back to article Apple drops hints about future low-cost iPhones

Apple surprised Wall Street on Tuesday when it announced that it had sold more iPhones than most forecasters had envisioned. What it didn't say in its earnings release, however, was how many of those 31.2 million iPhones it sold in its third fiscal quarter were iPhone 5s, and how many were lower-priced, older models. But on a …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    They love to throw hints about so speculation mongers can have a field day, and yet no one really knows what they are up to.

    Expect more 'hints' and 'leaks' over the next few months, it is after all the Apple way of advertising to garner interest in their products.

  2. anoncow

    Lower margins means lower stock

    Low margins are something Apple has resisted all its corporate life. Hard to be the world's most valuable corporation on that, you see. But now the focus is shifting away from hopes of renewed stock appeciation, to mere long term survival. That's right, Apple jmade a 180 turn from growth stock to shrink stock at the hands of Google, Android and the Linux community. (If you are an Apple groupie who just got their idol antennae all twisted up in a knot, please just link this post and check in a year from now.)

    1. `TSeng
      FAIL

      Re: Lower margins means lower stock

      Please go back to Gizmodo, you and your preaching are not wanted here.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Lower margins means lower stock

      "That's right, Apple jmade a 180 turn from growth stock to shrink stock at the hands of Google, Android and the Linux community."

      So nothing to do with the smartphone market reaching maturity then.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Lower margins means lower stock

        "So nothing to do with the smartphone market reaching maturity then."

        NO!

  3. DJ 2
    WTF?

    5s

    " however, was how many of those 31.2 million iPhones it sold in its third fiscal quarter were iPhone 5s"

    Is this an article from the future?

    1. Chris Miller

      Re: 5s

      Apple's fiscal year runs from October to September, so their Q3 ended in June.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: 5s @ Chris Miller

        ...... Whoosh ......

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: 5s @ DJ 2

      I think, if it were an article from the future, it would mention this as the iPhone 5T....T for tat...

      1. DJ 2

        Re: 5s @ DJ 2

        .... WOOOSH.... again.

    3. technohead95

      Re: 5s

      "iPhone 5s" as in plural of iPhone 5 NOT iPhone 5S

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: 5s

        as in plural of iPhone 5 NOT iPhone 5S

        iPhone 5's is what you meant to say. http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/graphics/icons/comment/joke_48.png

        1. Steve Todd
          Stop

          Re: 5s

          No iPhone 5's is possessive (belonging to the iPhone 5). iPhone 5s is plural.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: 5s

            No iPhone 5's is possessive (belonging to the iPhone 5). iPhone 5s is plural.

            Keep in mind a link to the Joke Alert! icon that I provided: http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/graphics/icons/comment/joke_32.png

      2. It'sa Mea... Mario
        Facepalm

        Re: 5s @ technohead95

        Yes DJ 2 knows that.

        And the Journo should have known that the sentence was open to misinteritation or the pun DJ 2 made.

  4. John H Woods Silver badge

    Hypothesis

    "If there are lots of other tablets selling, I don't know what they're being used for."

    If I want the mobile version of a website I'll ask for it in the URL and don't want it assumed on the basis of my user agent string, which is consequently set to masquerade as a desktop. Maybe I'm not the only one?

    1. craigj

      Re: Hypothesis

      "If I want the mobile version of a website I'll ask for it in the URL and don't want it assumed on the basis of my user agent string, which is consequently set to masquerade as a desktop. Maybe I'm not the only one?"

      You're definitely not the only one, you're still part of an unimaginably tiny percentage though.

    2. Mark .

      Re: Hypothesis

      Also I wonder how they distinguish between "tablets" and "phones", since these are the same kind of thing, and it's only Apple that uses two brand names. In the Android world, there are loads of devices, with a continuum of sizes from small to large. Android itself has a concept of 4 screen size categories (which scales better, imo, given the popularity of 5-7" devices), and I don't know if any of that info is available to a website.

      More generally - so ipad users, just like iphone users, are more likely to reload Facebook all day, but so what. My phone is still useful to me, even when I'm not using the web. Maps, email, video, music, software are all things Android phones and tablets do.

      Is Cook really saying he doesn't know what else a tablet could be used for other than web browsing? (I also dislike his implication that the popularity of Android tablets isn't true - "if" - apparently facts about sales are a lie, but he's happy to accept web stats which are well known for being unreliable?)

  5. Nameless Faceless Computer User
    Devil

    Apple makes an average of 68% profit on iPhone 5. To offer a "low cost" version, all they need to do is not charge so much.

    1. Ged T
      Happy

      That's crazy talk!

      But true.

      1. Seanie Ryan
        Alert

        cheap iPhone

        with all the talk about a low cost iPhone, I really have to wonder if Tim Cook is dumb enough to build a new phone in this area.

        They already have all the R&D and Dev work done on the iPhone 4, production lines in place, parts supply organised, why go through all that again to make a different phone with low margins. SImply flog shed loads of the 4 or 4s at a knock down price. They can afford to do that now, because the R&D on those devices is covered already. Just rename it.

        He's a supply chain man, I cant see how it would make sense to do any different.

        1. Mark .

          Re: cheap iPhone

          "SImply flog shed loads of the 4 or 4s at a knock down price. They can afford to do that now"

          They already do do that, and have for years, ever since the second model came out. You didn't think all those sales were from their latest device did you - their sales are already made up of a range of devices, high and low cost, just like Samsung etc.

    2. freeman-number-2
      Meh

      "Nameless Faceless Computer User

      Apple makes an average of 68% profit on iPhone 5. To offer a "low cost" version, all they need to do is not charge so much."

      Really?

      I think you'll find it's /much/ higher than that.

      No point in having a Special Needs customer base if you don't play with their little minds and milk them dry.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I've decided

    iFolly is a cheap trick designed for it's client base!

    No Thanks!

  7. katx5h
    Devil

    Low Cost?

    Am I reading that headline right? "Apple" and "Low-cost" in the same sentence. Truly you jest.

  8. Efros

    "If there are lots of other tablets selling, I don't know what they're being used for."

    Obviously not browsing, duh!

    You think it might be games and/or reading.

  9. Tapeador
    FAIL

    Maybe instead of calling it an iPhone

    They can call it [insert some stupid and unhelpful icon here] as with their horrible non-textual graphical interface.

    Then they can lock it down good and proper so disabled users can't load UI mod apps which are standard fare on Android. Oh, wait, they did that already.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    .... and some moneymen are calling for .....

    Moneymen callingfor... is the reason the the world is in such a bad state.

    They can whistle dixie as far as I'm concerned.

  11. tin 2

    Just stick 128GB flash in the new iphone whatever base model and scrap the bigger models, sure it will stop apple making an extra $170 clear profit on the larger models, but I'm sure it will bring more people in.

  12. Mark .

    The good thing about IOS is there's only one device, one screen size, one resolution to code for, which means everything works properly and is fully optimised for that one device. That's right - there's only one 3.5" iphone. And one 10" ipad. Oh damn. Well, the good thing is there're only two devices: one 3.5" iphone, one ipad and a 4" iphone 5. Well okay, three, but there's only them, as well as one 8" ipad mini, one set of 3 iphones using the earlier ultra-low resolution, one 10" ipad with another resolution, and soon we'll have just one lower spec iphone along with just one more ipad mini with a higher resolution, and there are also rumours that the next iphone will be one 4.8" device, as well as there being rumours of one 12" or 13" ipad (or possibly just one of each, who knows), and an almost fanatical devotion to the pope.

    1. Peter Gathercole Silver badge
      Facepalm

      @Mark

      I read the first sentence, and was preparing to flame, until I realised that you were being ironic!

  13. Gil Grissum

    Low cost option

    All Apple has to do to make a lower cost iPhone is put the iPhone 5 in a plastic case. There you go. People will stand in line to buy their color of plastic iPhone, particularly in the USA, but it's unknown whether or not that may attract buyers in emerging markets. That may not move the needle for China Mobile, who has been famously resistant to Apple's demands. Apple has no leverage in emerging markets to demand anything, as evidenced by the top three Russian networks dropping iPhones from their roster, completely.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    iPad sales

    I own a first gen retina iPad and I can't really imagine anything in a new model that would make me upgrade.

    The retina display pushed me -- but what else could they do? Faster, meh - better camera, meh -- more storage, meh. Perhaps if they stuck in a battery with 5x the capacity I'd have a think.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Low Cost Phone!?!

    I predict Apple are planning to crush Nokia in the non-"smart" phone market with the release of a new kind of mobile telephone device which has a small screen and makes use of a numeric input "keypad".

    The iDolators are going to swoon over how revolutionary it is, for sure!!!

  16. IR

    Can't wait for the iPhone Shuffle. No screen, just a button that randomly dials someone in your address book.

    1. freeman-number-2
      Happy

      "Posted Wednesday 24th July 2013 13:47 GMT IR

      Can't wait for the iPhone Shuffle. No screen, just a button that randomly dials someone in your address book."

      So iPhone Shuffle isn't just how they walk?

      1. Peter Gathercole Silver badge

        Walk the iPhone Shuffle

        Is this because they stuff everything else they keep in their pockets into the one they don't put the iPhone in, just so that they doesn't scratch or mark the phone?

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    There's always an Oppenheimer around

    When something big starts bombing....

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