Time to Think Different

Apple is having a hard time deciding whether to expand its market strategies by providing phones at a lower price, or stick to its high status symbol.

Today they are introducing two iPhones. One will be a lower cost model, targeted mainly at Indian and Chinese market. This is mainly to make available the phones to the customer overseas, who couldn't afford such high priced phones. This will obviously expand Apple's market, but for sure lower the reputation of the premium brand. It will be available to a greater population, resulting in losing its status symbol and becoming just a commodity product like Dell and Asus.

This similar problem of whether to concentrate on the market growth or to remain a status symbol is faced by many other companies as well. For example, the luxury car companies have a huge problem dealing with this thing. the only reason why the partnership between Mercedes and Chrysler didn't last was because, Mercedes Sedans were opposed to sharing parts with Chrysler's mainstream models, made in US. Even though this reduced the over all price, it was a huge stab on the reputation of Mercedes Sedan, built over the years.

But there can be a positive outlook of this dilemma. If iphones are made available at a cheaper price to the customers in China and India, there can be a possibility that people, after using the cheap phones and getting a feel of what iphones are all about, they might want to buy the high-priced iphones too.

This high status symbol of the Apple, was taken very seriously by Steve Jobs. He had a strategy that the company doesn't and wont serve certain group of customers because that would mean compromising with the reputation of the company built over a long time. The new leader, Timothy D Cook is however facing pressures from the company, to increase the market sales by introducing Cheaper phones.

However chances of a cheaper phone seems to be quite bleak. What can happen at the most is that Apple will take its sooner to be outdated iPhone 5 and replace the back cover with a plastic one. That would reduce the price of the phone to USD 200-300 from the present price of USD 650.

Once the cheaper iPhone is made, similar changes will have to be made with every new model of iPhone, which looks a bit of a huge step. So now its time for Apple to "Think Differently".