Phil Schiller [3] has given an interview to Chinese media [4] in which he nixes [5] the idea of cheaper iPhones [6]. Or did he? Apple [7]'s SVP of Marketing made the remarks during an Q&A session with the Shanghai Evening News, where he said this.

Every product that Apple creates, we consider using only the best technology available. This includes the production pipeline, the Retina [8] display, the unibody design, to provide the best product to the market. At first, non-smartphones were popular in the Chinese market, now cheap smartphones are more popular, and non-smartphones are out. Despite the popularity of cheap smartphones, this will never be the future of Apple's products. In fact, although Apple's market share of smartphones is just about 20%, we own the 75% of the profit."

There. From the horse's mouth, so to speak. However, does Schiller actually mean no lower-priced version of the iPhone period, full stop, point final, or does he mean there will be no crappy, second-rate versions? Consider the iPad Mini [9]. It's a fistful of greenbacks cheaper than the full-sized version, it is lacking the Retina [10] display of the latest version of its bigger brother [11], but it is still a premium product compared to other seven-inch tablets in the market. Is that what you mean, Phil?

[Image via Flickr user Yutaka Tsutano [12]]