If the rumoured price is correct, you would be so wrong there.
Xiaomi Mi5: "The new phone starts at just 699 yuan (roughly $107). It packs a 5-inch
720p display, a long-lasting 4100mAh battery, a Snapdragon 616
processor, a 13-megapixel camera, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable
storage. It also runs Xiaomi’s latest MiUI 7 Android-based software."
...and it is metal, not plastic.
.............and it runs on Android. Game over.
By the way Xiaomi unit sells have been down about 20% this holiday season. And Xiaomi has missed their goal of 100,000,000 units sold in 2015 by 20,000,000-40,000,000 units. Their ponzi scheme is about to end. The only reason they could get away with selling phones for a lost was because of unit growth. Now that growth has stopped they will go bankrupt.
I was not intending to say anything about Xiaomi in particular, it was just an example of why touting a $500 phone as tool for taking on emerging markets is so completely bogus given what else is available. I wonder if you and the OP have the slightest idea of the scale of poverty in poor countries?
I watched a BBC program last night about a Bangladesh <--> India train service. They looked at a young guy who rides the train selling bars of chocolate. He had a wife and two children to support. They showed him taking a huge gamble in investing in his business by buying a plastic ice box/cooler to make his wares more appealing and less molten. It had taken this man 3 years to scrape together the £18 the cooler cost.
Earlier today i was reading an article about an area in Indonesia where a lot of families send their early to mid-teen daughters off to population centres to work as prostitutes so they can send back money to their families, an area where schooling is so poor and inadequate it peters out at age 12 and there is no High School.
There are billions of people on this planet who can't afford your first -world self-satisfied and financially smug OS snobbery.
Apple knows what will sell better than anyone. If they put an A8 in a 4" iPhone and mark it at $500, they'll sell plenty.
They will buy a modern mid-priced iPhone as fast as Apple can manufacture one for them.
Ah, the old make up for lower profit margins by volume plan.
First of all this is a rumor that is counter to many other rumors. Second of all, this doesn't mean there won't also be a "6c".
If this is the only 4" phone and Apple prices it at $500, then they are going to lose out on the higher profit margins of a flagship phone, which many customers -- both those already using the 6/S, and up to 40% of the current installed user base -- may be holding out for. And they all aren't entry level customers. Many of those looking to downgrade to a smaller phone than the 6, or upgrade to the same size phone, will be able to afford a lot more than $500. But depending on how important the 4" form factor is to them, they may opt for see over features. If that happens, Apple leaves money on the table. And that's just dumb.
While I agree Apple likely has the data to inform this move, I would be surprised if that data shows there's no substantial market for a premium, or premium-adjacent phone, which will not only keep the more affluent customer paying more, but it will encourage the low-end customers to pay a bit more to get the size they have been holding out for. Again, this is but one single rumor making this prediction, out of many others predicting something else. If it's true, it suggests Apple is going to offer two price tiers, eventually covering 3 sizes in all price points. Offer an updated "5e", Offer a "6c", and maybe even offer a "7e", depending on how well sales go of the 4" models.
Some of you are "sad" about a product that doesn't fit your use case. Don't be. The market is bigger than your needs/socioeconomic rung.
No I just think Apple needs to shit or get off the pot here. If they think they need to do a lower end phone for emerging markets like India then do it. But don't give us a phone with a nearly 2 year old processor, 16GB storage and charge $500 for it.
What do you mean "give us" a 2 year old processor...? Who is us? India? If the specs are as rumored, then it is a lower end phone for emerging markets (and the value end of the first world markets).
This would be sad. I'm in the market for a new iPhone this year. I like the smaller form factor, but I'd like everything else. It doesn't have to be a lot cheaper then the others - I'm after the size, not an economy model.
Of course, that means I want feature parity - A9, 2GB memory, force touch. Smaller screen is desirable, and I don't need 128 GB - after I stopped carrying my iTunes library offline on my phone, there's no need. 32 or 64 GB is just fine.
This would be sad. I'm in the market for a new iPhone this year. I like the smaller form factor, but I'd like everything else. It doesn't have to be a lot cheaper then the others - I'm after the size, not an economy model.
Of course, that means I want feature parity - A9, 2GB memory, force touch. Smaller screen is desirable, and I don't need 128 GB - after I stopped carrying my iTunes library offline on my phone, there's no need. 32 or 64 GB is just fine.
What if all those features just don't make sense in small phone? It's like you want a Smart Car with a V8 and 20 in rims. In order to add all the features of iPhone 6s into the smaller version, you need to compromise a bunch of stuff. Would you give up battery capacity for Force Touch features? Are you ok with a phone that get's to 140 degrees in your hand in order to have the GPU of the A9? Would you notice 2GB over 1GB RAM? Why include top end components if you won't even use them or, worse, it'll compromise functionality?
If the rumoured price is correct, you would be so wrong there.
[iPhoney]
Xiaomi Mi5: "The new phone starts at just 699 yuan (roughly $107). It packs a 5-inch
720p display, a long-lasting 4100mAh battery, a Snapdragon 616
processor, a 13-megapixel camera, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable
storage. It also runs Xiaomi’s latest MiUI 7 Android-based software."
...and it is metal, not plastic.
.............and it runs on Android. Game over.
By the way Xiaomi unit sells have been down about 20% this holiday season. And Xiaomi has missed their goal of 100,000,000 units sold in 2015 by 20,000,000-40,000,000 units. Their ponzi scheme is about to end. The only reason they could get away with selling phones for a lost was because of unit growth. Now that growth has stopped they will go bankrupt.
Beat me to it.
Reminds me of a Surface commercial featuring Siri where they bragged about all it's features and Siri says "That's not good".
In my head I was thinking: "Runs Windows 8" Siri: "That's not good."
The 5s is over two years old now,and I Don't expect those users to be happy with a one generation improvement over two years later.
Nope. this little black duck isn't going to be and I'm assuming most of us will do what we did with the 6 and just keep using the 5S while it keeps working. I think I could get another year maybe two out of the 5S.
This rumor makes more sense if it's a replacement to the iPod Touch.
The 5s is over two years old now,and I Don't expect those users to be happy with a one generation improvement over two years later.
Nope. this little black duck isn't going to be and I'm assuming most of us will do what we did with the 6 and just keep using the 5S while it keeps working. I think I could get another year maybe two out of the 5S.
This rumor makes more sense if it's a replacement to the iPod Touch.
Do you also shop for top end 19 inch TV's? Are you disappointed that 19 inch TV's don't come with HDR and 4k?
Do you expect extra-small Toyota Yaris to have leather seats? 19 inch rims? A 300 horsepower engine? of course not. So why do you expect a small phone to have all the power and features of a phone that is 30-50% bigger by volume?
Face it. Not many people are willing to pay $650-$800 for a 4 inch phone today.
Maybe not a Yaris, but a Porsche 911 is a small car with all that bling and more.
Do you also shop for top end 19 inch TV's? Are you disappointed that 19 inch TV's don't come with HDR and 4k?
Do you expect extra-small Toyota Yaris to have leather seats? 19 inch rims? A 300 horsepower engine? of course not. So why do you expect a small phone to have all the power and features of a phone that is 30-50% bigger by volume?
Face it. Not many people are willing to pay $650-$800 for a 4 inch phone today.
Maybe not a Yaris, but a Porsche 911 is a small car with all that bling and more.
Why not a Yaris? Maybe not as spec'ed as the original poster suggested but the ZR series in the Yaris or Carolla is exactly a small car with the (power to weight) and the features or a larger car. That is before we get into Toyota 86 sports or Prius models.
I could see them doing two models. The new high spec (with matching margin) iPhone minus* to be released early each year to spread the revenue curve out more. and a C or E model later in the year with the bog standard iPhone.
*noting I just think the Minus tag would be cool and very clear from a marketing point of view of exactly what it is... iPhone function minus fashion. They only need to do one colour... black (or space grey if they still can't do black)
Good god I hope this is a joke. Almost sounds like something from the onion.
using your 'reasoning' than Apple should also make a 3.5 inch phone with A10. Where does it end? Should they also make a top end 3 inch phone? 2.5 inch phone?
I'm sorry but Apple can't make phones just to fit people with extremely small hands.
iPhone with physical keyboard! BB fans are fainting already
call it iPhone Air , improve the facetime camera, improve the wifi to ac and bluetooth to 4.2, make it thin and light(99 grams?) i don't need the headphone jack, put faster touch id, refresh the design, please make it 4 inch and take my money. i don't even need the lightning port, make it all wireless and i upgrade my 5s.
Comments
I watched a BBC program last night about a Bangladesh <--> India train service. They looked at a young guy who rides the train selling bars of chocolate. He had a wife and two children to support. They showed him taking a huge gamble in investing in his business by buying a plastic ice box/cooler to make his wares more appealing and less molten. It had taken this man 3 years to scrape together the £18 the cooler cost.
Earlier today i was reading an article about an area in Indonesia where a lot of families send their early to mid-teen daughters off to population centres to work as prostitutes so they can send back money to their families, an area where schooling is so poor and inadequate it peters out at age 12 and there is no High School.
There are billions of people on this planet who can't afford your first -world self-satisfied and financially smug OS snobbery.
First of all this is a rumor that is counter to many other rumors. Second of all, this doesn't mean there won't also be a "6c".
If this is the only 4" phone and Apple prices it at $500, then they are going to lose out on the higher profit margins of a flagship phone, which many customers -- both those already using the 6/S, and up to 40% of the current installed user base -- may be holding out for. And they all aren't entry level customers. Many of those looking to downgrade to a smaller phone than the 6, or upgrade to the same size phone, will be able to afford a lot more than $500. But depending on how important the 4" form factor is to them, they may opt for see over features. If that happens, Apple leaves money on the table. And that's just dumb.
While I agree Apple likely has the data to inform this move, I would be surprised if that data shows there's no substantial market for a premium, or premium-adjacent phone, which will not only keep the more affluent customer paying more, but it will encourage the low-end customers to pay a bit more to get the size they have been holding out for. Again, this is but one single rumor making this prediction, out of many others predicting something else. If it's true, it suggests Apple is going to offer two price tiers, eventually covering 3 sizes in all price points. Offer an updated "5e", Offer a "6c", and maybe even offer a "7e", depending on how well sales go of the 4" models.
With 6 being highly successful and the 7 on the horizon(by the time of 4" release) I don't see Apple using the "5" number anymore.
Of course, that means I want feature parity - A9, 2GB memory, force touch. Smaller screen is desirable, and I don't need 128 GB - after I stopped carrying my iTunes library offline on my phone, there's no need. 32 or 64 GB is just fine.
Reminds me of a Surface commercial featuring Siri where they bragged about all it's features and Siri says "That's not good".
In my head I was thinking:
"Runs Windows 8"
Siri: "That's not good."
Here's a similar one:
This could be a plausible reasoning behind the rumoured 1gb of RAM.
This would be allow for a lower priced iPhone 5 'e' to enter 'emerging' markets.
Otherwise, it's just an overpriced, under-specced iPhone.
I think I could get another year maybe two out of the 5S.
This rumor makes more sense if it's a replacement to the iPod Touch.
Maybe not as spec'ed as the original poster suggested but the ZR series in the Yaris or Carolla is exactly a small car with the (power to weight) and the features or a larger car. That is before we get into Toyota 86 sports or Prius models.
I could see them doing two models.
The new high spec (with matching margin) iPhone minus* to be released early each year to spread the revenue curve out more.
and a C or E model later in the year with the bog standard iPhone.
*noting I just think the Minus tag would be cool and very clear from a marketing point of view of exactly what it is... iPhone function minus fashion.
They only need to do one colour... black (or space grey if they still can't do black)