Audi A3 saloon spied in India

The A3 will sit below the A4 saloon in the Audi lineup. It is built on VW’s new transverse engine, front-wheel-drive MQB platform. The A3, when launched, will come powered by 1.8 and 2.0-litre petrol engines and a 2.0-litre 150bhp diesel motor as well.Audi has begun testing the A3 saloon in India.  The spy shot was sent to us by our reader Harjoot Mankoo.  The car spied in India didn’t not sport LED elements for the tail-lamps nor the signature Audi LED daytime running lamps which could mean that Audi may price the A3 aggressively in our market.

Audi will also offer the A3 with the Audi drive-select system and a manual gearbox for some variants. 

The A3 saloon, which has the Mercedes-Benz CLA as its chief rival, is 4460mm long, 1796mm wide and 1416mm high, with a wheelbase of 2400mm. These dimensions also make it 170mm shorter, 19mm wider and 19mm lower than the Mercedes CLA. The wheelbase of the CLA is 63mm longer than the A3 saloon’s.

Expect Audi to launch the A3 saloon in India next year.

Amazon India stocks up on computers and their accessories

Amazon India has added another feather to its hat by announcing that it has now started selling computers and related accessories in the country. The Amazon store came to the subcontinent in May and began stocking up on mobile phones, cameras and other similar items only in June this year.

The shopping portal claims to offer over 7,000 reasonably-priced electronic products and has entered into a collaboration with over 180 brands. These include big names like Sony, HP, Dell, Lenovo, Microsoft, Samsung, Acer, Logitech, Belkin and many more. You can head over to the site for purchasing gadgets such as laptops, pen drives, routers, hard drives, printers and scanners amongst others.

Amit Agarwal, the Vice President and Country Manager of Amazon India assures prospective customers that the e-retailer not only provides a wide selection of gadgets, but also convenience and reliable on-time delivery. Also, to make it easier for people to choose a product, the company has detailed descriptions and customer reviews as well. It gives personalized recommendations and even lets you shortlist items based on features.

And what’s more, Amazon also boasts of a secure ordering and electronic payment procedure and users can check out its return policies before they decide to pick something up from the web portal. Its list of offers includes free return pickups and for a limited period of time, all the items will be delivered by the e-retailer for free, regardless of the total value of the purchase. People can turn to its 24 x 7 customer service support in case they need help.

It goes without saying that interested buyers can also place their orders for computers and related accessories through their internet-enabled smartphones or tablets.

7-incher Intex i-Buddy Connect II 3G tablet launched for Rs 7500

Bringing in yet another 7-incher tablet to the market, Intex launched i-Buddy Connect II – 3G, carrying a price tag of. 7,500. At present the 3G enabled tablet is being sold through online retailer Shopclues.

The latest offering from the house of Intex sports a  7-inch WVGA display with a resolution of 800×480 pixels. Intex i-Buddy Connect II 3G tablet is powered by a 1GHz dual-core Cortex A5 processor with 512MB RAM. The tablet runs on Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich which is disappointing considering that Android 4.3 Jelly Bean has already been rolled out. It comes with a 2-megapixel rear camera and a 0.3-megapixel front-facing camera.

Having a 4GB inbuilt storage that can be expandable up to 32GB with the help of microSD card, the tablet also features a SIM slot with voice calling support. However it supports single SIM and comes pre-loaded with apps such as Nimbuzz, Skype, Facebook, Yahoo Messenger, Fruit Ninja, Moto Racing and Office Suit PRO to handle documents on the go. There is a 3000mAh battery that can deliver up to 300 hours of standby time and 5 hours of talk time. Towing the line of its successor i-Buddy Connect 3G, the 3G enabled tab too has educational content and includes Educlass, a smart school application.

With the latest gizmo out, Intex has now four tablets in i-Buddy portfolio that includes i-Buddy Connect, i-Buddy-3, i-Buddy 7.0 and the latest i-Buddy Connect II – 3G in the market.

iPhone 6 concept once again ignores reality for fantasy

You really have to give it to those who make Apple iPhone concepts, because so few of them are bound by the limits of reality. More than any other product around, concept designers love to come up with incredibly imaginative possibilities for the next iPhone, even if there is little to no chance that any of those ideas will make it into the product itself. It's the kind of thinking we'd like to see more put towards Nokia Lumia concepts, or Google Nexus, which would be equally unlikely to make the dreams into reality, but at least we'd get more variation.

The new concept comes from Claudio Guglieri who says that he is working on the concept for the promo page for an RSS reader app. The concept is one that we've seen before which heavily draws on the upcoming influx of flexible displays.

Although, the concept is ignoring the first step of seeing flexible displays as an "unbreakable" alternative, and jumps straight to flexible displays that can wrap around the entire device. 

Unfortunately, other than the concept looking cool, it doesn't show too much as far as what the benefits might be from having a wrap-around screen. The only thing that's noticeable is the touch-sensitive volume controls on the side. 

source: Claudio Guglieri via IntoMobile

AnTuTu Labs Observation Report Semi-Annual

AnTuTu Labs has made a regional ranking statistics for Android-based smart phones, in accordance with the collected records to popularity.

Meanwhile, based on the benchmarking standard of AnTuTu Benchmark 3, we AnTuTu Labs made a strict data analysis to hardware performance of the published Android based smart phones in global wide. And then, we made the hardware performance rank which is based on the data we collected in first semi-annual of 2013.

Through the popularity ranks to smart phones of different territories, we can clearly figure out the preference of users while purchasing a smart phone device.

Sometimes, the preference of purchasing at individual user side comes from the aim of seeking a device with more powerful hardware configuration, or seeking the device with better cost performance.

AnTuTu Labs now just publishes its statistics data without any comments in preference. We think that smart readers can get much valuable and meaningful information beside these statistic sheets, so we will not add any explanations or extended references with any preference into the report, besides the ranking under our data statistics.

Content List:
 ▪ Hardware Performance Top 20 Smart Devices in Global
 ▪ China Top 20 Smart Phones in Popularity
 ▪ Hong Kong Top 10 Smart Phones in Popularity
 ▪ Taiwan Top 10 Smart Phones in Popularity
 ▪ Japan Top 10 Smart Phones in Popularity

Hardware Performance Top 20 Smart Devices in Global
Statistics Period: January 1st, 2013 - June 30th, 2013

In the first semi-annual of year 2013, we are so glad to see the adoption of the “4+4” model Octa-cores CPU to the mobile devices. The adoption of “4+4” model Octa-Cores CPU really strengthen the hardware performance of smart devices, like the Samsung Galaxy S4 takes the first position in the bar chart of AnTuTu Benchmark since its release. 

We do like the improvements and upgrades in hardware filed, so the consumers can easily get more powerful devices with regular price or even a lower cost. But we really do not wish any cutthroat competition in hardware industry.

What we want to show you is clearly the hardware performance rank itself, based on the data we collected from market, no other preference to any device or manufacturer.
AnTuTu Labs focuses on the solution of providing individual users a simple way to know how good a smart device is. The Labs builds its own benchmarking methods to measure smart devices, and gives users a direct result of hardware performances.

After tests with the benchmarking standard of AnTuTu Benchmark 3, we also find out one thing that the hardware manufacturers may have more interest, that is: comparing the senior chipset benchmark scores, the products from Samsung and Qualcomm have achieved scores very close. But, within our observation to smart device hardware, we also noticed that smart phones with senior chipset which is made by Qualcomm take a much larger market share. So we wonder if this means the Qualcomm has been the first provider of senior smart phones chipset at the smart phone market.

Now, please let us see which smart phone has won the honor in the first semi-annual of 2013, in the top 20 ranking of hardware performance.

Chart I: Hardware Performance Top 20 Devices in Global Wide
Statistics Period: January 1st, 2013 - June 30th, 2013

China Top 20 Smart Phones in Popularity
Statistics Period: January 1st, 2013 - June 30th, 2013

AnTuTu Labss run a data mining to its collected information from the mobile device market of China, and give users a ranking in popularity below, in accordance with the active device volumes.

Chart II: China Top 20 Smart Phones in Popularity
Statistics Period: January 1st, 2013 - June 30th, 2013

Within the popularity rank list to China Android-based smart phones market, products from Xiaomi Company take two positions in the top 3. The products from Xiaomi Company have won much more popularity in China market, better than Samsung. We AnTuTu Labs think, the consumers in China are prefer smart phones with powerful hardware performance and a regular price. Otherwise, we checked the benchmark data of the two smart phones from Xiaomi Company, and they all have achieved good scores in our AnTuTu Benchmark.

Although, Samsung Galaxy S4 takes the second position in the popularity rank of China, but this smart phone achieves much larger market volume than Xiaomi 2S.

From the popularity rank chart, we can easily know the difference in popularity between Xiaomi 2S and Samsung Galaxy S4. Meanwhile, comparing the prices and hardware configuration of the two products, we may have a conclusion that: the consumers in China may prefer smart phones with best cost performance while they decide to purchase.

Hong Kong Top 10 Smart Phones in Popularity
Statistics Period: January 1st, 2013 - June 30th, 2013

Chart III: Hong Kong Top 10 Smart Phones in Popularity
Statistics Period: January 1st, 2013 - June 30th, 2013

Looking at the top 5 popular smart phones in the Hong Kong consumer group, we can find out one common feature in these devices: the top 5 popular devices are all have a large size touchscreen.

Samsung Galaxy Note II has a 5.5” display touchscreen, and Galaxy S4 and Sony Xperia Z are all have a 5” display touchscreen, and the other two devices also have screen larger than 4.5”, so we may have a conclusion that consumers in Hong Kong may prefer devices with large screen. 

Meanwhile, we noticed that the brand Samsung and Sony take 70% percent in the top popularity ranking list; HTC and LG take the other 30% in popularity ranking. So, we wonder if consumers in Hong Kong have preference on product brand while purchasing a smart device.
 

Taiwan Top 10 Smart Phones in Popularity
Statistics Period: January 1st, 2013 - June 30th, 2013

Chart IV: Taiwan Top 10 Smart Phones in Popularity
Statistics Period: January 1st, 2013 - June 30th, 2013

Japan Top 10 Smart Phones in Popularity
Statistics Period: January 1st, 2013 - June 30th, 2013

Chart V: Japan Top 10 Smart Phones in Popularity
Statistics Period: January 1st, 2013 - June 30th, 201

Disclaimer
The data which is published in this report by AnTuTu Labs is all based on the objective observation by the AnTuTu Labs itself. The data just represents what AnTuTu Labs collected and observed through its own channel, and may not be able to represent any of the actual sales volume of smart phone which listed in the popularity ranking, in different marketing territories of different manufacturers.

Copy Rights & Distribution
The copyright ownership of this piece of semi-annual observation report to popular Android-based smart phones belongs to AnTuTu Labs.
Any third party, including the individual, organization and media should know clearly that the ownership definitely belongs to AnTuTu Labs.
AnTuTu Labs is glad to see the distribution and reprint by any third party, including the individual, organizations and media. But the third party should clearly knows that it does not have any right to change or modify any words or data in the report, and know clearly that the copyright and ownership belong to the AnTuTu Labs.
Meanwhile, the third party, including the individual, organizations and media should clearly know that any prettification or misinterpretation is definitely not allowed, while distributing or reprinting the report from AnTuTu Labs, including any data, chart, and comments or words which published in this report.
AnTuTu Labs reserves the right to take legal action to any third party who takes behaviors like modification, prettification and misinterpretation to the data and statements in the report.

About AnTuTu Labs
AnTuTu Labs, the independent mobile devices benchmark institute, was established in 2010, and focuses on solutions to the hardware benchmarking for the Android-based smart mobile devices, like smart phones, tablets, and other devices.
AnTuTu Benchmark is a popular Android devices benchmarking utility, and many of the famous technique media take AnTuTu Benchmark as their primary utility while reviewing Android-based smart devices, include smart phones and tablets.

Test contents:

 ▪ CPU Integer Performance
 ▪ CPU Floating Point Performance
 ▪ 2D Graphics Performance
 ▪ 3D Graphics Performance
 ▪ Memory Performance
 ▪ SD card read-write speed
 ▪ Database IO

Get AnTuTu Benchmark from Google Play

If you are interested in this report, you can download this PDF document.

This is how Sony is masking its phones in public

Most manufacturers these days employ certain methods to stop up and coming handsets leaking out to the public. One common such method is to use a different shell or case, to mask exactly what the phone looks like. The images below show how Sony Mobile is encasing their upcoming Xperia’s to avoid prying eyes.

Adam Outler from xda-developer fame, posted an image of such a handset onto Google+ yesterday. The picture is believed to be of the Sony Honami and Outler tagged the picture as “Unannounced Sony device”. Outler has been posting from XDA:DevCon, where Sony Mobile is the main sponsor so it’s not surprising that there may have been a prototype Honami doing the rounds. The image has now been removed by Outler, which probably highlights its legitimacy. 

The second image is a few months old and is believed to be the Sony Xperia Z Ultra. It has black casing, as opposed to the white one for Honami, but has similar slits. Therefore, if you see anything like the images below in the wild, then you’re probably looking at the next Sony Xperia handset.

Honami masked?

Xperia Z Ultra masked?

Thanks Liam and Zohaib!

Upcoming Kindle Fire Tablet to Give Galaxy S4 Processor a Run for Its Money

Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet had quickly rose to popularity when it had launched in the fall of 2011 with commendable specs and an affordable price of $199 when many tablets at the time cost in excess of $400 or $500. Due for a refresh this fall, Amazon is now said to debut its third generation 7-inch Kindle Fire tablet with a more powerful octa-core processor to compete against the Samsung Exynos 5 octa in that company’s international variant of the Galaxy S4 smartphone.

In keeping to its low price target for the 7-inch slate, it’s believed that Amazon likely won’t be using Samsung’s popular chipset. Instead, the company may be turning to MediaTek, according to a report on DigiTimes, with the more cost effective octa-core ARM-based CPU. Like the Exynos 5 octa, MediaTek’s MT8135 is actually a quad-core solution utilizing ARM Holdings‘ big.LITTLE architecture. With that design, the chip has four high-powered cores for performance intensive tasks and also four low-powered cores that get activated when idle or using less demanding applications. As such, neither MediaTek’s nor Samsung’s octa-core offerings can utilize all 8 cores at the same time.

MediaTek’s role in Amazon’s Kindle Fire plans are still unconfirmed, and given DigiTimes mixed track records on reporting on rumors in the past this information should be taken with a grain of salt. However, if accurate, MediaTek should be given a big boost given Amazon’s stature as the fourth largest tablet-maker in the industry.

The choice of MediaTek’s processor may be key in helping Amazon stay competitive in the low-price segment. Google recently released its second generation Nexus 7, also called the Nexus 7 2013, tablet in collaboration with Asus. Though the tablet costs $30 more this year at $230, Google upped the specs with a new full HD 1080p display and a quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro processor from Qualcomm.

Part of the reason that Amazon is able to deliver its hardware at such a low price is that the company can still generate profits after the point of sales. Through its digital storefronts, Amazon sells digital content such as e-books, MP3s, TV shows and movies, magazines, and other content through its online stores.

iPhone 5S, iPhone 5C Might Not Hit Store Shelves Until October 25

Now that we’re hearing rumors that Apple won’t announce its next generation iPhone lineup until September 10, we’re beginning to hear that there may be a six-week delay from when the phone is announced to when consumers would be able to get their hands on one. According to the latest intelligence, the iPhone 5S flagship and the low cost iPhone 5C might not be available in stores until October 25th, though consumers may likely be able to pre-order either or both handsets earlier than the store availability.

The rumored delay, according to Tech Maniacs, the reason for the delay is that Apple had to also work on the iPad 5 and a new update to the iPad mini, and that’s pulling the company’s resources thin considering that both tablets are expected to be announced at a date soon after September 10.

Another potential issue for stretching out the wait time to six weeks is that Apple may be facing component shortages of its fingerprint scanner, an issue that we had reported yesterday. This would drastically limit Apple’s production to just 4 million iPhone 5S units for the quarter. For comparison, Apple sold over 5 million iPhone 5 units in just the launch weekend alone. Pushing back the availability date would allow Apple to ramp up productions somewhat so that supplies won’t be overwhelmed by demand.

And according to Phone Arena, the October 25th date may have some credibility as it is published by “the same source that apparently forecast last year’s release date for the iPhone 5.”

Carrier AT&T is already preparing customer accounts for iPhone 5S upgrades, with some customers getting preferred pricing on the iPhone even if they had just upgraded to the iPhone 5 last year and are still within the two-year contract. The preferred pricing isn’t quite as low as customers who are fully eligible for an upgrade, but provide a decent discount compared to having to purchase the iPhone 5S at full price.

As Apple likes to keep a tight reign on supplies, if you pre-order the iPhone 5S or iPhone 5C when preorders go live, deliveries may not happen until the actual October 25th availability date.

Why Nikon, Canon Should Be Afraid of Sony Honami’s Interchangeable Lenses

When images of the Sony Honami smartphone along with the interchangeable lens units emerged yesterday in high resolution, the Internet was abuzz proclaiming the camera-centric approach as a threat to Nokia’s famedLumia smartphones and Samsung’s Android-based Galaxy S4 Zoom phone. However, Sony may not even be targeting the point-and-shoot market that its rivals are cornering, and instead may be eyeing the high-end DSLR andmirrorless systems. In fact, given the target demographic of prosumers, enthusiast photographers, and even professionals who may not always want to lug a multi-pound DSLR rig around all the time, Canon and Nikonshould be scared of the capabilities of the versatile Android-powered, Sony-made smart camera.

Taking a Different Approach

So far, the smart cameras that have either been introduced or are currently on the market take a more conventional approach. Point-and-shoot killers like the Galaxy Camera and the newer Galaxy S4 Zoom use a traditional point-and-shoot form factor and marry on a phone display to the back. At the end of the day, you’ll end up with a lot of bulk when using the device as a phone.

Higher-end devices like the Galaxy NX, an interchangeable lens camera (ILC) system has a different, but also a traditional form factor for its class. Like DSLRs and mirrorless cameras today, it has a camera body that melds together the Android operating system and wireless 3G/4G/WiFi connectivity and the versatility of a camera lens.

Sony’s Honami and lens system targets the latter market, but does so in an elegant form factor. In Sony’s vision, the phone is the camera body. The large display serves as the viewfinder display, and you have all the wireless connectivity that’s needed–Bluetooth, WiFi, NFC, 3G, and 4G wireless connectivity. You also have a robust ecosystem of apps to connect so social media networks and to share videos and photos with friends and family. And the smartphone itself has a built-in camera for when you may want to leave the bulk at home.

This is an important distinction as with DSLRs, you actually need to use a lens. Without a lens–even a compact one–the DSLR won’t work, so you would need to carry the camera body and the lens to have a functional camera setup.

With the Honami, you can get by using the camera that’s built into the phone for the days when you don’t intend on using a bulkier lens setup. If you’re out to dinner or at a club, you can leave the rest of your gear at home. Your phone will not have any bulk, unlike the Galaxy S4 Zoom on the market today.

However, if you’re vacationing or sightseeing and want a zoom lens, you can attach one and have an even better camera. Unlike the telescoping lens attachments for today’s smartphones, the lens system of the Honami is built pretty much as a standalone camera minus the display. It’s a self-contained system.

You’ll get the lens and its optical system, a separate built-in sensor that is larger and gives you even greater flexibility, potentially a better flash, a memory card slot, and some form of wireless connectivity. You’ll attach the lens to the phone via a magnet and then use the phone’s display as the viewfinder. From there, if you capture images, you can transfer and save them to your phone so you can instantly share those pictures.

It’s rumored that at launch, Sony will have a high-end option with a 1-inch sensor. While this isn’t quite up to snuff with a DSLR, a micro four-thirds system, or an APS-C size sensor, it’s only the beginning. In the future, Sony could potentially even deliver a larger full frame lens and sensor system to mount magnetically to your phone.

This would be great for photographers as like with a DSLR, when they upgrade the “camera body”–or phone in this case, they can keep the lenses and reuse them with newer phones or camera bodies.

The setup also offers more versatility than the Android-powered Samsung Galaxy NX system as you can make calls and you can still have a fully functional Android smartphone and smartphone camera with you even if you don’t take or use your lens. However, the lenses are there if you need more for your shoots.

And the sharing feature could be huge. Photographers who shoot weddings or are doing magazine shoots can instantly email and send their photos straight from the camera to their clients immediately in real time. No more transferring data.

As Nikon and Canon have both been slow in moving away from traditional DSLR sales into the mirrorless and smart camera realms, Sony’s Honami could present the biggest threat to the camera titans boasting connectivity, portability, and a slew of apps to aid the professional photographer in editing their photos on the go.

Essentially, the ILC system that Sony is rumored to be introducing for smartphones will be as good as the lens collection. As Sony grows its lens portfolio for this system and offer a variety of different sensor sizes to fit different budgets, we may have a true competitor to the DSLR market with a compact, portable, and versatile size.

Mac Pro Price: Expect an Incredibly Expensive Device

Apple showed off the Mac Pro in June, but failed to announce the Mac Pro price when unveiling the sleek, powerful computer packed full of top of the line internals.

While we wait for the new Mac Pro release date to arrive there is much speculation about the Mac Pro price, which could quickly climb thanks to dual-GPUs, PCI Express Flash storage, new generation Xeon processors and other high-end parts.

New details on the base cost of the Intel Xeon processor that will likely sit inside the svelte Mac Pro case point to a very expensive Mac Pro price breakdown this fall.

The Mac Pro price could deliver an expensive experience this fall.

Ultimately the Mac Pro price could start around $3,500 with good options hitting $5,000 for a new Mac Pro you would want to buy.

Ultimately the Mac Pro price could top out higher than the price of a small new car. A maxed out Mac Pro tower already clocks in at $12,349 with every option selected. The new Mac Pro price could start out $1,000 higher, which could put a price about on par with a base Nissan Versa

The 2013 Mac pro price could top out higher than a base Nissan Versa.

Marco Arment analyzes an Anandtech report that indicates the Mac Pro processor will cost upwards of $2,000. Arment highlights five possible Mac Pro processors in the new Xeon E5-2600 V2 CPUs, calling attention to the price.

• Xeon E5-2680 v2 – $1,944
• Xeon E5-2667 v2 – $2,321
• Xeon E5-2687W v2 – $2,414
• Xeon E5-2690 v2 – $2,356
• Xeon E5-2697 v2 – $2,950

These new processors offer a lot of power, though it is possible the options may be limited due to the design of the Mac Pro and the higher thermal load of some of the Xeon processors.

For users who are interested in performance breakouts, Anandtech offers a full breakdown of the new processors and Arment speculates on which ones could make the most sense in a Mac Pro.

Users that want to see a performance breakdown of the 2013 Mac Pro processors can look at theTom’s Hardware review of a pre-production new Intel 12 core Xeon processor.

There is no specific 2013 Mac Pro release date, but we expect the new Mac Pro to arrive this fall near the OS X Mavericks release. OS X Mavericks is the new OS X operating system that includes performance enhancements and smart battery saving features.

How to Recycle Your Old Android Phone, Tablet and Turn It Into a Chromecast Device

Google’s Chromecast dongle for HDTVs was a surprising hit. Priced at just $35, the device quickly sold out and is now out of stock at many retail locations with delays in shipping time up to a month long. So, if you have a new Android phone, how do you ‘stream’ the content from your phone to your HDTV? One such solution involves using an older Android smartphone or tablet that’s laying around and collecting dust, and plugging that device into your HDTV. Thanks to a new app, currently in beta, called Cheapcast, which is available for free through Google’s Play Store, users can stream content from their new Android smartphone to the older phone or tablet that’s plugged into their HDTV via an HDMI connection.

Google Chromecast dongle streams what’s on your phone to your HDTV

While much of the functionality of Chromecast has been replicated thanks to the Cheapcast software that’s running, you will miss out on some of the simplicity and elegance of Chromecast. For one, Chromecast is a smaller dongle that hides away on the back of your HDTV. If you use Cheapcast, you’ll have to find a way to hide your older mobile device while it’s plugged into your TV, or you’ll simply have to deal with the device being in sight next to your TV.

Also, while many of the functionality is replicated, there are still some bugs as this is beta software. The developer notes that Chrome Tabs is still not working properly.

Another use, primarily for people traveling, is that even if you don’t connect your older tablet to your HDTV, you can still stream the content on your newer, smaller-screened smartphone onto the larger display of your tablet to view and share content that way. This may be a good solution for student projects in smaller group settings or even business travelers. The developer showed the content on his smartphone being casted onto a Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 tablet.

The ability to cast what’s on your phone to your tablet (without viewing onto an HDTV) is something that the $35 Chromecast dongle isn’t able to do that Cheapcast can. It might be a good way simply for geeks to get new life out of their old tablets.

iPhone 5C Price Pegged at $300, May Replace iPhone 4S, Drop Siri

Apple could announce the cheaper iPhone 5C at a special event in September, where one analyst believes Apple will use the deice to replace the iPhone 4S as a free on contract option. The note also claims the iPhone 5C could limit software features.

The iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C are both likely to arrive at a special event on September 10th, and there is much speculation about how a cheaper plastic iPhone 5C could fit into an Apple product lineup.

The note to investors also speculates on the iPhone 5C price, which could come in at a sub-$300 price according to Gene Munster.

An iPhone 5C photo leaked by Sonny Dickson shows a possible look for the new budget iPhone.

In a note to investors published on Apple Insider, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster shares his thoughts on the rumored iPhone 5C, which is the name expected for Apple’s plastic iPhone which could arrive with a cheaper price.

Munster estimates the iPhone 5C price could arrive as low as $300 off contract. This would make the iPhone 5C the cheapest iPhone in Apple’s lineup and it could replace the iPhone 4S as a free iPhone on U.S. carriers. This comes on the heels of rumors the iPhone 5C would replace the iPhone 5 when Apple announces the iPhone 5S.

Originally expected as a budget iPhone for China and other emerging markets, as we approach the launch, the iPhone 5C looks more like a device that could arrive on shelves in the U.S. as well.

Photo of an iPhone 5S mockup shows a new camera look vs. the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5C.

It would make more sense that Apple would replace the iPhone 4S with the iPhone 5C, as it would likely put all of the iPhones on a 4-inch display and Lightning connector.

Munster believes Apple will limit features of the iPhone 5C, specifically claiming Apple will not include Siri on the iPhone 5C. Apple requires an Apple A5 processor for Siri, which could be part of the reason, but it would be a surprise to see a processor lower than an Apple A5 inside a iPhone 5C as it would also likely limit AirPlay abilities.

Many leaked photos appear to show an iPhone 5C with a plastic design and a multitude of colors. The video below shows what could be the back of the iPhone 5C, leaked from the Apple supply chain.

We expect to see the iPhone 5C at an iPhone launch event on September 10th.