The debate has been raging for months: Will the next iPhone be a full-blown, fifth-generation device; a souped-up, less expensive version of the iPhone 4 – commonly referred to as the iPhone 4S – or both? Put Ticonderoga Securities analyst Brian White in the last option’s camp.
China Telecom will reportedly offer not only the iPhone 5, but also what a Chinese website is calling a “simplified iPhone 4." It's said to be coming to the carrier in October. That gave Ticonderoga’s White the confidence to issue a note of his own to investors, as reported by Apple Insider, backing up what we’ve been suspecting for a while now – that Apple will make two new iPhones available sometime in the next couple of months.
We told you last month that Apple and China Telecom were wrapping up a deal to bring the iPhone to that country’s third-largest carrier. We didn’t know then that it might be two phones – both new, at that.
If indeed there is a launch of a pared-down iPhone 4 in China, will it be available in the U.S.? China Telecom has what White calls a “high-end subscriber base" of between 13 and 15 million – a group that would be a good target for the iPhone 5. But if Apple can offer the iPhone 4 at a significantly lower price, “the opportunity with China Telecom could be much larger," he wrote. How much larger? A difference of $70 billion for just an iPhone 5, and $200 billion for both, he said.
The two-phone philosophy is one that would be interesting to watch. There are many emerging markets and parts of the world that might embrace a less expensive version of a year-old iPhone vs. paying full price for one that is brand-spankin’ new. It’s even something that might appeal to American consumers, both enterprise and general.
