Apple is reportedly planning to launch a cheap iPhone in 2020

• Apple is planning to launch a low-cost iPhone next spring, sources told Nikkei Asian review. The sources said that the phone would have a roughly 4.7-inch screen but that the name and price tag hadn't been decided yet.
• The floated low-cost phone is being billed as a successor to the iPhone SE, a $399 model brought out in 2016.
  
• The news outlet reported that the new phone was meant to claw back market share from the Chinese smartphone giant Huawei, which has won consumers over with cheaper high-end devices.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

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Apple is planning to launch a new low-cost iPhone in a bid to claw back its market share in the smartphone business, sources told Nikkei Asian Review.

The new phone is said to be planned for next spring and is viewed as a next-generation version of the 2016 iPhone SE, which started at $399. Three sources told Nikkei that the device would be similar in size to the 2017 iPhone 8, which had a 4.7-inch screen. No name or price tag have been decided for the phone, Nikkei said. Apple's latest phones, the XR and the XS, start at $750 and $1,000.

Read more: Apple just sent out invites for its big iPhone announcement next month

The same sources told Nikkei this new phone would have most of the same components as Apple's coming line of flagship phones but that the cost-saver would not have an organic-light-emitting-diode screen. OLED screens project pixels from the screen itself, rather than projecting them through a layer of glass as is the case with older LCD displays.

Apple's hold on the smartphone market has been slipping. Last month it sank down in the rankings as the fourth-biggest smartphone manufacturer behind Samsung, Huawei, and Oppo. Jeff Pu, a tech analyst at GF Securities, told Nikkei that a spring release date for a more affordable iPhone could provide a revenue injection for Apple.

"The cheaper iPhone SE could serve as a sales momentum kicker the first half next year, if the new premium iPhones do not perform well in the coming months," Pu told the news outlet.

Apple is due to announce its next iPhone at its annual September event next week, though it is expected to focus on its next high-end, flagship device.

Apple was not immediately available for comment when contacted by Business Insider.