Tuesday, 10 September 2013

Apple's Latest iPhone Is Expected To Target Cost-Conscious Customers.

You'd be forgiven for thinking: "Not another gadget launch!"
Formulaic as these events have become, Apple is breaking new ground with one of the two new additions to the iPhone range.
On stage, chief executive Tim Cook will do his best Steve Jobs impression and enthuse about the technological advances contained in the successor to the iPhone 5.
More significant though is the shift in strategy indicated by the parallel launch of a cheaper iPhone which will be aimed at more cost-conscious consumers.
Since the launch of the first iPhone, Apple has excelled in the smartphone market with relatively well-to-do consumers rushing in their droves to pay silly money for one of their handsets.
But having shaken up the market and given buyers new expectations about what can be done on their phones, Apple's imitators have narrowed the lead it once had in the smartphone market.
Brands like Samsung, HTC and Nokia don't have the same iconic status as Apple but their phones have gotten better and are an awful lot cheaper.
And what's particularly worrying for Apple is that buyers and phone companies in emerging markets aren't willing to pay a developed-world premium for their phones.
You could say that the "C" in the name of the budget iPhone stands for "China", as well as "cheap".
China Mobile, the biggest mobile provider in the most populous country in the world, reportedly baulked at the subsidies demanded by Apple to sell iPhones to their customers.
Reflect for a moment on just how many customers China Mobile has: 740 million. That's roughly twice the population of the United States.
That's a market Apple wants to take a bite out of even if it has to create a special phone just to get the chance.

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