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Bloomberg: Apple working on “cheaper and smaller” iPhone to compete with Android

By on February 10, 2011 at 9:46pm in Mobile News


The rumours of a smaller and more affordable iPhone has been circling for a few years now. Today Bloomberg reported that Apple is working of producing a “cheaper and smaller” iPhone that is “about one-third smaller” than the current model and would sell for an unsubsidized price point around the $200 mark. The reason: to take on Google’s Android platform.

“Apple Inc. is working on new versions of the iPhone that are aimed at slowing the advance of competing handsets based on Google Inc.’s Android software… While Apple has aimed to unveil the device near mid-year, the introduction may be delayed or scrapped, the person said. Few Apple employees know the details of the project, the person said. Apple often works on products that don’t get released. The prototype was about one-third smaller than the iPhone 4, said the person, who saw it last year.”

Source: Bloomberg
Via: AppleInsider

  • zorxd

    Why not just sell the iPhone 3GS $200?

  • Kevin

    sound like, Apple wanna make iphone Nano.. LOL~~ but.. it sounds so weird to have “cheaper and smaller” but remain same function as Iphone?? or Iphone without touch screen, like old fashioned Press Buttons.. LOL!

  • chris

    i’m assuming the internals will definitely be lower quality than the iphone 4. To make something something smaller and retain its full performance for cheaper is too good to be true…

  • m1lk

    If Apple wanted to be actually competitive, they should probably upgrade the hardware, better processor and other peripherals.

    The screen needs to be better, there’s something called a dragon display that was shown in CES2011 that was stronger than the gorilla stuff so i’d start there

    then get rid of the glass back panel and incorporate a hard metal surface. If they wanted to go cheap go tin or aluminum.

    if they really wanna get fancy, go carbon fiber

    boost wifi speeds up to support a/b/g/n etc. and get it up to 4G right away instead of releasing 3g, 3gS, 4, 4g, 4gs etc installments, because that’s not treating your market fairly

    then open up some more customization options to the people who want it.

    i’m not saying open up the source but just let people that want to run custom apps to do so.

  • Wildspin

    A $200 iPhone can only happen with a lot of corners cut … I think this is just another dumb rumor such as the ones spread on the web by Shaw Wu etc.

    Folks, even an 8GB ipod Nano will cost you $159, the least expensive iPod touch goes for $249. Bloomberg must have smoked some bad cracks. LOL

    • zorxd

      A cheaper alternative to compete with android could be a $400 phone. The current iPhone is so expensive that a $400 phone would appear cheap.

    • zorxd

      I just saw that Apple still sells the 3GS for $550. I can’t imagine what a $200 phone would be. From Apple, it can only be a dumbphone.

  • teee

    they shouldn’t! fido will stop selling the high end iphone and go for the cheap one…just like what they are doing with blackberry :(

    • ROB

      Fido is a “cheap” carrier anyway so what is the problem?

  • ROB

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…OMG I am about to pass out from all the irony this article vomits out. Sorry for the nasty imagery but this is too much!

    After Apple said they were not threatened by Android here comes a little hint, That this giant company does in fact feel fear.

    Well we shall see if this does come to pass, personally they should make bigger smartphones not smaller. Android has 4, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.5, 4.8, 5 & 7 inch phones. I think by now 3.5 is considered the SMALL size. (There were rumors that sony ericsson was making a WP7 phone, one of which was a mini version and it was 3.5″)

    All I have to say is Long Live Android

  • JEEW

    3.5 inch sounds like Mr. Jobs dick size

  • Sub-Joker

    1/3 smaller means the screen will be around 2.4 inches?? thanks apple, but no thanks.

    ANYWAYS, I think this is just dumb rumors. as many stated, the iPod nano cost around 170. Apple is making the iPhone to be an exclusive phone. putting another useless iPhone beside it will ruin the exclusivity of the iPhone as we know it.

  • Sub-Joker

    WAIT I GET IT. I think somebody was confused with those chinese iPhone replica and he/she called it as the “cheap iPhone”….. can somebody inform bloomberg that this isn’t an iPhone but rather cheap replica that can’t do anything near what the iPhone can do.

  • ej

    Apple shouldn’t worry about Android, worry about WINDOWS PHONE!!!! THE BIG DADDY IS BACK. ANDROID FEELS FEAR WITH WP PEROID.

  • Jordan

    Or they could just you know..make it an open OS if they want to compete more with Android.

  • ss123

    some people on this forum are complete morons, like seriously yeah android has phones that come in many sizes, but have you not noticed that with the 3.5 inch screen Apple’s had a lot of success, and even with the larger screen phones out doesn’t necessarily mean there better. And yeah for that other guy who said that they need a better screen? retina display has like one of the highest if not the highest resolution out there for smartphones. Some people on here are i****s. Why would they change there recipe if its working pretty damn good so far. plus this rumors complete bs for those monkeys at bloomberg

    • Sub-Joker

      Say hi for me to Steve jobs next time you visit him for that blow job….

    • Geoff

      When he said the screen had to be better, he meant that it needed to be more durable (or just protected from damage one way or another). That’s why he’s talking about dragon glass and gorilla glass.

  • Phil

    And not too long ago, Apple was saying Android needs to compete with them. Tides have turned.

  • apowerranger

    Yeah, as if the iPhone needs to be smaller. It’s already one of the smallest screens on the market.

  • andy c

    i doubt this would be true because if it was then why would you get a itouch over this?