Prior to the iPhone 5c launching last year, there were rumors that the iPhone 5c would be a budget smartphone from Apple meant to capitalize on the demand from emerging markets for affordable handsets. When the device launched, it was cheaper than the iPhone 5s, albeit not by much, and definitely nowhere near the “affordable” category.
Many smart people have argued that Apple has to make a low-cost iPhone in order to compete with Google’s Android. Apple has yet to listen to those people, and product marketing executive Greg “Joz” Joswiak says it won’t. Here’s an excerpt from his discussion about pricing and market share at the Code/Mobile conference, speaking onstage with Walt Mossberg and Ina Fried: “Backstage, we were talking about some of the mistakes Apple made in the ’90s, and some of it was trying to do things like making cheap products that were chasing market share instead of chasing a better experience. You make that mistake once in your life, you’re not going to make it twice.
