低價iPhone 4將於數週內問市
Apple has begun manufacturing a lower-priced version of its phenomenally popular iPhone 4 with an 8GB flash drive。
The flash drive for the 8GB iPhone 4 is being made by an unknown Korean company. But Apple currently sources its flash drives from Japan's Toshiba and South Korea's Samsung Electronics. Till now, Apple and Samsung declined to comment。
The existing iPhone 4 was first launched in June 2010 with 16GB and 32GB versions, with a white version added to the line-up in April. The 8GB version is expected to launch within weeks。
蘋果即將推出8GB版iPhone
Some analysts said the cheaper 8GB iPhone 4 could help Apple boost sales in emerging markets。
Bonnie Chang, an analyst with Yuanta Securities, said: “Apple may want to push into the emerging market segment where customers want to switch to low to mid-end smart phones from high-end feature phones。”
“So Apple will need a completely new phone with low specifications for the emerging markets. ”
In addition to the launch of the smaller iPhone 4, Apple is thought to be launching the iPhone 5 next month。
The new iPhone, which some call the iPhone 4S because of its largely identical appearance to the existing iPhone 4, will have a bigger touch screen, better antenna and an 8-megapixel camera。據英國《每日郵報》8月24日報道，蘋果已經開始生產內存爲8GB、價格較低的熱銷iPhone4手機。
8GB版iPhone4所採用的閃存現由韓國一家公司製造，但蘋果目前也在日本東芝和韓國三星電子中尋求閃存的外包合作。截至目前，蘋果與三星電子均拒絕對此事做出評論。
現在市面上的iPhone 4是蘋果於2010年6月開始出售的，分16GB和32GB兩款。今年4月，蘋果又推出一款白色的iPhone4。8GB版iPhone4將在幾周內面市。
一些分析師認爲，價格便宜的8GB版iPhone 4手機將有助於提升蘋果在新興市場的銷量。
元大證券分析師邦尼•張說：“蘋果可能想打進新興的市場領域，該領域中的用戶需求正從高端定製手機轉向中端智能機。”
所以，蘋果也需要爲新興市場準備一部全新的低配手機。
除發行小內存iPhone 4手機之外，蘋果還計劃在下月(9月)發佈iPhone5。
一些人也稱該新款iPhone手機爲iPhone 4S，因爲該款手機與現在市面上iPhone 4的外觀極爲相似，只是採用了更大的觸屏，更好的天線和一個800萬像素的攝像頭。
