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Leaked Photos of Low Cost iPhone 4 Prototype

0dev said:
This move makes perfect sense. The mid-range market is very lucrative and simply reducing the price of the previous year's iPhone doesn't cut it. It's good to see Apple branching out with a cheaper iPhone.

For people saying Apple wouldn't do this: explain the iPod Nano then?
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jmerchlinsky said:
The holy grail of smart phone volume is the low-cost version of the iPhone designed for the 3rd world. That phone won't be a last-generation iPhone it will be a separate design optimized for that market. Being successfull in that market means pullling as much cost out of the phone as possible because the phone is not carrier subsidized and the target customer has much low income that today's iPhone buyer. Every component will need to be cost reduced, whether that means a plastic screen, a smallish NAND Flash, or a lower performance processor.

Interestingly enough, I read an article some time ago about has made Nokia so successfull in that market. One of the key features is the ruggedness of the phone. Changing from glass to plastic might just be a ruggedization feature as much as a cost cutter.
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Agreed, both posts make perfect sense.
 
The cost is already plenty low. The most logical thing is to cut into the margins instead of spending a bunch of money to shave off a few dollars of cost possibly lowering the quality of the product. The obvious solution is to sell the 4 or 3GS at $350 or so non contract pricing if they want a low end iphone.

And the iphone (or any current gen smartphone really) is not ever going to be for developing nations if you're using that to mean people who want a $100 no contract phone. They arent trying to make an iphone for poor people. They're trying to make an iphone for people who dont want to be bent over a table by the contract companies (in the US at least) and for those who buy off contract and aren't willing to spend $600+.
 
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A cheap iPhone would ruin the sex-appeal of the real iPhone.

And why give people a cheap way out who'd otherwise buy a more expensive iPhone?

This rumor is nonsense.
 
This looks more like a knock off than an actual Apple product. It could be a higher grade, multi-material SLA but not the finished product.
 
I just don't see them making a crappy plastic iPhone that looks like that.

It looks awful, and I am someone who does not even care much at all about aesthetics.
 
daveathall said:
Apple, as a money making company would be very stupid not to look at the cheaper end of the smart phone market. It is a huge untapped (By Apple) cash cow that introduces people to the Apple world, first a phone then an Air and so on.
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True.

The question is how do they do it without taking too much away from the Apple experience?

2 options:

1. Keep the same footprint and downgrade specs and materials, or

2. Smaller footprint also with downgraded specs and cheaper materials. But I don't see how they can provide the true Apple experience on a smaller screen, so option 2 looks unlikely as far as the mid price point iPhone being a 'Nano' or other.. iOS devices are all about content consumption.

So back to option 1..
 
Does not compuuuttte.....

If Apple wants to enter a lower tier market, what makes more sense is to introduce a iPhone shuffle. Sure, when you make a call it will randomly call someone on your contacts list, but hey, who needs a pricy touchscreen?
 
I live in Vietnam right now and the matte films for iphone cost about $1. if you look around the home button and the earpiece you can see a faint offset of where the film is attached.

If Apple were to make a plastic screen I think it would be a huge mistake. Look at the iPod nano screen problems that they had to deal with. Also, the original iPhone had a plastic screen when it was announced but was changed before production.
 
MacRumors said:
Some other information /
lighter weight and two glass front and back seem to have been replaced by two plastic sheets, type of sensation and cry other than the iPhone 4.
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This caught my eye seeing my partners with shattered rear panel which in fact is glass.
 
jkichline said:
The point that Steve made in his 2007 announcement is they chose glass because plastic scratches. Since you put your phone in a pocket with keys, etc, the screen can't scratch. I don't think there are any plastics that can resist scratches like glass can. It would be like saying "they" can make windshields out of plastic, but they wouldn't be as luxurious. The point behind using glass is it is much more scratch resistant.
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More than that: With the iPhone 4, they used an exceptionally stiff and strong type of glass, so that it could also act as the structural frame for the device (freeing more space inside for battery and such).

The only thing stopping an iPhone 4 from bending and breaking in your pocket every time you sit down is the glass on the front and back.

A clear plastic with a stiffness high enough to do that doesn't exist.
 
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