Critical.
Authoritative.
Strategic.
Subscribe to CIO Magazine »

Apple readies cheaper iPhone Mini

$200 handset will be a third smaller than current model

Apple is thought to be preparing to launch a low-cost version of the iPhone.

According to Bloomberg, which cites a source that claims to have seen the device, the iPhone Mini will be around a two-thirds of the size of the existing iPhone and does not feature a 'home' key. It is likely to cost around $200 in the US, although no speculation was made on UK pricing.

It is thought the smaller handset will be available with a "universal" SIM that allows users to switch between networks without having to remove on SIM and insert another. Furthermore, it is likely to be made available on a Pay As You Go (PAYG) basis rather than 18-month or two-year contracts.

Apple hopes the low-cost device would help rival the success of Google Android, which as well as targeting the high-end smartphone market, has become popular with low-cost devices that offer many of the same functions as smartphones.

"Instead of targeting 25 per cent of the global mobile-phone market, Apple would be going after 100 per cent," Charlie Wolf, an analyst at Needham & Co, told Bloomberg.

The source also revealed that Apple initially aimed to unveil the device mid-way through 2011 and very few Apple employees know the 'iPhone mini' exists.

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

More about: Apple, Bloomberg, Google
References show all

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the CIO comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Coverage
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Tags: Apple, consumer electronics, iPhone, Phones
Latest Blog Posts
Whitepapers
  • Improving Productivity in the Connected Enterprise Through Collaboration
    In the market for collaborative applications, a large convergence is beginning to take hold, and the consumerization of IT is central to this movement. The technologies that people use as consumers are impacting the way employees, customers, and partners want to interact and collaborate at work. People want to take the same technology experiences that are available at home and plug them into their daily work lives. This movement is setting worker expectations as both employees and corporate consumers. Workers need to have the choice and flexibility to consume the applications they want, where they want, and on their preferred device. Read on.
    Learn more »
  • 10 Ways to Stretch your storage budgets in virtualised, consolidated environments
    Everyone’s heard the line about the only inevitabilities in life being death and taxes. IT managers, however, would quickly assert a third absolute – higher storage needs. There’s no question data storage requirements continue to skyrocket, and there’s absolutely zero likelihood of that ending any time in our lifetime. Enterprises have successfully controlled their IT budgets and server sprawl issues with the help of virtualisation technologies, but what’s next? Increasingly, organizations are turning to storage consolidation for virtualised server environments in order to reduce data center costs and inefficiencies.
    Learn more »
  • Investment Protection and Elasticity for your Network
    Enterprise IT teams are being challenged to increase overall IT flexibility and business agility by incorporating emerging cloud technologies into their next generation datacentre architectures. Top of mind is how to embed a high degree of elasticity to properly handle increasingly unpredictable application traffic loads, while still meeting strict performance service level agreements (SLAs). Satisfying these often opposing goals requires that individual elements within the larger datacentre infrastructure provide a native capability to increase capacity and performance as conditions dictate. Read on.
    Learn more »
All whitepapers
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis.
Recent comments