Low end iPhone vs Lumia 520/620

[ttsoldier]

The 520 and 620 are taking the market by storm. What do you think will happen when apple releases thier low end iPhone?

Do you think people will flock to it? Do you think it can challenge the 520/620 head on because it has an Apple logo on it? Is this an opportunity for people to get into the "iPhone circle", just to say "I have an iPhone too!"?

Discuss

 

[inteller]

the 620 is a sweet phone...so is the 520 if you can find one free of carrier interference....er uh I mean "branding"

by the time the plastic iPhone arrives the 625 will probably be available here at the same or lower price point. It will definitely be a better phone.

Apple simply has no experience competing in the low end, and Nokia has decades.

 

[sision]

I dont think the lower end lumias would be able to compete against the iPhone maybe the 8xx or 9xx series stand a chance.

 

[Oakdale Dude]

Apple may make a "low-end" product from their perspective but there is never anything low-end about their retail prices.

The 520/521 are doing well cause they are being sold dirt cheap pre-paid & off contract.

Let's wait and see how low-end $$ Apple offers it for.

 

[JamesDax]

No.

 

[inteller]

If they manage to fork over a Retina display in that thing it will sell like hotcakes. If not it will effectively be a regurgitated 3GS and the nokia phones will compete very well. Nokia will probably need to put an 8mp shooter in them though.

 

[ttsoldier]

Apple may make a "low-end" product from their perspective but there is never anything low-end about their retail prices.

The 520/521 are doing well cause they are being sold dirt cheap pre-paid & off contract.

Let's wait and see how low-end $$ Apple offers it for.

This is what I want to see.

Also if it will be running IOS7, and if it is, will it be the full version or a watered down version with missing features?

 

[madbiologist]

I don't think they are competing for the same market. The 520 / 620 retail at <$250. The estimates for the cheap iPhone is $350-400. It will easily sell well in the US, where it will drop the subsidized price to $99 as an entry level phone, but it won't be able to touch off contract or prepaid sales in the US and internationally. That's where the 520 especially is taking off. The cheap iPhone competes in the midrange, not the low range. Will it take a chunk out of competitor sales? Absolutely. Is it going to undercut the low end of the market, where windows phones arguably perform best relative to similarly priced android handsets? Doubtful at best. But then again, it's hard to know until it is released and we actually know the price.

 

[gsquared]

Too early to tell. There will certainly be IOS apps/games that would not run on a low-end device. Question will be, how many?

 

[drbanks]

Seems like if Apple could come up with a $200 off-contract phone, it'd put a serious dent in 52x sales. An awful lot of Androids get sold with "if price were no object, I'd buy an iPhone, but..."

Even with no-contract 52xs running so cheap, most people are too financially myopic to see the benefits of an off-contract Lumia for a c-note when compared to a "free" iPhone 4.

Whether or not it merits it, the iPhone still has a heck of a cachet with the unwashed masses, and the burden of a two-year contract doesn't really make much of an impression on them when they think they'd be paying that much for service, anyway.

 

[Junaid96]

Simple answer: It won't be able to compete at all with Nokia's offerings purely for the fact that it will most likely be around twice the price of the 520.

 

[inteller]

I don't think they are competing for the same market. The 520 / 620 retail at <$250. The estimates for the cheap iPhone is $350-400. It will easily sell well in the US, where it will drop the subsidized price to $99 as an entry level phone,

the subsidized game is ending. This will be Apple's downfall. This early upgrade plan crap is the last throes of a broken business model.

 

[drbanks]

the subsidized game is ending. This will be Apple's downfall. This early upgrade plan crap is the last throes of a broken business model.

I sure hope so.

 

[inteller]

Even with no-contract 52xs running so cheap, most people are too financially myopic to see the benefits of an off-contract Lumia for a c-note when compared to a "free" iPhone 4.

yes, but most people do not like being told by their friends that they are paying twice as much as them on the same network. People are figuring it out. ATT even knows this which is why they bought Cricket and opened up aiowireless.com. price destruction is coming to cell phone companies whether they like it or not, and subsidies will be the first victims. Apple will suffer as a result and turn into a niche market just like its Macbooks.

 

[Sanjay Chandra]

I look at cheaper iPhone in this way :

Specs won't be great but processor will be a nice one , maybe A5 chip.So , will be very nice for the low price.

4 inch display (non-IPS and non-100%-sRGB cheap display) having 163 PPI i.e 1/4th half resolution of current iPhone 5.
1000 mah battery
3G/BT 4.0/Wifi Dual Band
A5 Chip , 512 MB RAM
3.2 MP camera and Front HD camera
Mono Speaker

I think price will definitely cross $329 mark

Many people said iPad Mini will fail because its priced at $329 instead of $199 but it was huge success.

A5 chip is more than enough to run almost every app or game without a single hiccup except few which won't have all graphical effects of A6 processor.

 

[emagius]

The 520 and 620 are taking the market by storm. What do you think will happen when apple releases thier low end iPhone?

Do you think people will flock to it? Do you think it can challenge the 520/620 head on

The 520/521 is $99-$149 off-contract. Apple's "low-cost" iPhone (likely iPhone 5 internals in a plastic shell) will almost certainly be two to three times that price ($300+ off-contract). The two aren't competing head-on any more than any two arbitrary devices are.

because it has an Apple logo on it? Is this an opportunity for people to get into the "iPhone circle", just to say "I have an iPhone too!"?

Seriously? I'm reminded of Linux fans in the 90s and 00s claiming that Microsoft was just winning due to anti-competitive practices, that X+FVWM+Siag/MP/PW/Ted was better than Windows+Office and all Windows users were just sheeple who fell for branding. There's really no comparison between the iPhone 5 and any sub-920-Lumia -- the former absolutely curb-stomps the latter across the board. Even the 2010 iPhone 4 offers some significant and real advantages over the very best Windows Phone 8 devices (primarily in ecosystem) and is a valid purchase decision.

 

[inteller]

I look at cheaper iPhone in this way :

Specs won't be great but processor will be a nice one , maybe A5 chip.So , will be very nice for the low price.

4 inch display (non-IPS and non-100%-sRGB cheap display) having 163 PPI i.e 1/4th half resolution of current iPhone 5.
1000 mah battery
3G/BT 4.0/Wifi Dual Band
A5 Chip , 512 MB RAM
3.2 MP camera and Front HD camera
Mono Speaker

I think price will definitely cross $329 mark

Many people said iPad Mini will fail because its priced at $329 instead of $199 but it was huge success.

A5 chip is more than enough to run almost every app or game without a single hiccup except few which won't have all graphical effects of A6 processor.

wasn't really a huge success, Apple numbers reveals it essentially cannibalized big ipad sales.

and people attach dollar amounts with size and quality. people will expect a cheap quality iphone to be cheap

 

[Sanjay Chandra]

wasn't really a huge success, Apple numbers reveals it essentially cannibalized big ipad sales.

and people attach dollar amounts with size and quality. people will expect a cheap quality iphone to be cheap

They are cannibalizing their own products , right ? It happend before , iPhone cannibalized iPod sales.

Its better to cannibalize their own products rather than ignoring a market.

Small $100-$200 are eating away into the sales of iPad's sales.These are made by lot of unfamiliar companies.Same with smartphones.Companies like ZTE , Micromax etc. are growing very fast and eating into major company marketshares in lot of countries.

We reached to a saturation point right now , Almost every company sold nicely but not as much as analysts or people anticipated but they did sell better than last year.

Apple is not going to use "Race to the bottom" strategy.They are trying to make a phone which is even more affordable than current iPhones.

yes , it will feel cheap but processor will be good one.

I still have my 3rd generation iPod Touch bought in 2009 , runs almost every app except one or two which are too-high-end for the hardware.I can't say same for WP or Android.Most of them don't even run some graphic intensive games from 2011.

 

[rmichael75]

I don't think Apple will release a low end model.. the will still cost high.. the problem is if it is low end then if pple can get the experience in low end why would anyone buy high end and their margins will be come low. So I don't think apple will compete for high end..

Look at Macs, they are expensive stuff. we can buy three windows laptops for 1. And Apple is happy with how Macs are doing..even if they lose and close shop.. I think they would want to be in a high end market and rule them.

So if they release low end iphone, they will become like any normal company like Samsung or HTC or others. If they do, they will release it in select markets only. and still be costly compared to Android and nokia offerings.

 

[Arjun KR]

considering the present situation probability of Apple making a low end iPhone costing same as 520 is nothing but a dream