Many previous reports have said that Apple is also developing a smaller iPhone version in addition to the 4.7-inch iPhone 6s and the 5.5-inch iPhone 6s Plus. Dubbed the iPhone 6c, the device supposedly has a 4-inch display and specs that match last year’s iPhone 6. The rumors said Apple will launch the device in early 2016, and a new report seems to indicate that the iPhone maker might indeed be working on a cheaper iPhone.
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Brean Capital analyst Ananda Baruah wrote in a note to investors that Apple’s “low-end iPhone” will arrive as early as this spring, outside of Apple’s typical fall iPhone launch cycle. The note was picked up by Business Insider.
Interestingly, the analyst seems to also entertain the idea that Apple would make a cheaper iPhone that could have the same size as the iPhone 6.
“A new lower-end iPhone – either a smaller functional iPhone model or a “skinny (our term) iPhone 6 sized phone,” Baruah wrote. “This would allow AAPL to tap into emerging market / lower functional ASP-sensitive areas of the smartphone market.”
Many people have speculated that Apple will have to launch cheaper iPhones to compete with Android in some markets, but the company never delivered such a device. Even the iPhone 5c, a variation of the iPhone 5, wasn’t a low-end device. It never even was the “cheap” iPhone many envisioned.
Rather than launching a brand new device with a low price point, which is what plenty of Android handset makers do every year, Apple has always kept older iPhones in stock and reduced their price by $100 each year. Currently, the cheapest new iPhone available from Apple is the iPhone 5s.
