
The best thing Tim Cook didn't announce - richoakley
http://www.bandwidthblog.com/2011/10/05/low-end-iphone/
======
bambax
What (some) people want is not a low-priced iPhone _on contract_ , or even
free on contract; they want a cheap (i)Phone available _sans_ contract.

I want a cheap iPhone available without contract, because:

\- I don't want a contract

\- I tend to break things (me or my kids) and want the freedom of being able
to buy a new device without asking anyone if they would be so kind as to
subsidize it, or having bought "insurance", or having to pay north of $600 for
the privilege!

So, if 3GS is the device for the lower-end of the market, fine: just sell it
at an acceptable price with no contract.

~~~
cletus
I'm not sure if you'd call it cheap but in most countries you can buy the
iPhone without contract at full price. In the US you can do this too:

<http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC555LL/A?mco=MTY3ODQ5OTY>

There was an iPhone 4 link too. Can't find it now. Maybe it's down until
October 7.

Does that qualify as cheap? If not, I'm not sure what you want other than more
for less. But the fact is, you can buy iPhones contract free.

The real problem the US has is that cell phone service is, by OECD standards,
stupidly expensive and incredibly bad. In Australia I paid $300 for the iPhone
4 32GB and then $50/month for 2-3GB/month and all the calls and texts that I
can possibly use ("cap" plans are very popular in Australia where you get a
certain amount of credit that you can use for various things at set rates).

What's more this is on Telstra, which puts the coverage of any US carrier to
shame.

So $50 x 24 + $300 - $100 (discount I got) = $1400. The phone cost A$1000
contract free so really I was paying $400 for 2 years of service.

With AT&T you pay $300 for the phone and a minimum of about $65/month (or
$85/month if you want not to pay 25 cents for each text), which is almost
double the price.

~~~
pkulak
Wow, I didn't know you could buy an unlocked 3GS now right from apple. $375 is
really not bad at all, either. T-Mobile's new phones are going to be $250 _on
contract_. $125 more for an older iPhone on a dirt-cheap ($30/month) plan? Not
too shabby.

------
morsch
Well, that's a fairly obnoxious article.

 _And even those spitting with fury at the disappointment will glance with
envy at the guy who in a meeting quietly asks Siri to order him coffee for the
lunchtime break._

Really? I think it's far more likely people will glance with annoyance at the
guy _talking_ to his phone PA app during a meeting. There are a lot of good
use cases for smart voice input, none of them take place in a meeting.

~~~
mindstab
Starbucks takes phone orders from robots now? ;)

------
Tyrannosaurs
I'm not sure how relevant it is that Apple's move in the lower cost market was
letting the iPhone 3GS drift down rather than introducing a specific model.

My view on why they've done it this way is that they've retained a clear
visual deliniation between the higher end iPhone 4s and the low end 3GS. No-
one who has a 4 or a 4S is going to be annoyed that they guy with the cheap
iPhone looks like he's got the same thing as they have.

That comes with the downside of making the cheaper model a slightly tougher
sell - it's visibly "old" - but that's Apple protecting their key market, the
high end stuff.

But it will be interesting to see how the cheap [1] 3GS performs commercially
against more modern Android phones in the same price bracket. Will Apple's
brand have people going "wow, I can get an iPhone" or will people be saying "I
don't want a two / three year old phone regardless of who makes it".

Obviously the attitude will vary from person to person but it will be an
interesting test of Apple's name value to see if it can give a boost to older
hardware.[2]

[1] I say cheap not free as it's free on a relatively pricey contract.

[2] I'm not running the 3GS down - I have one in my pocket right now, it's my
primary phone, just it is older hardware and I think over the next 12 months
will begin to show it's age more and more.

~~~
cbs
_No-one who has a 4 or a 4S is going to be annoyed that they guy with the
cheap iPhone looks like he's got the same thing as they have._

Why would someone else be annoyed by another persons choice in phone? I guess
I could understand if you thought the other person made a bad purchase, but
how is it possible to be annoyed that someone else has something you agree is
good?

Are iPhones really that big of status accessories for their owners? This
explains _so_ much.

~~~
jarek
Not all owners, to be sure. But a sizeable amount.

------
maigret
"The equivalent of Aston Martin releasing a competitor to the smartcar."
Sorry, but I need to LMAO here. Please meet the Aston Martin Cygnet:
<http://www.cygnet-astonmartin.com/>

~~~
ZeroGravitas
Or the more directly ironic fact that Smart cars are made by Daimler-Benz?

~~~
hammock
They are not branded so, though.

------
dhawalhs
Emerging countries don't have contracts. So making it free on a 2 year plan
isn't the same as targeting emerging markets. Its the cost of the unlocked
phone that would matter. I would also argue paying 70-80$ a month for a phone
plan isn't exactly "low end" .

For comparison, I got a Galaxy S(captivate) phone for free when I renewed my
contract a year ago.

------
yariang
" The equivalent of Aston Martin releasing a competitor to the smartcar."

Hmmm.... <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aston_Martin_Cygnet> Bad example. I
know the underlying motivation for Aston wasn't to compete with Smartcar, but
that's what they released nonetheless.

~~~
aaronbrethorst
Not to mention that they were owned by Ford until 2007, and Ford still retains
a stake in the company today.

------
abp
_And, quite frankly, the iPhone 4 is probably years ahead in features, quality
and design than the equivalently-priced Android, Nokia, or RIM device._

I don't understand how one can write this.

~~~
wmeredith
Yeah, he misspelled UX and accidentally wrote "features, quality and design".

------
T_S_
Is it just me? I like the form factor of the 3GS much better than the 4/4S. I
was hoping they would go back to that with the 5.

------
brudgers
> _"Apple is all about the brand. About image. About quality."_

That's what makes Siri such a concern.

When was the last time Apple released a _beta_ product? Have they been hiring
too many Googlers?

Or, given that "Siri" alledgedly sounds like slang for buttocks according to
today's interwebs, bought an outside technology and didn't immediately rebrand
it to sound Apple like?

~~~
ryannielsen
In the presentation, they said Siri's "beta" because it's only available in a
subset of iPhone's markets, not because they consider it low-quality.

~~~
HoltonDeniis
Schiller said it was beta because more language and services support was
coming. I'm surprised that Siri doesn't already provide turn-by-turn
activation nor can be used for launching apps or changing settings.

------
dawie
I think they still need to release an iPhone Nano for the masses. The iPod was
big, but the moment Apple brought out the iPod Mini, the iPod went mainstream,
because it became affordable.

Apple needs to do the same for the iPhone...

~~~
funkah
The iPhone is already mainstream. And the 3GS is now free, it doesn't get more
affordable than that.

~~~
dagw
Do all phone plans cost the same in the US? A free phone plus $10 a month is a
lot more affordable than a free phone plus $60 a month.

~~~
kyleslattery
As I understand it, all the US carriers (with the exception of T-Mobile)
charge the same per month whether you bought a phone subsidized or not, so it
doesn't make too much sense to buy an unsubsidized phone, because you won't be
saving anything per month.

~~~
hugh3
Get a prepaid.

I paid $200 for an LG Androidy thing (an Optimus V, if anyone really cares)
and now I pay $25 a month for 300 minutes per month and unlimited data. It's a
crazy better deal than anything else out there.

------
spot
focusing on just the high-end is a losing strategy in phones just like it was
with computers. volume wins. ecosystem wins.

~~~
mbrubeck
Apple's shareholders would probably disagree with you. For that matter, so
would HP's and Nokia's.

~~~
spot
with computers apple is the low end. i was referring to the attack of the
killer micros: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_micro>

------
jsavimbi
I think it's a great move by Apple to make the 3gs seem free because it says
the following:

1\. 3gs owners: it's time to upgrade to the 4/4s (that's me)

2\. It'll burn down existing stocks a lot faster. What was more valuable, an
HP TouchPad in production or an HP TouchPad when the production was stopped?

3\. Parents who have an iPhone will be able to get their kids one on the
cheap, thus reclaiming ownership of the ir own phone. This also indoctrinates
the child into the world of the iPhone, a strategy Apple has pursued with all
of its products since the very beginning.

4\. Lastly: get the phone into the hands of a holdout, at least on a trial
basis, and hope for an upgrade after a couple of months, if not the same day
in-store.

Market share is very important to Apple as it bears on their bottom line and
while not compromising on quality (low-end iphone) they can still get a
portion of that share by unloading old 3gs stock and maybe even removing 1 & 2
stock still out there in the wild that does nothing to promote present-day
Apple products. Walk into any of their stores with an ugly piece of hardware
and they'll try hard enough to get you to hand it over.

~~~
angryasian
signing a two year contract on a 3gs is hardly a trial basis.

~~~
jsavimbi
Sure, but Apple is betting that once they have an iOS phone in their hands,
and judging just by repeat customer shopping patterns, they have a pretty good
chance of upgrading that customer to a 4s, if not at least a 4. All they have
to do is get that phone in their hands.

