More Claims of Apple Using Qualcomm's Snapdragon Chips for Lower-Cost iPhone

[JohnDoe98]

Well, perhaps we will get an "iMessage Voice", but just like regular iMessage the carriers *still* require a text messaging plan and in most cases an "unlimited text messaging plan that runs $20.

I don't know what you are saying. First, we already have data only messages, voice, and video/voice, all supplied by Apple and built into iOS. Second, texting via SMS does require a texting plan, but just stop using that legacy way of texting. Install something like Google Voice which will do the texting for free, even to SMS, over the data connection.

I think the assumption that just because we have voice and messaging apps that run over data connections that carriers will allow data only smartphones. I just don't think that's gonna happen soon. If carriers ever do allow it, then they will make sure your data bill will be $120 a month.

Well almost all carriers except for perhaps AT&T allow iMessage and FaceTime over their data connections with no additional charge. So it isn't a question if they will ever do it, rather the only question is when will AT&T join the club?

Also, if you are cavalier, you can also just purchase a data only plan from an iPad for example, and use it in your phone thereby going data only and avoiding all the costs for the legacy way of communicating.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

Looks like less than 1/4 of the comments actually pertain to the chip. The rest are just the same 'cheap' argument over and over again.

I really don't see that Apple has much incentive to move away from their custom chips. The trend we've seen so far is that Apple is controlling more and more of the chip side of the devices. Why would they give up some of that control just for a cheap phone? Are they incapable of manufacturing their own low cost chip?

This rumor doesn't make any sense to me. It's not Apple-like. Why feed the competition, when Apple wants to promote their own A-Series chips as being far superior?

An iPhone with a Snapdragon chip would be perceived as just another smartphone.

 

[SHirsch999]

What would be the difference between a low-tech new iPhone and an old iPhone?

- Same resolution as current iPhone 5 - easier for developers
- Will have lightning connector - iPhone 4 and 4s do not have this

My "analysis" is that the entire iPhone line will have the same resolution (no more iPhone 4 or 4S) with this cheap iPhone being $0 with a contract and cheap without it. They will all also use the lightning connector obviously. The current iPhone 5 will be $99 with contract. The iPad 2 and iPod touch 4g will both be discontinued with the current iPad 4 taking over as the lower cost full-size iPad. All will have lightning connectors and all will be happy! Though I could be wrong....

 

[taptic]

As long as it's Apple, I'll buy it.... as soon as I get more money.

 

[b0fh]

MOTO cut 1200 to focus on high end

Motorola Mobility is cutting 1,200 staff, in addition to a reduction of 4,000 staff it announced in August, to focus on high-end devices.

Curious how everyone keeps harping on Apple to produce low end devices then...?!

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/030813-google-will-cut-1200-more-267509.html

 

[SpyderBite]

What's more expense Apple to completely design a new lost-cost iPhone from scratch, get new machines, research materials OR have Apple sell an iPhone 4 at a reduced

I don't care either way. But your argument makes no sense. What does expense have to do with it? It's not like Apple is strapped for cash.

 

[vmachiel]

I just don't see Apple doing this. The 4/4S are the cheaper iPhones. Just imagine once the 5S gets released: an iPhone 5 for 100 on contract. People will eat that up!

 

[wkadamsjr]

I don't care either way. But your argument makes no sense. What does expense have to do with it? It's not like Apple is strapped for cash.

What a terrible argument. Businesses are always looking for a lower-cost alternative in everything they do. I don't care how much money the business makes. If you just throw millions of dollars around just because you have it, any business will eventually fail (even Apple).

 

[1member1]

lack of LTE will kill it.. all apple phones should be LTE from iPhone 5 and forward.

 

[deconstruct60]

what rubbish. wanna know why? todays tech gear was "impossibly hard" to manufacture 15 years ago. and the gear from 1998 was impossibly hard to manufacture in 1983.

Integrated circuits aren't assembled by people.

As long as Apple has massive numbers of humans doing the work they will have these problems.

Is it possible to move to more robotic assembly and take the humans completely out of the loop eventually? Perhaps. That would require some changes to Apple's make tweaks up until the last minute methodology.

 

[blackhand1001]

Very good news, hopefully it will be the newer Snapdragon 600 variants rather than the earlier...

The snapdragon 600 kicks the crap out of the a6 so its not really a downgrade lol. Heck even the regular s4 pro is faster.

 

[pgiguere1]

There's already a lower-cost iPhone. It's called the iPhone 4S.

There's an even cheaper option. It's called iPhone 4.

These claims are Page 2 garbage. Stop feeding the troll analysts.

This again.

People seem to have trouble imagining that:

1. There's a world outside the U.S.
2. Cell phone market outside the U.S. is siginificant.
3. Pricing in other countries doesn't follow U.S. pricing.
4. In other countries, people may not be paying subsidized prices but rather full prices for their phones.
5. Average selling price of phones may be way different in another country given the average income is lower and the previous fact.

For example, here are prices of some smartphones at a major carrier in India:

See, even a 8GB iPhone 4 is 3x more expensive than a lot of popular options, and even it (the cheapest iPhone, almost considered obsolete with Apple not giving it new iOS 6 features) is a lot of money for the average Indian to drop on a phone.

By the way, those are not the cheapest smartphones I could find. Those are only brand names (known to americans), but otherwise there were unknown OEMs with way cheaper prices.

No wonder why Android is gaining marketshare in emerging countries with no carrier subsidies. The reality is totally different. A U.S.-centric vision won't allow you to understand the discrepancy of Android popularity in the U.S. and worldwide.

 

[milo]

3g only would be lame, there are plenty of budget smartphones that have 4g.

There's an even cheaper option. It's called iPhone 4.

The iPhone 4 is still $450 unsubsidized. That just isn't competitive in parts of the world where most people buy phones outright instead of the subsidized plans. And the overseas market is exactly why Apple would be considering a cheaper model, they're still doing well with the US subsidized market hiding the (high) real prices of these phones, but the problem is people buying phones outright. And with things like T-Mobile's new strategy, the USA may head that direction as well in the next few years. I live in the USA and I'll never have a subsidized phone plan again.

I'd love to get an iPhone but I just can't justify the extra cost over the $199 android phone I'm using now.

What's more expense Apple to completely design a new lost-cost iPhone from scratch, get new machines, research materials OR have Apple sell an iPhone 4 at a reduced price?

If they did it right, a new low cost phone could be cheaper. They don't even need a total redesign, they could take one of their existing designs and tweak it to make it cheaper to make, particularly things like the case. If they could lower the unsubsidized price, I think users would be happy with that. But I suspect it's simply too expensive to manufacture for that to happen, and that they will probably create a new model instead (although I'm doubtful about this rumor specifically). Honestly, the iPhones are probably reaching a point where the case itself is a big part of the production cost compared with the tech inside.

Just look at the other products Apple sells.
16G 4th gen iPod touch, $199 (iPhone 4, 4s resolution)
32G iPod touch, $299 (iPhone 5 resolution)
iPad mini, $329

And the cheapest phone they sell is $450? So taking the 4gen touch design and adding phone functionality would add $250 to the price? Same goes with the new touch (or ipad mini) versus the higher model iPhones.

If they're selling the 4gen touch for $199, shouldn't they be able to take that design and create a phone with those specs for $249?

 

[OrangeSVTguy]

Are we going through this again? One is 1.5 years old, the other is almost 3 years old.

Well wait till the 5s and 6 comes out. The 5 will be the new cheap phone.

 

[Menel]

3g only would be lame, there are plenty of budget smartphones that have 4g.



The iPhone 4 is still $450 unsubsidized. That just isn't competitive in parts of the world where most people buy phones outright instead of the subsidized plans. And the overseas market is exactly why Apple would be considering a cheaper model, they're still doing well with the US subsidized market hiding the (high) real prices of these phones, but the problem is people buying phones outright. And with things like T-Mobile's new strategy, the USA may head that direction as well in the next few years. I live in the USA and I'll never have a subsidized phone plan again.

I'd love to get an iPhone but I just can't justify the extra cost over the $199 android phone I'm using now.




If they did it right, a new low cost phone could be cheaper. They don't even need a total redesign, they could take one of their existing designs and tweak it to make it cheaper to make, particularly things like the case. If they could lower the unsubsidized price, I think users would be happy with that. But I suspect it's simply too expensive to manufacture for that to happen, and that they will probably create a new model instead (although I'm doubtful about this rumor specifically). Honestly, the iPhones are probably reaching a point where the case itself is a big part of the production cost compared with the tech inside.

Just look at the other products Apple sells.
16G 4th gen iPod touch, $199 (iPhone 4, 4s resolution)
32G iPod touch, $299 (iPhone 5 resolution)
iPad mini, $329

And the cheapest phone they sell is $450? So taking the 4gen touch design and adding phone functionality would add $250 to the price? Same goes with the new touch (or ipad mini) versus the higher model iPhones.

If they're selling the 4gen touch for $199, shouldn't they be able to take that design and create a phone with those specs for $249?

Its plausible.

There are a lot of patents royalties and certification wrapped up in cellular communications.

 

[pgiguere1]

Terrible analogy. All manufacturers offer new cars at a variety of price points.

Yeah, plus safety is a limit to cost reduction. They couldn't make a cheap car out of plastic if it meant you died in any possible accident.

On the other hand, you wouldn't die from using a plastic phone.

 

[onirocdarb]

Are we going through this again? One is 1.5 years old, the other is almost 3 years old.

Yes, they should be able to have the newest tech for cheep

 

[deconstruct60]

3g only would be lame, there are plenty of budget smartphones that have 4g.

It wouldn't if the phone is primarily being aimed at market with extremely little LTE deployments scheduled for 1-3 years. The fact that it would be "cheaper" for US-like post-paid subsidized/amortized cost market is basically not the point of the phone. There are 7+ billion folks on the planet. Apple is trying to get to 5-10% of them eventually.

Tmobile wouldn't mind since they are moving to more of pre-paid money anyway and their network is 3G GSM oriented.

That said I think it is pretty close to being just as easy to just "turn off" the parts of the wide coverage radio that Qualcomm provides and just get "cheaper" with volume. It probably depends more so on the discounts Qualcomm is offering for super-sized large volume buys.

 

[FSMBP]

I don't care either way. But your argument makes no sense. What does expense have to do with it? It's not like Apple is strapped for cash.

You're clearly not smart. If its more expensive for Apple to make a low-cost iPhone than produce the iPhone 4, how could they sell the low-cost iPhone cheaper??? Let me break it down for you:

Every iPhone has a fixed cost (R&D/Machines). So, it is cheaper to ride out each generation of iPhone as long as Apple can to make up for the fixed cost. (Educate yourself http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed_cost).

To make a low-cost iPhone, Apple would have to perform new R&D, buy new Machines etc. Regardless if this iPhone was made out of plastic, it's still expensive to develop. Apple already developed an iPhone 4, the longer it sells, the cheaper it can afford to sell it due to economies of scale.

 

[renosausage]

There's already a lower-cost iPhone. It's called the iPhone 4S.

There's an even cheaper option. It's called iPhone 4.

These claims are Page 2 garbage. Stop feeding the troll analysts.

You are right about the cheaper iPhone 4 and 4S, but.... There is a need for a cheaper iPhone.

You see the 4 and 4S are incredibly slow at operating on the new iOS 6.0.

They also are not able to take part in the features that the iPhone 5 provides.

Now obviously a cheaper iPhone should not be as good as the newest one, but unfortunately the iPhone 4 line makes a pretty crappy experience of the Apple ecosystem.

Lots of my family bought iPhone 4 and 4s after the iPhone 5 came out. They complain about the speed of the phone and the lack of 4G.

You see Android provides these features without the hefty $200 price tag and so many of my family members turned their iPhones in for droids.

I personally think Apple should not provide the 4 or 4s at all when they make a new phone. It should only be the newest phone for $200 PERIOD!!!

But... in order to fill in those gaps of people who won't pay $200 I think a cheaper iPhone is better than purchasing the older models.

This cheaper iPhone will probably be able to do everything the new iPhone can do at a cheaper quality made product and better price.

 

[Sy7ygy]

Snapdragon?

No thank you.

Apple, keep it simple:

• A4.
• 5GB iCloud Storage (standard).
• No multi-tasking - not needed for intended audience.
• 3G is fine considering the contacts for these phones.
• Polycarbonate version of the 4.

Oh...

You see the 4 and 4S are incredibly slow at operating on the new iOS 6.0

& they really are - not - slow.

 

[irDigital0l]

There's already a lower-cost iPhone. It's called the iPhone 4S.

There's an even cheaper option. It's called iPhone 4.

These claims are Page 2 garbage. Stop feeding the troll analysts.

With a 2 year contract....

Stop being a troll.

 

[Rocketman]

Apple could buy Ally Financial for about $35m, chump change, provide the liquidity the Fed wants them to have for another $5m, pocket change, and have a captive bank for its consumer and supplier finance operations.

Rocketman

 

[Premium1]

uh oh fragmentation........

 

[iGrip]

There's already a lower-cost iPhone. It's called the iPhone 4S.

There's an even cheaper option. It's called iPhone 4.

Yeah, but those both have tiny screens and antiquated internal components. They don't really provide a good value.

Somehow, I think that Apple knows all about the i4 and i4S, but they feel that they can increase profits with a modern-day budget alternative.

Those two old relics are going to be ****canned soon. Apple skates to where the puck is going, and not to where it was several years ago.