Last week, Pfhub reported how easily Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) rumors begin in an account of a possible Disney-Apple collaboration. The rumor mill has once again been abuzz this week after the Shanghai Evening News cited Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller, who was visiting China with CEO Tim Cook, as saying the company would not develop a cheaper iPhone in order to expand its market share.
In early January, multiple media outlets reported the likelihood of a cheaper iPhone on the horizon. Bloomberg, for example, stated a low-end iPhone could cost as little as $99, and the Wall Street Journal estimated the phone could launch this summer. Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster gave the less-expensive smartphone a 60- to 70-percent chance of release in 2013, and said it was the “right move” for Apple to reach the 65-percent of the smartphone market to which it doesn’t currently cater—but Android does.
But the Schiller interview, translated by The Next Web Jan. 9, put a damper on the speculation.
“Every product that Apple creates, we consider using only the best technology available,” Schiller told the Schanghai News, according to the translation. “This includes the production pipeline, the Retina display, the unibody design, to provide the best product to the market.
“At first, non-smartphones were popular in the Chinese market, now cheap smartphones are more popular and non-smartphones are out. Despite the popularity of cheap smartphones, this will never be the future of Apple’s products. In fact, although Apple’s market share of smartphones is just about 20 percent, we own the 75 percent of the profit.”
Schiller’s statements quickly caught fire, and media widely reported there would be no cheaper iPhone. That is, until Jan. 11 when Reuters withdrew its initial report and cited “substantial changes” to the interview’s translation. But the news agency did not publish a correction or replacement article, leaving room for even more speculation.
Finally, on Jan. 12, Reuters followed up with a new report, clearing up much of the confusion. According to the new translation, Schiller actually said Apple “will not discuss plans for any future products.” He also said, according to Reuters, the company will continue to focus on making “the best products,” and “never blindly pursue market share.” Big difference, right?
In fact, it looks like the Shanghai News published a new version of its original story—one that removed references to “cheaper” smartphones, and even changed its headline from “Apple will not push a cheaper smartphone for the sake of market share,” to “Apple wants to provide the best products, will not blindly pursue market share.” Perhaps Schiller’s message was lost in translation?
According to Reuters, Apple had contacted the Chinese newspaper and requested it amend its original article.
According to the new version of the article, Schiller actually said, “Apple has always focused on providing the best products for its consumers, we’ve never blindly chased market share.”
So a less-expensive iPhone version once again appears to be on the table. Perhaps Apple took simply took issue with the Chinese news agency’s reference to the smartphone model as “cheap.”
What do you think about all the iPhone hype? Will a less-expensive iPhone hit the market this year?