Next iPhone Will Be Cheaper, Not Smaller (RUMOR)

The Wall Street Journal recently wrote that Apple was prepping a smaller version of the iPhone release, but a new rumor casts doubt on the Journal's report.

TheNew York Times now reports that Apple is planning to release a more affordable iPhone, one featuring improved voice commands to supplement the virtual keyboard. However, this forthcoming release, will not be an "iPhone Mini," the Times's Apple sources were careful to clarify.

Those planning on picking up a cheaper iPhone should expect the unit's dimensions to resemble the current iPhone 4, one source told the Times. Another source "in direct contact with Apple" explained further:

[T]he company would not make a smaller iPhone at this time, in part because a smaller device would not necessarily be much cheaper to manufacture and because it would be more difficult to operate. [...] More important, a phone with a smaller screen would force many developers to rewrite their apps, which Apple wants to avoid, the person said.

According to the Times's scoop, Apple is reworking its MobileMe online storage service, which will be released for free with a cheaper iPhone. Recent iPhone rumors mentioned that Apple would slash manufacturing costs by reducing the iPhone's flash memory and including free MobileMe instead.

If this new rumor is to be believed, Apple is taking direct action to wrest some of the marketshare from its fearsome Android competitors.

Visit the New York Times for the rest of the details behind this latest iPhone leak.

Comments

[RobChattaTN]

07:56 AM on 02/21/2011

FREE Mobile Me???
i've been paying $99 a year...

[Henry Hudson]

11:18 PM on 02/18/2011

Why can't we just buy a phone and then choose the service provider we want?
By the way Virgin Mobile has the cheapest plans

[plazma]

07:45 AM on 02/19/2011

Virgin Mobile has very spotty coverage also.. i know people who have it and cant get reception in their house at all.

[Henry Hudson]

12:02 PM on 02/19/2011

My coverage is good enough... for half the price of the big name companies ... Why can't we buy our phones and choose any service provider we want?

[GCurry]

09:13 PM on 02/18/2011

The problem is not the price of the phone. The problem is the price of the network.

Can you get phone service, plus unlimited data for less than, say, $50/mo. That's $600 per year, often with the phone thrown in for next to nothing.

[ChiProgressive]

11:04 PM on 02/18/2011

Thank you. I don't know how people can't figure out the math.

I have bought 2 used HTC android phones off of CL, thereby avoiding extending my contract. Walmart's service runs on T-mobiles network and lets you buy $10 internet cards which last pretty long if you're not watching youtube or streaming music.

[Henry Hudson]

11:33 PM on 02/18/2011

Yeah Virgin mobile for $40 but no free phone

[plazma]

07:46 AM on 02/19/2011

Im starting to think you work for VM.

[jazzman]

07:45 PM on 02/18/2011

Good strategy. Gillette figured it out years ago. Sell the razor for cheap and charge for the razor blades. iPhones are nothing but sales platforms where customers pay for a device that sells them stuff all the time and all the day long. Apple is figuring out how to take a % of the take from the app providers and that app providers are hoping to make money by charging for their content. The consumer sits around saying, "Hey, look at my new cool iPhone or iPad." They buy the device that then sucks the money out of their paycheck as they buy endless crap to amuse themselves with. It's all so brilliant.

What might work better, however, is to learn to play a sport, take hikes, swim in lakes, climb mountains, ride bikes and go out with friends. In other words learn to amuse yourself rather than depending on corporations to feed you endless entertainment and amusement while sucking the money out of your paychecks that you need for more important things.

[philp71]

08:15 PM on 02/18/2011

sounds like your on the wrong site. and its not just apple all of these companies as well. MS, Nintendo, Sony.

[Shaun Hensley]

11:58 PM on 02/18/2011

He's right.

[editor]

09:06 PM on 02/18/2011

And when you get lost hiking; just use your iPhone GPS app; use the iPhone meetup app to find the biking friends....

[plazma]

08:38 AM on 02/19/2011

and when your battery is drained down trying to find your way out... you pray that you dont get eaten by a bear, since the battery life with GPS on is very short.

[N133]

11:55 AM on 02/21/2011

I've never received much service hiking in general...

[hswanson2]

07:39 PM on 02/18/2011

This is a smart move Apple sees the writing on the wall and that is a poorer America - we so far haven't baulked at shelling out big $$$ for Apples in some ways not really well made offerings. They have to see as the middle class shrinks so will at least the replacement rate of their product (of course they are making them more and more unfixable).

[philp71]

08:16 PM on 02/18/2011

m poor and have a mac and an ipod touch, a gaming pc, ps3, and nintendo wii, i just saved up money for them

[ajlondemand]

08:28 PM on 02/18/2011

You're not poor.

Or, at least, you weren't before you bought all that stuff.

[keramos]

07:27 PM on 02/18/2011

How nice.  Stevie's going to pass on the savings realized from the use of child slaves in China.

What a hero.

[Omnithrope]

07:40 PM on 02/18/2011

Please show us on the doll where Steve Jobs touched you inappropriately.

[philp71]

08:17 PM on 02/18/2011

um name a company that doesn't use china for labor

[contrarymv]

10:58 PM on 02/18/2011

oh ... well ... if everybody is doing it - that makes it right. it's hard to avoid the slave labor products (since we are so close to having that in this country), but it doesn't hurt to think about these things; and try to avoid them whenever possible. i know people love their instant gratification gizmos, but they wouldn't die without them, either.

[keramos]

11:19 PM on 02/18/2011

I'll task you with an easier question - how many slave factories have their slaves committing suicide?

[mmike1969]

06:20 PM on 02/18/2011

I don't see how the total cost of owning a new iphone could be cheaper if you are using a capped data service and you would be using bandwidth to store and retrieve your data.

[Omnithrope]

06:45 PM on 02/18/2011

So don't get the capped data plan?

[hoppybunny]

11:46 PM on 02/18/2011

Are you ok with all of your data sitting on a server somewhere rather than in your phone? I'm not.

[rosey7]

09:25 PM on 02/18/2011

mmike1969, AT&T is offering an Iphone for 49.99 because they now compete with Verizon. Will have to check the plans to see if anything other than the phone is cheaper through AT&T. My guess, total cost will be very similar for now but if a real price war goes on- we can all have i phones if we want!

[plazma]

10:21 AM on 02/19/2011

that iphone is the old 3GS, so why spend $50 on a phone that is outdated?

[americanfreedoMYTH]

05:56 PM on 02/18/2011

someone is feeling the pressure? hmmmm

[J0E1]

05:32 PM on 02/18/2011

Everytime HP puts out an iphone rumor article a kitten dies.  Just keep that in mind.

[KangaRooTWO]

05:33 PM on 02/18/2011

ROFLMAO........ F&F

[philp71]

05:45 PM on 02/18/2011

lol :) even though you made fun of me that is funny

[black series]

04:29 PM on 02/18/2011

Make it available on sprint and tmobile also.

[Hopethisworks]

04:20 PM on 02/18/2011

Well that makes sense when you have nine year old Chinese girls making them for 50 cents a week.

[theatheo]

04:35 PM on 02/18/2011

Just like whatever device you typed your post on.

[henrythefifth]

04:44 PM on 02/18/2011

Zing!

[J0E1]

05:32 PM on 02/18/2011

At least at half the price, it's closer to representing the actual cost of the device.

[JKraz]

09:04 AM on 02/20/2011

Where is some documentation of this?

[DRaymond]

04:14 PM on 02/18/2011

HA! Told you!
 
Here was my comment when the original rumor was reported:
 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/DRaymond/apple-iphone-mini-wall-street-journal_n_822817_77343538.html
 
And I repeat, be very wary of a 'cheap' phone that uses the cloud rather than local storage for apps, music, etc.  It may be the most expensive cheap phone that you will every buy.

[ColinZeal2]

04:03 PM on 02/18/2011

LESS flash memory? come on. 32 GB won't hold half of my song collection.
We have to move forward, not backwards.

[Omnithrope]

04:28 PM on 02/18/2011

Why are you storing your music collection directly on your device?

Use something like streamtome or audiogalaxy and stream from your home computer. Take advantage of the cloud...

[r3dDaWn74]

07:05 PM on 02/18/2011

exactly, Audiogalaxy is a great app to have, can stream over 300GB worth of music, of course, I don't, but no need to have my memory used up on those files.. As to this "rumor", who knows, Steve's departure means Apple will do many things it never used to, but lowering the price for an apple product, wow, can't see that happening.. Either way, don't care, Android is the platform I'm sticking with..

[Blues02]

09:22 PM on 02/18/2011

How did I not know these types of apps existed? Downloading now...

[rockv12]

08:43 PM on 02/18/2011

Your comment made me laugh. It is ridiculous that they keep the gigs low and keep introducing more memory every 6 months to make a massive profit off of a drop of metal (whatever flash memory is!!) I can get a 32 gig card the size of a pinhead....come on' Apple...quit being greedy.

[ScreenName05]

03:39 PM on 02/18/2011

Instead of the next generation, they might spend a little more time getting the last couple of generations working.

[ThreadKiller]

03:47 PM on 02/18/2011

10 to 1 you have a droid
as you know not of which you speak

[dmsdzinr]

04:01 PM on 02/18/2011

BINGO!

[mrm3]

04:54 PM on 02/18/2011

Faved

My 3 year old 3GS works better than any of my friends' brand new Android phones

[philp71]

04:08 PM on 02/18/2011

your right they don't work thats why people still use them and buy them.

[jsgaetano]

04:12 PM on 02/18/2011

Great, then I guess we won't hear the Apple cultists say anything bad about Windows ever again, huh?

[hoppybunny]

11:50 PM on 02/18/2011

Ok, thats the 4th time... its "you're"