A Low-Cost iPhone? ⇥ theverge.com

According to Jessica Lessin of the Wall Street Journal, Apple is working on an inexpensive version of the iPhone:¹

The cheaper phone could resemble the standard iPhone, with a different, less-expensive body, one of the people said. One possibility Apple has considered is lowering the cost of the device by using a different shell made of polycarbonate plastic. Many other parts could remain the same or be recycled from older iPhone models.

Sam Byford of The Verge chimes in:

According to the Digitimes report the device may have a larger screen than the current iPhone 5, and the Journal says it could come as early as late 2013.

If this doesn’t sound like the Apple product strategy you know, that’s because it probably isn’t as described. I’d wager that this is an iPhone 5 with a polycarbonate (read: plastic) body and an A5 processor, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it take the place of the iPhone 4S when the iPhone 5’s successor is announced. It also might not have the iPhone 5’s thinner display — opting for a taller version of the iPhone 4S panel and assembly — but Digitimes is high and drunk if they think it’s going to be a larger screen in a cheaper product. It doesn’t make sense as a product strategy.

The older iPhone models have always been the “low-cost” version of the iPhone. Expect this to be along similar lines.