Apple Denies Rumors of Cheaper iPhone: Hot Trends

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Popular searches on the Internet include iPhone 5 after Apple's (AAPL) marketing chief denied rumors the company is working on a cheaper version of its popular smartphone.

Speculation has built this week that Apple is developing an iPhone for more price-conscious consumers. But Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of marketing, indicated in an interview with the Shanghai Evening Times that a cheaper iPhone is not in the company's pipeline.

"More people are using smartphones in China, some manufacturers are beginning to develop low-cost smartphones to replace feature phones, but this is not within Apple's product development direction," he said. Schiller added that Apple prefers to focus on making the best products, not grabbing the most market share though market share is a by-product of that.

Apple does have a history of squashing rumors of products before they come out. In 2005, the company denied rumors it was coming out with an iPod that could play video, but weeks later it debuted just that.

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Amazon (AMZN) is trending as the company has launched a service that gives customers free MP3 versions of CDs they've purchased.

The service, called AutoRip, will immediately give customers a digital version of CDs they buy off of Amazon. The song files will be automatically stored in customer libraries where they can be played or downloaded immediately through Amazon's Cloud Player service. What's more, customers can receive digital versions of any CDs they've purchased since 1998.

AutoRip currently has over 50,000 albums in its catalog and will be adding more.

Users can play the digital versions of their music through any Web-based player and/or any Cloud Player compatible device. AutoRip is available now.

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Japan is another popular search. The Nikkei stock index surged after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced a stimulus package of more than 20 trillion yen, or $224 billion.

According to Abe, it is one of the largest spending plans in Japanese history.

The prime minister said the measures aim to create 600,000 new jobs and add 2% to Japan's economic growth. He also called for the Japanese central bank to be more aggressive in stopping deflation and encouraging lending.

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