During a meeting with Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi, Apple COO Tim Cook referred to the iPhone as “the mother of all halos” because of its ability to expand sales of other core products like the iPad and the Mac. Cook went on to strongly suggest that Apple would be releasing a cheaper iPhone in the not-so-distant future:

The analyst says Cook “appeared to reaffirm the notion that Apple is likely to develop lower priced offerings” to expand the market for the iPhone. Cook said the company is planning “clever things” to address the prepaid market, and that Apple did not want its products to be “just for the rich,” and that the company is “not ceding any market.”

Could Cook be referring to the rumored release of a cheaper, smaller iPhone Nano? Maybe, maybe not. Last time Cook said Apple had ideas about netbooks we got iPad and the 11-inch MacBook Air.

In addition, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer suggested that rumors of a soft-SIM or “Universal SIM” iPhone may be in the works to help Apple prevent carriers from dictating terms, which would ultimately be beneficial for the consumer.

One last significant tidbit was that Tim Cook indicated the tablet market will eventually out-grow the entire consumer PC market, with all major PC manufactures jumping into the game. However Apple believes that, despite growing competition, they will remain a leader in the space because of their innovations and year-long head start.

What do you think, is Apple interested in expanding their iOS product line, or could they have other ideas to own the smartphone and tablet markets?

[Forbes]

Apple COO Tim Cook talks cheaper iPhones, huge tablet market growth is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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This entry was posted on Monday, February 28th, 2011 at 7:06 pm and is filed under News, analysts, iPad, iPhone, iphone nano, tim cook. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.