Stefan Mileschin

In what was seen as a sign of the Apocalypse, a rumour started that Apple was going to release a "cheap" phone.

The move would mean Apple abandoning the world of high margins in a desperate bid to grab more market share in places where people actually don't have more money than sense, such as China.

Now, an Apple executive made the rare move of actually denying the rumours. Marketing boss Phil Schiller told the Shanghai Evening News that Apple will not resort to a cheaper iPhone to expand its market share.

He said that there was no need to worry about pushing out lots of phones when you make loads-a-money from the ones you do. While Apple can only sell 20 percent of the world's smartphones it makes 75 percent of the profit.

Schiller said that Apple will not develop a cheap smartphone for the sake of expanding its market share, even if it is desperate to get good sales in China.

Schiller was sniffy about the trend towards cheap and cheerful smart phones, saying that it was not a direction that Apple wanted to be heading in with its products.

However, Schiller's denial has really rocked the Apple-frenzied press, which found itself in the rare position of reporting that Apple denied a rumour which was started by the Wall Street Journal.

http://news.techeye.net/mobile/cheap...-not-an-option