There have been rumours of Apple releasing a budget version of the iPhone for years now, but nothing has yet materialised into a launched product. This year, however, there has been a whole host of leaked parts and photographs that all seem to point to a budget iPhone on the horizon. Here is what we know so far.
Plastic Case
The most persistent rumour and the most likely to be true is that the budget iPhone will eschew the aluminium and glass construction of the current iPhone in favour of a plastic case. This is by far the easiest way of cutting down the cost, as the materials are much cheaper and the cases will be much easier to produce.
Over the last few months there have been numerous photos of plastic iPhone cases coming out of China that seem to support this rumour, so this is looking like a dead cert.
Multiple Colours
Another extremely common rumour is that the budget iPhone will be available in a range of iOS 7-inspired colours. The iPod range has been available in multiple colours for years now but the iPhone has always just been either black or white. Part of the reason for this may be the difficulty and expense of producing glass and aluminium in different colours with a high quality finish. This is much easier with plastic giving Apple much more freedom to have a range of options.
Again, we have multiple images of various different coloured iPhone cases which point to this rumour being almost certainly true too.
The Name
Sources in the know have been saying that the budget iPhone is going to be branded as the iPhone 5C. This will match nicely with the release of the 5S as the premium model, and the C seems to confirm the multiple colour options.
As further confirmation, pictures of the new packaging have been leaked which clearly shows the name 5C on the side. This would be pretty easy to fake for anyone with a basic vacuum forming machine, but it seems very likely that these are genuine.
The Internals
In previous years, instead of launching a budget iPhone, Apple has simply reduced the price of the previous generations of iPhone when the new one has been released. For example, currently Apple sells the iPhone 5 as the flagship handset; the 4S as a midrange option; and the iPhone 4 as the budget model.
When the iPhone 5S is released, the 5 will move down to the midrange model and the 4 will drop out of production. This leaves the iPhone 4S. It would make a lot of sense for Apple to simply use the internals of the 4S in the budget 5C. If this is what they decide to do, the so called 'budget' iPhone would still be a very good handset. The 4S is a much more capable handset than most of the budget Android handsets on the market and should still be able to make use of most of the features of the new iOS 7.
Release Date
As usual with Apple, this is pure speculation but all signs are pointing towards Apple having an announcement event on the 10th September. Based on previous years, any new iPhone announced on this day should be available for sale 2 or 3 weeks later, so we should be able to get our hands on the iPhone 5C by the end of September.
Well that is what we can piece together so far. We’ll keep you posted on any new information over the coming weeks and we’ll have a full guide to the new handset as soon as we have some official details.