06 Jan, 2013 11:01 PM

iPhone Mini may be on the way

If rumors are to be believed, you may be able to own a cheap iPhone - the iPhone Mini. The move is to capture the ever losing mobile market to the emerging players like Samsung. As per market strategics the Samsung smartphone sales are predicted to grow 35 percent this year, from 215 million last year to 290 million. Whereas the Apple sales are tipped to grow by 33 percent, to 180 million.

There is no official report that Apple is working on an iPhone mini. Bust Apple does not disclose the product information in advance. There there’s wasn’t any indications that the company was working on the iPad mini either. Its all the rumors that suggest a smaller, cheaper handset that will appeal to those who are interested in the iPhone but find the current offering too expensive.

The idea behind a smaller iPhone is simple – make it more affordable which in turn will open it up to a much larger user base. A cheap iPhone would have great attraction in India as well as other emerging markets including China and Brazil. Apple generally doesn't care about Indian market, where the product launches lag

international launches by big duration. Apple’s market share of handsets in India is 1.2%, according to research firm IDC, where as the Samsung has a 51% piece of the share.

If Apple can gain traction in countries like India, it could add billions to its profits, and millions of new users every quarter.

The existing model of bundling the product with post paid plans in the developed markets is nearing saturation and the company now needs to attract prepaid users.

“You know of course I love India, but I believe that Apple has some higher potential in the intermediate term in some other countries,” Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, said during an analysts call. “We have a business there, that business is growing, but the sort of the multilayer distribution there really adds to the cost of getting products to market,”

The skimmed version of the phone is likely to stay in the sub 15000/- price range as per analysts. The model is expected to retain much of the existing one as the apple have done in the case of iPad.

The other Apple rumors include the release of the iPhone 5S in June incorporating more advanced features like an iOS and Mac OS X integration along with pico projectors to create virtual keyboards and a full-screen desktop display. But it’s possible such high concept features will be reserved for an iPhone 6 to be released some time in late 2013 or perhaps even 2014.