Following 'iPhone SE' launch, iPhone 5s could remain for $350 or less
Apple’s forthcoming “iPhone SE” could carry a retail price of around $450, leading analysts on Wall Street to suggest that the iPhone 5s, another of Cupertino’s four-inch handsets, could remain and sell for $350 or less. The move, of course, would not only provide a low-cost (yet capable) iPhone model for the masses, but it might also allow Apple to expand into new, unexplored markets.
An attractive price
The opinion is that of Gene Munster, Piper Jaffray's lead analyst and longtime Apple pundit. In an article published by AppleInsider, Jaffray is quoted as stating that Apple might “experiment with excell stock inventory,” pricing iPhone 5s handsets at somewhere in between $250-350.
The move would indeed allow Apple to explore markets like Russia, India, and Brazil. Here, low-cost smartphones prove successful, and the higher price point has meant Apple’s iPhone has failed to do so well.
There's also, as AppleInsider adds, the word of J.P. Morgan's Rod Hall, who notes that the iPhone 5s could indeed carry a price of $350 once the next-generation “iPhone SE” is released. The same move was indeed made with the iPhone 4s in India and elsewhere, and dedicated incentives were also established in order to expand on Apple's share of the market. Since, the iPhone 4s and iPhone 5c were discontinued in India, arguably to make way for the reduced price of Apple's iPhone 5s and the all-new “iPhone SE.”
Apple has struggled to capture a sizeable chunk of the market in India
Either way, I guess we'll learn a lot more at Apple's now-announced March 21 event. As always, we'll keep you posted with further information as we receive it.