Apple has plans to reinstitute iPhone 4 production in order to sell the device in India, Indonesia, and Brazil, reports The Economic Times. A January report indicated Apple would relaunch the discontinued iPhone 4 in India, but it was unclear at that time if the company was continuing production on the phone or selling old inventory.
Citing three senior executives with knowledge of the company's plans, the site suggests offering a lower cost iPhone will help Apple recoup market share in those countries. Apple partner Foxconn is said to have already begun production on the devices.
The maker of iPads and MacBooks is betting the lower price point will help it wrest volumes from Samsung's Grand and S4 Mini, and recoup market share that has slumped, largely because it didn't have phones that were cheap enough.
Reproducing the iPhone 4 will mark the first time that Apple has resumed production of a discontinued product. Apple ceased selling the iPhone 4 in many countries following the September 2013 launch of the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5c, and its current lineup consists of the aforementioned models along with 2011's iPhone 4s.
The entry level iPhone 5s sells for Rs. 53,500 ($856) in India, while the entry level iPhone 5c is Rs. 41,900 ($670). The reintroduced 8GB iPhone 4 retails for Rs. 22,900 ($360).
Top Rated Comments
Well the iPhone 4 is rubbish on iOS 7. It's horrendously sluggish and simply a chore to use. It was bad enough on iOS 6; heck, even on iOS 5 it was laggy. The only experience people will get if they buy an iPhone 4 new is 'I've overpaid for this crap'.
Get it together, Apple. I'd like to see your engineers use nothing but an IP4 for a week and see if they'd 'recommend that to their families', as they so often claim. This will achieve nothing but a bitter taste in consumers' mouths and money in Apple's pocket.
Sell stuff you'd want to use yourself, Apple.
India isn't as poor as you think. Some parts are crushingly poor, yes, but there's a rather large (and growing) middle class.
It's not how poor India is, but who wants to pay 360$ for almost 4 years old phone? Apple is obviously living in some weird world where everybody wants to buy an iphone even for a ridiculous price. If this is their strategy how to compete on emerging markets they obviously need to fire whoever came up with this stupid idea.
Isn't the iPhone 5C cheaper to make? Wasn't that the whole point of the C line?