What’s the strategy for increasing market share for the iconic iPhone in the long term?

Clearly the iPhone is a phenomenal success, so it begs the question of what Apple will do to keep the iconic device in the top spot as king of the smartphones. The answer: lower the price, add more functionality, expand access overseas and pack any future models with software that has a wow-factor.

This roadmap for where the iPhone is headed comes from applied technology analyst Yair Reiner of Oppenheimer & Co., who told InternetNews.com that’s what top Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) executives, including CFO Peter Oppenheimer, relayed to him during a recent meeting.

“There’s a lot of room to grow market share, and Apple says the way to do that is by adding value in a number of ways. One is by lowering prices. Then, by adding more functionality. They’ve always used a combination of these two levers in their portfolio. And there’s more runway in terms of geographical extension, and by that, I think they’re passively acknowledging that China, with its population, might be a good target,” said Reiner.

In terms of segmenting the market by coming out with different models, he said Apple was tight-lipped on any details, but did offer some insight on the future of the product line.

“In regard to segmentation of the market with additional models, I raised that as a possibility, and Apple said they don’t discuss future product plans, but one thing they did say is that any iPhone they put out there would be a software-centric device.

“So there’s no announcements about additional iPhone models, but I think a tacit acknowledgement that segmentation is something they’ve used successfully in the past for all of their product categories. So, theoretically, that could be on the menu of options for increasing the value of the iPhone,” said Reiner.

He said he interprets what Apple execs said as meaning that any future iterations of the iPhone would have comprehensive feature sets. “I think if we can read into Apple’s statement, what we can say is any segmentation of the iPhone is not going to involve any kind of simple voice device. Whatever they issue, it would have a full-blown operating system.”

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