Apple likely to launch cheaper iPhone 4

ANTICIPATION OF a cut-price iPhone 4 is intensifying, with Asian suppliers to Apple said to have begun manufacturing the new device.

Talk of an iPhone that is cheaper has been circulating for some time, but unnamed sources cited by Reuters say it will be released within weeks.

The cheaper iPhone is expected to have a capacity of 8 gigabytes (GB), adding to the existing 16GB and 32GB versions of the iPhone 4 first launched in June 2010.

Apple is facing increasing competition from rivals such as Samsung and HTC, which offer phones powered by Google’s rival Android platform. The open-source platform is used in handsets ranging from budget options to the more expensive high-end phones, and has quietly gained significant market share.

Apple sold 20.34 million iPhones in the second quarter of the year, against an expected 17 million to 18 million.

However, figures from research firm Gartner show Apple’s 18 per cent share of the smartphone market was eclipsed by Android’s 43.4 per cent share at the end of the second quarter.

The new handset is expected to help Apple break into emerging markets.

The Reuters sources did not give an exact date of when the new iPhone would be officially announced and Apple is giving nothing away for the moment.

The company is notoriously secretive about plans for its popular products and has yet to comment on the rumours about the new iPhone 4.