Is this the new budget iPhone? [Rumour]

The biggest oxymoron in tech world is “cheap iPhone”. Or “budget iPhone”. A set of words that just don’t gel. Yet rumours persist. And if Patent Number 8 364 032, filed February last year by Apple and approved last month by the US Patent Office is anything to go by, then a budget iPhone is on the cards.

The patent displays a rectangle with round corners which has become an Apple trademark, a front-facing screen, plastic body and a rear facing camera. And no home button. The patent, described as a “light isolated protective cover for small form factor electronic device” fits in with Apple’s usual terminology.

Yet there are many arguments against this as well. Apple’s strategy has never been to make devices that fall in the area of “budget”. Never. As Phil Schiller, senior vice-president of marketing once said, “every product that Apple creates, we consider using only the best technology available. Despite the popularity of cheap smartphones, this will never be the future of Apple’s products.”

And so we go back to square one again. Or not? In all honest opinion this could just be a patent for an iPhone case, but then why patent a casing? Is there maybe some other new gadgetry Apple has yet to unearth? As the description from the patent below describes, this could also just be a very fancy casing for the iPhone that in some way improves photography for the device. Which then in turn brings up more questions… Oh the wild world of rumours.