Over the past couple days, we’ve brought you a number of reports on rumors that Apple will release a new lower-priced version iPhone sometime towards the end of the year. While that sentiment has been backed-up by a number of sources, Apple’s Phil Schiller seems to think there’s no weight to the rumors, and insists that low-priced gear isn’t the direction Apple’s headed.

Speaking with the Shanghai Evening News, the Senior VP addressed a question specifically about all these rumors we’ve heard, and while he acknowledges that budget hardware is a road plenty of other smartphone manufacturers have headed down, he doesn’t see a need for Apple to do the same.

This may be due to Apple’s spectacular profit margin, which lets it get by with only controlling a fraction of the global smartphone market (about one-fifth) yet bringing-in the lion’s share of overall smartphone profits. Were Apple to introduce a lower-priced iPhone, it might see its share go up a bit, but without the corresponding rise in profits; for Apple, the venture just might not be worth it.

Source: Shanghai Evening News (Google Translate)
Via: BGR