Rumors continue to fly about a budget priced iPhone. Although we here at TUAW remain completely agnostic on the likelihood of this product, we certainly can understand why Apple would benefit from a low-cost product -- and not just for emerging markets like China.
Consider the iPad 2. It's still for sale, with a budget price and great Apple engineering. The iPad 2 and the mini represent affordable products with high demand that consumers are choosing over high end features like Retina displays.
Why wouldn't an iPhone benefit from a similar pricing spectrum? It's not the extra phone hardware (you can buy a cheap phone at any TracFone or Cricket dealer) that's driving costs. Even the lowest-priced current iPhone model (the i
