Apple is likely to retail the iPhone 5C at around $300 on release date, attracting hordes of buys and enough for the tech giant to chalk up relatively high gross margins despite the absence of some killer features, new reports said.

For Brian Marshall of ISI Group, the low-cost iPhone is a major vehicle for Apple to gain traction on its thrust to establish visibility on emerging markets like China, which to date remains the dominion of its closest rival - Samsung.

In the June 2013 quarter, Samsung's Galaxy mobile phones posted double-digit sales figures while Apple only sold over four million units of iPhone variants in China, which is fast-becoming as the biggest smartphone market in the world with hundreds of millions of potential buyers.

The entry of the 5C will likely change this scenario, Mr Marshall said, adding that the budget iPhone will play a crucial role in driving up Apple's gross margins, in so far as its iPhone business is concerned.

He forecasted that with the 5C included in Apple's product portfolio, international sales of the tech giant will increase further. Specifically, the iPhone 5C will kick up the tech giant's gross margins by up to 40 per cent, Mr Marshall told Apple Insider.

The reason for this, he added, is the 5C's lower production cost compared to the legacy handsets iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S.

And while Apple has already indicated that the iPhone 4 assembly is winding down, the 4S should well on its way to retirement as well, which is the direct aftermath of the 5C's arrival, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster.

With the 5C acting as Apple's go-to gadget for shoppers seeking to score an affordable iPhone, it's only natural for the tech titan to end the production of both the iPhone 4 and 4S, resulting to significant savings for the company, Mr Munster was reported by CNET as saying.

At $300, he predicted that the 5C will boost Apple's overall sales, noting at the same time that the 5C's sterling sales performance will cannibalise the iPhone 5S's numbers by some 25 per cent.

But there is one letdown in getting the cheaper iPhone, which for many Apple fans is a major one. It could be that the 5C will come out without Siri even if the handset will run on iOS 7, Mr Munster said.

It is the same case with the iPhone 4, which has been updated to the latest iOS 6 version but remains a Siri skipper.

Apple is expected to officially announce the iPhone 5C on Sept 10 with the actual release to likely follow on late September or early October. The device is seen to showcase specs that were slight downgrades from the iPhone 5S and its colourful plastic shell should serve as one of its key allures.