40,000 Chinese workers say low-cost iPhone coming soon The manufacturer of the still-popular iPhone 4S has said that it plans to add 40,000 workers, boosting rumors that Apple plans to release an entry-level iPhone soon. Taiwan-based Pegatron, which has manufacturing plants in Taiwan, mainland China, Mexico, and the Czech Republic, told Reuters that it plans to increase its …
Wow, all those reports predicting the death (either warranted or unwarranted) of Apple seem to be a wee bit premature.
So Foxconn is reporting less orders from Apple.
As few commentators did suggest that Apple was seeking alternative manufacturers but in the main these were downvoted into virtual oblivion.
Then it turns out that it could be true.
Will any of the Fandroids who slagged off Apple hold their hands up and say, Ok, I got it wrong'?
I very much doubt it.
No, I don't own an iPhone but I am just getting a bit fed up with this Anti-Apple vitriol. Now I can go back to swearing at my crap Samsung phone. They all have faults so why can't everyone just accept it?
A few mentions of multimillion Dollar share transactions, a few rumours from a factory and a bit of hearsay about plastic backs should get the share prices back up to the $700s. Then everyone who lost most of their dosh during the last months of Apple value slump can quickly sell off, recover their losses and buy into Exxon again.
This isn't, I think, about technology, this is about economic market tweaking. South Sea Bubble.
Oh, and by the way, we Fandroids don't slag off Apple because we don't like them. They're just much more entertaining to mock and slander than Samsung, Google and Nokia together . . .
Like throwing cryptonite at Superman, a game changer?
Doubt that they will be cheaper or budget though, they are probably just going going to market a small phone rather than joining the suitcase size fashion for bigger phones. Not everyone like a big phone and fashion, as they say goes in circles....
"Not everyone like(s) a big phone and fashion, as they say goes in circles...."
Yeah, because no one is as "innovative" as they think. Those who do are too young to realise because they have yet to experience that.
I can see a cheaper iTosh being popular in china/india as they want to be seen with western tech. They too will be deluded into thinking that the iTosh embues them with a "fashionista" tag. (Though I don't know why anyone would want to be seen as a fashionista, it just dates you.) Its only their religious/cultural choice which stops them from adopting our consumerish ways.
With the exception of the iPod, Apple make devices that are in a class of their own. That's not a fanboy comment that they're better, they just present themselves as being the Ferrari of their industry. The apple symbol, like the horse is designed to represent quality and class. There's a reason Ferrari don't sell a budget car for everyone, it would take away from what the badge represents. They reach out to the wider market with Fiat, Alfa, Dodge etc.
O2 have GiffGaff, AOL has TalkTalk, all the same companies with different 'faces' for different target markets. It takes a very special kind of company to pull off being a 'one brand fits all' and it really has to have been the aim from the start, it's easier starting with an 'every day' range and then introducing a premium range as you have something to add at a premium, you are only able to take away if you're to go the other way round. Take away too much and no-one will bother buying the new item and it will damage the brand as something with their logo on is widely seen as being rubbish, don't take away enough and people who bought the 'premium' version feel robbed and the brand is damaged because it becomes very obvious that they've been ripping off for years with a fairly average product that they could have been selling for much less.
I wouldn't want to see any company that employs thousands of people die out so I say good luck, but I'll stick with my Android device for now.
Ya know $700 million annual compensation just doesn't go as far as it use to... If those Chinese slaves would just work 16 hours per day, 6 days a week instead of just 14 hours per day, then Timmy could get another $700 M or larger annual bonues. I hope there is a Hell and that all who exploit humans end up in Hell for eternity. I'm guessing maybe Bill Gates will be there to great the newbies.
"... I'm guessing maybe Bill Gates will be there to great the newbies."
Umm, sad attempt at trolling, or do you honestly not know about the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which spends Billions of dollars annually on grants and charitable donations, in order to combat things such as poverty, disease, poor education?
I'm intrigued to find out how they will make an already diabolical product, worse (as 'Budget' iPhone) implies?
What will they do, make the storage and battery built-in so that you can't change them or upgrade them? Leave out the standard 3.5mm jack so people can't connect it to their standard speaker system or headset? Or maybe remove some features, like maps, but they don't work anyway from the reports I've heard!
Maybe they'll just produce the budget phones in an unpopular colour and reduce the price to a more reasonable level, for what many would already consider - an extortionately priced budget phone.
I doubt Apple are just going to make a plastic iPhone with less functionality. It is after all hard to imagine what they could leave off. GPS and cameras are so standardised now it would be odd not to include them. I rather suspect that just like the shuffle and nano, they will seek to completely redesign the phone into a new form factor. Cheaper, but with the same mass appeal. If this turns out to be the watch or iPhone nano I will not be surprised.
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