According to a new report out by Bloomberg, Apple is working on an Android killer.
The rumored device is said to be smaller and cheaper than existing iPhone models, allowing the company to sell them off-contract cheaply. Currently, the iPhone 3Gs is the cheapest iPhone, at just $49 on contract.
An iPhone 4 costs $600 off-contract.
The phone in question is rumored to clock in at one-third the size of the current iPhone.
The report also claims that Apple is working on phones that can work on numerous GSM carriers, without having to swap SIM cards, giving users the ability to shop around for the best deal.
Currently, no iPhone can work on both CDMA and GSM networks. The Verizon iPhone has such a chipset, but no SIM card. These “world phones” are currently available by companies like RIM and Motorola.,
Currently, the iPhone trails Android devices in smartphone market share, but with the iPhone for sale to the public on Verizon starting today, future numbers may be interesting to see.
While I’m sure that Apple wants to gain the ground it has lost to Android, I’m not sure that a smaller iPhone is the answer. If Apple is still struggling a year from now, I may change my mind, but right now, I think the move to Big Red here in the States will bolster the company’s numbers pretty substantially. A smaller iPhone may be cheaper, but I don’t think the company wants to deal with the fragmentation the has become such a problem for Android.
Article Via Apple Insider
