Cheaper iPhone

(Photo by Feng Li/Getty Images)

IDC released an updated forecast today lowering its expectations for worldwide smartphone shipments this year with a continuing slowdown in growth in China cited as the biggest contributor to the lower than expected shipments. It also shared some insight into expected growth for Apple in the years to come, predicting Android’s current 81% share of the market by operating system will likely hold strong through 2019 and that a cheaper iPhone 6C model wouldn’t do much to help.
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Credit: Ferry Passchier

We’ve seen a pretty consistent pattern when a new iPhone is released: the previous model gets significantly cheaper, and the model before that tends to be widely available on free-with-contract deals. We’ve already seen the process beginning in anticipation of the 5S, with AT&T cutting the on-contract price of the iPhone 5 to $99 and 4S to $49, with Walmart going a little further with a $39 deal for the 4S.

But with the prospect of the long-awaited low-cost (or lower-cost!) iPhone being released at the same time as the 5S, might we expect to see the plastic iPhone being offered as the freebie in the iPhone 4S’s place … ? 
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Credit: Ferry Passchier

Japanese Blog Macotakara purports to have some interesting details on the plastic ‘low cost’ iPhone Apple is expected to release later this year. The site says that runs of colors Navy, Gold Orange, White and Gray are in one run of the device and  White, Pink, Green, Blue and Yellow-orange are in another. There is no black model according to the report.

Theoretically these models will be tested in small numbers and some might not make the cut, if the report is to be believed.

Their source also indicates that the cheaper iPhone will be produced 1,000 units for field test from June, and will be produced during July-September for shipping. If you want to see what these colors might look like head over to our mockup gallery where we tried to cover all of the bases.