Reuters Pulls Story on Phil Schiller's iPhone Comments Following 'Substantial Changes' to Source Article [Updated]

[mrsir2009]

Originally Posted by JaySoul

Honestly think now is the time for Apple to put out 3 iPhones:

1) A 'budget' 3.5" one for emerging markets

2) The 4" iPhone

3) A new 5-5.5" iPhone

That's it, just 3 options. Sink or swim.

Yep - Then they can charge a crapload for the largest version, and it’ll be a status symbol, so that guy who was whining in another thread about the iPhone not being a status symbol anymore can once again become elite

[Kwill]

Official position: We maintain the upmost quality (but reserve the right to pursue other markets at different price points if it benefits the company). We have no plans to make a "cheap" product.

[macs4nw]

Originally Posted by Allenbf

Interesting that they are choosing not to reprint the article with the "changes." Surely Schiller/Apple didn't reach out to anyone on this?

Who knows, but Chinese to English translation is difficult and not an exact science.
Maybe they're worried they'll get it wrong again, and lose even more credibility.

[theBB]

Originally Posted by JaySoul

Honestly think now is the time for Apple to put out 3 iPhones:

1) A 'budget' 3.5" one for emerging markets

2) The 4" iPhone

3) A new 5-5.5" iPhone

If it does not fit in a pocket, it is not really a phone. If it requires a case to carry, there is iPad mini. I'd say 3 is not going to happen, even though combining a small tablet with a phone worked well enough for Samsung.

I am not sure if the price difference between 3.5'' and 4'' is all that much. It is not even all that noticeable when you see it a couple feet away. If Apple is going to sell a phone at $200 or even $300 without subsidies, they may go the way of iPod Nano. Something that is not a full iPhone. A browser, basic pre-installed apps and a limited selection of games. Many people buying cheap Android phones use them for roughly these purposes, so it might actually work out. That way they can get a well built phone, but clearly not as valuable as iPhone.

[xofruitcake]

Originally Posted by AZREOSpecialist

Yes, but only if the Mini were actually sold at a lower price point. Selling it at $329 when your competitors have comparable products at $199 means that Apple is sacrificing quality at higher price points. That is a bad combination.

and yet Ipad mini probably outsold Nexus 7 and kindle fire HD this quarter. so the consumer is judging Ipad mini worthwhile of their money. What is your point again?

[Bwinski]

Reuter's lied.

[TheMTtakeover]

Originally Posted by phr0ze

The mini is far from a scarifice in quality. Its a different device than the full ipad. It has different specs. That's <> sacrifice in quality. I think the build of the mini is better than the full ipad. And I bet the next ipad will move toward the mini design.

Thats as bad as saying the ipod touch is a sacrifice in quality because it doesn't have LTE built in. Or the iphone 5 is a sacrifice in quality because it does not have a 9.7" screen that the ipad has.

I agree and I don't think the screen in the mini is a sacrifice in quality, but I do think that not including the A6 or the A6X is a scrafice in quality to cut costs.

[irDigital0l]

Originally Posted by theBB

If it does not fit in a pocket, it is not really a phone. If it requires a case to carry, there is iPad mini. I'd say 3 is not going to happen, even though combining a small tablet with a phone worked well enough for Samsung.

You can fit a Galaxy SIII into pocket easily unless you wear those supper tight, skinny jeans which honestly can't even fully fit an iPhone.

I'd say Apple will release a larger size option, the question is whether it'll be for the iPhone 5S/6. Probably won't but I do think Apple is going quad-core and big HD screen soon. The current screen is barely shy of 720p which is kinda sad.

[oplix]

What Phil really meant was we had it coming but you ****ed it up for us so now we are cancelling it.

[Chupa Chupa]

Originally Posted by petsounds

There's a big difference between a freelance Reuters reporter and a staff writer for the New York Times. The former is not much different than a blogger, you're right. But the latter is held to a much higher standard of journalistic ethics than a blogger. Most bloggers don't even know what journalist ethics are.

Please. Do you not recall some of the major unsourced & poorly sourced reporting from the NYT & WP in the last decade.Google it if you have selective memory. At ant rate, free lance or not, it's up to the editor to make sure an article is sound & publishable.

[JAT]

Originally Posted by firewood

If you look at the tear-downs, the BOM of the iP4 isn't that much cheaper than the 5. They could make something much cheaper if they wanted to keep up their margins at a much lower unsubsidized/unlocked price point.

For subsidized, something cheaper than the iP4 and thus below $0, such as $150 cash-back with a 2-year contract woud be more suitable for the budget market.

At the risk of sounding like a rich elitist, I'm going to once again say if you can't afford $200 for a smartphone, then you REALLY can't afford the plan to go with it. $0 for an i4 is a pretty good deal, I know a family about to get maybe four of them.

Where are they paying people to take phones? I never see that. $150 rebates are only after you pay $150 or more to purchase. So, they get to use your money for a month or 6 while they decide whether to honor your rebate.

[xofruitcake]

Originally Posted by JAT

At the risk of sounding like a rich elitist, I'm going to once again say if you can't afford $200 for a smartphone, then you REALLY can't afford the plan to go with it. $0 for an i4 is a pretty good deal, I know a family about to get maybe four of them.

Where are they paying people to take phones? I never see that. $150 rebates are only after you pay $150 or more to purchase. So, they get to use your money for a month or 6 while they decide whether to honor your rebate.

No, you don't sound like a elitist. You just sound like someone that never travel outside of US and don't understand the disparity of income for people who live in different countries. A lot of countries don't have subsidy plan at all. And those that have subsidy plan, the monthly minimum fee is a lot lower than US, so the upfront cost that the carrier cover for initial phone purchase is a lot lower than US. The service is a lot worse in country outside of US too. In China, 3G speed in a crowd city is in the 100Kb range while ours is in the Mb range. And consumer in China can buy low end unlocked smartphone that cost about 100-150 USD. Apple did not loss market share in well to do country like US, UK, Germany, Japan etc. Apple loss market share in countries like Brazil, Africa, Philippines etc. What Shiller is saying, I think, is that Apple will not target the low, low end of the smartphone market (those in the $100-$150 range). But they will tackle the mid priced market (those in the 300-400 range ) if they can figure out some way to make decent margin with a segment leading mid-priced product (at least offer consumer some unique experience).

http://www.businessweek.com/articles...low-cost-chips

In China, the smartphone era has finally begun. Thanks to the proliferation of low-cost Android handsets with price tags below $150, the number of smartphones shipped in China in the third quarter of the year topped 60 million, according to IDC. That figure, a record high, was 38 percent more than the previous quarter.

As more Chinese consumers make the switch to smartphones, local companies are gaining in popularity at the expense of such foreign brands as Korea’s Samsung Electronics (005930) (which currently sits at No. 1). Companies such as PC maker Lenovo (LNVGY) and telecom equipment vendors ZTE (763) and Huawei Technology (002502) have moved aggressively into the smartphone business and are now among the top five vendors in China. So, too, is Coolpad, a brand controlled by Shenzhen-based China Wireless (2369). “The scale of the PRC smartphone market just blows you away,” IDC senior market analyst Wong Teck-zhung said in an IDC press release last week. The rise of Chinese brands such as Lenovo, Coolpad, and ZTE show that “it is not impossible for Chinese vendors to surpass international vendors.”

The Chinese have been able to come on so strong thanks in part to a good partner in Taiwan. MediaTek (2454) is a chip-design company based in the Hsinchu science park, the hub of Taiwan’s tech industry. It’s the biggest fabless chip designer in Taiwan and a few years ago carved out a niche for itself by providing designs to mainland phone companies making relatively simple feature phones. With MediaTek doing most of the hard work, the Chinese could avoid spending big sums on research and development and instead focus largely on sales and marketing. That led to the growth of China’s white-box phone industry, known colloquially as shanghai, or bandits.

The arrangement worked for a while. But then MediaTek’s big competitor, Qualcomm (QCOM), caught on to the Taiwanese company’s strategy and started doing the same thing, outflanking MediaTek in growth markets such as India. While MediaTek could do well with low-end 2G phones, the company wasn’t able to compete as well in smartphones running on 3G networks.

The Taiwanese are back in the game, though. On Dec. 12, MediaTek unveiled an innovative quad-core system on a chip for mid-to-high-end smartphones. While Qualcomm has a quad-core chip, too, MediaTek’s is about half the price, says Warren Lau, an analyst in Hong Kong with Kim Eng Securities.

MediaTek in the coming months “is likely to take significant market share” among Chinese smartphone makers, Lau says. While MediaTek only has 30 percent of the Chinese market now, “we are very optimistic” about the company’s chances of taking share away from market leader Qualcomm in China, he says. “At least at this moment, MediaTek has the upper hand.” The new chip is already a hit with investors: MediaTek’s Taipei-listed stock price, which has jumped 22 percent this year, hit a 52-week high the day after the announcement.

[Philscbx]

Originally Posted by irDigital0l

You can fit a Galaxy SIII into pocket easily unless you wear those supper tight, skinny jeans which honestly can't even fully fit an iPhone.

The fact you mentioned Galaxy SIII -
I just did the tour tonight - Oleld screen - bigger for us older punks - hell Yea.

No 5 yr old mentality executive sandbox rules - BS

BlueTooth anything You Want - when You want.
When AT&T gave option to upgrade from 3Gs - totally Denied.
Seeing the SIII - I want to be Free - badly.

[JAT]

Originally Posted by xofruitcake

No, you don't sound like a elitist. You just sound like someone that never travel outside of US and don't understand the disparity of income for people who live in different countries.

Pretty sure I recognize that some people can't afford some things. That's what I just said. Thanks for...repeating it?

The problem is people that don't understand how their own money works. I actually doubt that is as much of a problem in very poor areas.

[absynth]

I can see Apple diversify;

a) continue a low end phone with 3.5" screen but new dock connector 640x960 326ppi
b) market the current 4" phone as the mid range phone 640x1136 326 ppi at a slightly lower price point (the current iphone 4s)
c) introduce a new high-end phone with 4.5" screen 720x1280 >> this will be exactly 326 ppi like the other two phones and ipad mini

So instead of one new phone yearly with the last two models at the lower end there will still be three models but more diversified. With each phone updated yearly but at a different time, f.i. the mid range phone in march, the high end phone in july and the low end phone in november for the holiday season.

[lozpop]

Originally Posted by jent

Same resolution as the Retina iPad would mean an extremely high level of pixels per inch because the device is so much smaller than the 9.7" screen of the iPad.

Yes of course, but I think is possible, isn't it? I mean, the iPhone has a higher PPI than the retina iPad.

[theBB]

Originally Posted by irDigital0l

You can fit a Galaxy SIII into pocket easily unless you wear those supper tight, skinny jeans which honestly can't even fully fit an iPhone.

The comment was regarding a 5'' to 5.5'' screen, similar to Note, not S3.

[macs4nw]

Originally Posted by croooow

Well, there are 2 sizes of iPhone right now! On more than one occasion I have walking into an Apple store to see someone purchasing an iPhone 4 or 4s. I know these are considered "old models" but they are sold as current products at Apple's retail stores. Apple already has "cheaper iPhones" sold at $99 or $0

Possibly the 'thinking' behind these persistent rumors that just won't go away, is for APPLE to produce a good quality phone, that is inexpensive without those pesky two year contracts, and that has mass appeal in those emerging markets, where many phones are on pre-paid plans. A tall order indeed; we'll find out sooner or later whether APPLE has an appetite for that.

[szw-mapple fan]

Originally Posted by paulold

Couldn't releasing the iPad mini without a retina display be seen as Apple "sacrific[ing] quality in order to grab market share at lower price points"?

It's actually very difficult to design something so thin and light AND has a retina screen. Look at the 3rdGen iPad with its heat problems. And perhaps wanted to see how much the demand would be.