Five evolution paths for the iPhone

5. Ruling the world

Among early adopters - particularly tech journalists - it's easy to believe that everyone has an iPhone or is planning to get one. Head to Silicon Valley, and the feeling is even more pronounced. But to some extent, this is a bubble.

The iPhone is busily conquering the mobile-savvy Western world, but what about India, China, Africa and other emerging frontiers for mobile technology?

Despite analyst speculation beforehand, WWDC didn't see any announcements about cheaper, feature-light iPhones for these markets. Apple is making plenty of money from selling the handsets to people in richer Western countries, after all.

However, the company should set its sights wider in the future. Industry analyst Juniper Research reckons that by 2014, sales of low-cost handsets in emerging markets will have climbed to 700 million. How many of them will be iPhones?

Nokia already has its sights trained on these countries. Apple has already conquered the hipster crowd with iPhone: the next step should be finding similar success with farmers in India and China.

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