Apple Expected to Increase Marketing Presence Abroad with Low-Cost iPhone
Apple announced on Tuesday that it will start selling a lower-end, less costly version of the iPhone in an effort to find new markets in the U.S. and abroad where the Android mobile ecosystem has become dominant.
The new, cheaper phone will not have all the features of the newly-announced iPhone 5S and will be priced at $99 for the 16 gigabyte (GB) version with a two-year mobile carrier contract, half the cost the high-end model.
For any other tech company, releasing a cheaper, lower quality smartphone would be unremarkable, but for Apple it marks a shift from constantly improving, not lessening, the iPhone’s quality and getting consumers to pony up for each new iteration. In the past Apple has offered old iPhones at $99 or free with a two-year contract.
