This is a new Apple, we can see with the laptop this year that Apple can be very aggressive with pricing to prop up sales. Further part of the reason off contract phones are high priced is to push people into carrier contracts. I'm certain that Apple works with the carriers to establish pricing schemes so that everybody wins. Everybody here being the businesses involved.
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Apple Announces Colorful New iPhone 5c, Starting at $99 on Two-Year Contract
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This is a new Apple, we can see with the laptop this year that Apple can be very aggressive with pricing to prop up sales. Further part of the reason off contract phones are high priced is to push people into carrier contracts. I'm certain that Apple works with the carriers to establish pricing schemes so that everybody wins. Everybody here being the businesses involved.
This I'm afraid is a turning point in history. Apple have lost their chance to regain ground for good.
no YOU're getting it all wrong. At this price point no one will want this phone. there are too many compromises in relation to the price difference between the S and C. People will go after the 4s and the second hand 5. On the other hand, this move allows for less canibalization of the 5s given that the alternative is now on a different casing.
In the end, apple's market share will remain the same, profits might go up (but just for a bit) and the consumers get the illusion they are being given more options, when in reality they're not..
The problem is that would kill the flagship phone and their profit margins. So Apple is refusing to do it and probably has little reason until their revenues stall out.
That's crazy. I was thinking it would be $300 entry level. How will these sell in India or China?
Got my eggs in the Nexus 5 basket now....
I use Net10 and I love it, if you play by the rules you don't get cut off, and the savings add up, very fast!
Wow, that's expensive.
Not many people could afford that so many will do a contract anyway.
Hopefully that price will drop but I doubt it
Total fail at $550. Unbelievable. The only thing more insulting is the pricing overseas (equivalent of $800+ in Europe!?!) Not since the days of Alexander Graham Bell has a telephone cost so much.
Apple had better impress with the ipad/mini this year or else no purchase for me. I'm already sticking with my non-smartphone due to this ridiculous pricing (although a $200 Nexus 4 is a future option--I could buy almost 3 of them for the same price as the 5C). I will consider an ipad or mini if they can improve and no I don't mean a useless fingerprint scanner. IOS 7 to me looks like nothing more than pretty colors and I liked the old skeuomorphism. It had better offer some improved functionality and the ipad/mini will need to have a substantial refresh or else Apple is in serious trouble. I thought Steve Jobs supposedly left them with a roadmap for the next several years??? Maybe the only thing was the ipad mini.... let's hope they can deliver on that now.
Apple had better impress with the ipad/mini this year or else no purchase for me. I'm already sticking with my non-smartphone due to this ridiculous pricing (although a $200 Nexus 4 is a future option--I could buy almost 3 of them for the same price as the 5C). I will consider an ipad or mini if they can improve and no I don't mean a useless fingerprint scanner. IOS 7 to me looks like nothing more than pretty colors and I liked the old skeuomorphism. It had better offer some improved functionality and the ipad/mini will need to have a substantial refresh or else Apple is in serious trouble. I thought Steve Jobs supposedly left them with a roadmap for the next several years??? Maybe the only thing was the ipad mini.... let's hope they can deliver on that now.
I completely agree, waaaay too expensive for something that could be much cheaper without cannibalising the 5S sales.
Now the 5C is still more expensive than an iPad, I don't get Apple!!!
They should think numbers, because in the end the whole ecosystem (iOS) would greatly profit the more users are on it. (more profit through the app-store, itunes-store and ibooks store)
They did the same with the ipod, when they realized that they needed to lower the prices of the hardware to subsidize it with high absolute sales in the itunes store and it worked great!!!
In my case, I will still replace my iphone 4 with the new 5S, but my plans to get an 5C for my girlfriend are now in the toilet!!! I will buy her a nexus 4 to replace her old galaxy... sorry apple, missed a chance to increase your customer base!
In the end, the market will punish apple for its mistakes! Phones are mass-market communication products and their platforms get better the more people use it! Running with the exclusivity image here is a major mistake in the long-term while on the other hand apple is pricing their ipads much better against the competition!
I just grabbed a nexus 4 since I wanted a cheap entry into the android market. If I like it I will pick up a 5 in 6 months and sell my 4 (probably get back a good portion of what I paid for it).
yep.
My son has my 4S, and wants the 5C. Seems to think it's a reasonable phone for high schoolers.
You really don't? You don't see the point in any protective apparatus if what's it's protecting is plastic? Wow.
Might as well say bye to iPhone forever then. Apple has never and will never play in that space.
Everyone, bar one guy here, seems to forget that Apple hasn't done anything new here. They are selling last year's phone at the same price they always have. The aluminium chamfered chassis was too expensive to make their margins on the 5, so they had to make it a different way to get there. So they came up with the 5C. Gave it mostly last year's tech with an improved front camera, and then selling it at the same price point as they always have.
The "low cost" aspect of the rumour was a completely failed and misguided guess by the media trying to put two and two together with Apple imminently moving in China, an "emerging market," and Apple simultaneously developing a second model of the iPhone to be released in parallel with the annually updated flagship model.
This was never meant to be low cost or meant for "emerging markets." It was meant for what it was always meant for - a huge subgroup of people that buy on contract but don't want to spend more than the equivalent of $100 up front.
The sense of entitlement on here is utterly ridiculous. If you all don't feel it is worth it, you are perfectly free to take your money elsewhere, or if you love the platform, buy a second hand 5 or get the 4S which is still available and free on contract, especially since you all feel that the value for money is not there on the 5C. Apple is not twisting your arm here.
I, if anyone is interested, will be keeping my 5 and upgrading to the 6 when the time comes. It should be an amazing machine, might even get that 4.5 - 5 inch screen! The 64bit architecture on the A7 with native OS support for it is going to push these machines to whole new levels in the next couple of years, and I am due for an iPad upgrade - will inly be a tough choice if the mini gets both the 64bit A7 and retina display, otherwise it will be the iPad 5 for sure.
All of your arguments remind me of the iPod Mini naysayers. Remember, it was "way too expensive for what you got" as well. "Sure it has colors, but it's a WAY smaller hard drive!" is what techies said.
And by "Techies," I mean people who put a lot of weight on internal tech specs and almost none on how it looks. You may recognize that viewpoint as the opposite of the average consumer, as a great many tech-writers learned after the iPod Mini came out.
You all seem to be under the impression that a plastic colored back is a detriment this phone has to overcome. But it's actually an asset for a great many people...worth extra money in their minds.
The naysayers are of course, already hard at work.
While I think the colors are pretty bad (as somebody else said, not terribly masculine, any of them), I think they'll sell well to children and females who don't care about specs (which let's face it, is most of them).
As for pricing, this is exactly what I expected, and Apple will sell these like delicious hotcakes. Maybe not so much in the US or Europe, but certainly overseas in emerging markets, which is the whole point.
While I think the colors are pretty bad (as somebody else said, not terribly masculine, any of them), I think they'll sell well to children and females who don't care about specs (which let's face it, is most of them).
As for pricing, this is exactly what I expected, and Apple will sell these like delicious hotcakes. Maybe not so much in the US or Europe, but certainly overseas in emerging markets, which is the whole point.
That's so weird, I see the exact opposite, why in the world would anyone pay the extra money for a 5s which is (in the mind of the average consumer) the same phone? I don't think the credit fever among the public means they think logically - they'll see the upfront sticker price and think, "hey this iPhone is half the price, but there's no difference between it and that expensive one, so I'm going to buy it and save $100 *today*!" If they save $100 tomorrow, they wouldn't notice it, but saving them that much money today I think they'll take the deal (the 5c) and then go plop that money on upgrading to a bigger television on which they can watch more reality tv shows<wry grin>.
