

  • Anonymous

    what is he doing talking to analysts?
    There is no strategic point in talking to an analyst. Other than to spur confidence in stock options. Keep mum about your strategy at all times man. Even if it is obvious.

  • Asd

    i wonder if this means metropcs or boost will be carrying iphones. On second thought, boost wont get it before sprint which leaves metropcs, virgin, etc? Apple could probably just buy one of these companies outright if they wanted to. Either that or bully them into a one sided deal that could be profitable for apple.

  • serpentor

    LOL, Apple going after prepaid market. This is a signal they’re tapped out where they are.

    AT&T’s latest quarter results: 4 million iPhones sold. only 400k new postpaid subscribers.

    • http://twitter.com/Davva360 David Moore

      More to do with going after the Chinese market which operates on a prepaid basis.

  • Dave1

    iPhone 3GS is $50. Isn’t there aleady an iphone for those who aren’t “rich”

  • http://twitter.com/datimmerman Dave

    Cheaper iPhones you say? Well let me just tell you about my favorite German-owned discount mobile carrier… perhaps you’ve heard of them…

  • Tony10

    So the small iPhone rumor is true. WOW after all that time of denying it. Way to go Apple another marketing bomb just exploded on you

  • Tinky_30

    I can haz pre paid eye-fone!?

  • http://blog.trushots.com/ Trudy

    This will be really interesting to see. If anything, the older version phones should be available prepaid and keep the new ones as is. A part of the Apple brand is the feeling of “special” not “everybody” and losing that mystique in this particular part of their market could hurt. At the same time, when the original iPhone came out in 2007, I had it on a non-contract plan with AT&T which was AWESOME because I never had the “cancel your contract and pay a fortune” trap. If companies can create comparable prepaid options like AT&T used to have with Pick Your Plan (not cards and nonsense), where a person has a real account online with minutes but happen to use an iPhone, that may work.

    Will be interesting to see nonetheless.

  • Senor Chang

    What I want to know is… what are all the hardcore fanboys going to use as insults now? I’m going to miss all those “just because you’re too poor” cracks. Even though, ironically, most of those fanboys got their iPhones on contract for $200.

  • Rob

    *News flash* apple creates larger iphone mimicking Android (even though they said 3.4 was big enough), and less expensive iphone (to try and bring their over priced product in line with Android) people fail to notice due to apples irrelevance

  • Anonymous

    OH wow, Should be interesting to see how that turns out.

    http://www.privacy-tools.it.tc

blog comments powered by Disqus