Apple Further Trims iPhone 5c Production as Customers Continue to Prefer iPhone 5s

[Yinmay]

The C definitely has a place in the future but needs some tweaking, ideas:

• iPhone 6 at 5" and keep the C at 4".
• Offer black or white front options for each existing back color option
• Back colors should also be bolder, more saturated, less pale. I want a real red, not a pinkish red, that matches my (red) shuffle. Black and gray back options wouldn't hurt either.
• That and a $100 year-round education discount.

 

[robjulo]

Eh, I think this isn't necessarily by design, but not a problem for Apple. They gave the "analysts" and "pundits" what they wanted -- a low cost iPhone -- and the consumers aren't buying it. Now Tim and Co. can turn around and say, "See? It didn't work. Now let us get back to doing what we do best -- hyper focusing on a single product."

One problem, it wasn't "low cost".

 

[giantfan1224]

It DOES so. It's still sold by many carriers. And, since "I" chose the 5, my actions make the premise plausible.

Apple doesn't sell the 5 anymore and any carrier that still has the 5 is because it's leftover inventory. The 5C was never meant to go against the 5. And when all those new leftover 5's are gone?

 

[jonAppleSeed]

Nothing wrong with the product. It's the price. If they made it realistic then it would sell a lot better

Exactly, they should look at the Moto G for pricing help.

 

[aduzik]

Let's suppose for the sake of argument this market share report is right. Since we don't have any previous years' numbers to compare it with, what does it tell us? NOTHING. Are these numbers good? Are they bad? You don't know. Period. The end. People here are extrapolating way too much from too little data. You all would make a fortune as Wall Street analysts.

 

[Rogifan]

When the 4S was released, people still bought the 4 because it looked the same as the newer model. At least, if you are sitting at a bar, on a bus, on a train, on a plane, nobody would know that you "cheaped" out and bought the slightly older model.

This time around, the slightly older model is flurescent pink, blue, green or yellow and screams out "look, I couldn't afford the top end product." I am not surprised that people might want to pay a little bit extra to get the higher status version.

If the 5C was $200 cheaper than the 5S, then I can see that people might opt to buy it (because at that point it really is targetting a different 'budget' smartphone market). However, at the price points Apple has chosen, I can understand why 5C sales are lagging.

So you're saying if it was $200 cheaper then it wouldn't scream "I can't afford the top end product"? Or at that price point it would attract buyers who don't care? I guess I hang around with a weird crowd because in my circle of friends we don't ever think about status, certainly not based on what smartphone someone is using.

 

[Hyper-X]

You said the operative word: perceived. I read all the 5C reviews from tech sites to owners on the iPhone forum. I haven't found many, if any, that complained about build quality or cheap material. Were the plastic 3G and 3GS perceived to be lower quality? I played around with a 5C at an Apple store and it felt better to me than the 3GS ever did.

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Sorry but that green and yellow is hideous to me.

If they had red, yellow and green on the same unit, we could have ourselves a Rastafarian iPhone 5C

 

[cclloyd]

They are so doomed. People aren't buying Apple products anymore, and are instead going with a different Apple product, one with a slightly less profit margin!

 

[giantfan1224]

let's suppose for the sake of argument this market share report is right. Since we don't have any previous years' numbers to compare it with, what does it tell us? Nothing. Are these numbers good? Are they bad? You don't know. Period. The end. People here are extrapolating way too much from too little data. You all would make a fortune as wall street analysts.

+1

 

[Rogifan]

One problem, it wasn't "low cost".

But Apple never promised a low cost phone.

 

[nebo1ss]

I would imagine the issue that would concern Apple more is that more than 50 percent of that traffic is from iphone 4 and 4s. It would seem to suggest a large group of people you would expect to upgrade are not doing so.

 

[aduzik]

They are so doomed. People aren't buying Apple products anymore, and are instead going with a different Apple product, one with a slightly less profit margin!

Lower profit margin, higher price, so still greater dollar profit per unit. I'm sure Tim Cook is losing all kinds of sleep over this.

 

[OllyW]

You said the operative word: perceived. I read all the 5C reviews from tech sites to owners on the iPhone forum. I haven't found many, if any, that complained about build quality or cheap material. Were the plastic 3G and 3GS perceived to be lower quality? I played around with a 5C at an Apple store and it felt better to me than the 3GS ever did.

Apple (and their fans) have helped to spread that perception over the last few years.

 

[158273]

Question: why is the 5c so much heavier than the 5s? I can understand that aluminum is lighter, but is the plastic that much heavier that it feels so much heavier and dense? If it's packing last year's internals, what is in there to make it feel so dense and solid?

 

[Small White Car]

Do we have any data that suggests the 5C isn't selling as well as the 4S did last year and the 4 before it?

Nothing concrete, but the anecdotal evidence is building.

Yes, I have been making the argument around here that we don't KNOW that sales are poor yet. I do think it's important to keep that in mind and I'm not claiming they are terrible.

But based on a lot of small stories like this I've started to think more along the lines of "if the 5c is selling poorly then what's next?" I'm not claiming it is, but I think it's time to at least have those thoughts and discussions.

 

[giantfan1224]

I would imagine the issue that would concern Apple more is that more than 50 percent of that traffic is from iphone 4 and 4s. It would seem to suggest a large group of people you would expect to upgrade are not doing so.

To be fair, let the holiday season come and go and see what the split is on user traffic and who is or who is not upgrading. Since the target market of the 5C is the consumer that doesn't need the latest and greatest, it's primed to sell the best from Black Friday through Jan, 1.

 

[i.mac]

Just bought a Samsung Galaxy S4 that had been used once. Perfect condition.

The equivalent iPhone 5C is £225 more expensive than what I paid.

Dude, you've got an old samedung.

 

[Tiger8]

Well, the thing is that people HAVE been doing that. The 4S was a big seller after the 5 came out. The 4 still sold after the 4S came out. etc.

Apple has done well with the "$100 less for slightly lesser phone" plan for years now.

Since the only difference between last year and this year is the year-old-phone's design, I have to conclude that the design is the problem.

There is another reason why the 4S remained as a big seller after the 5 debut; it was the last phone to feature 3.5 screen size, which believe it or not, is still popular.

I personally like the glass feel of the 4s, and rather than upgrade to 5c or 5s, I broke my contract and went MVNO.

 

[aduzik]

Exactly, they should look at the Moto G for pricing help.

And when is Apple finally going to make a netbook? Sheesh!

 

[JulesK]

I completely understand why the 5s is outselling the 5c early on, but the 5c can have a really important place in the market. I purchased three (each under $50 once the first discounts on new contracts kicked in, funded by selling an old iPhone 4) for my parents and in-laws, and spending $150 for three phones beats $600, and the 5c will be more than enough smartphone for them for years. Plus, they are on my AT&T Mobile Share plan, so the additional monthly cost is relatively minimal as they don't use much data at all. The people on this forum are not the market; the 5c I suspect will soon be close to free on a new contract, and for many people, it will be a perfect option.

As far as materials/design, I prefer the 5c, actually. But once you stick a 5c and 5s in cases, they are indistinguishable.

 

[cdmoore74]

And with Motorola/Google releasing a decent $179/$199 off contract phone the iPhone 5c will be dead next year. Granted it does not have LTE or a 32gig option but at that price people will not complain.
Next year will be the war of who can make a cheap feature packed phone. I don't think Apple wants to go into that direction.

 

[wiz329]

Cut the price and not the production

And cannibalize more profitable 5s sales?

Doubt it.

 

[iMcLovin]

When apple throws their typical premium price on a last years phone tech only just made in plastic, I can´t understand how they expect it to become a huge success. Apple should just stop selling the 4s, wchich is a phone with ultra crap battery and the old dock connector which apple isnt making anymore on other products...and then put the 5c down to the price the sell the 4s. Then it would make sense.

 

[FrizzleFryBen]

Right. Because we have to protect stupid consumers.

Ummmm. Yeah! But when you say 'stupid' I say 'uninformed'

Just like at a grocery store where every product must tell you what ingredients are in it. (not GMOs....yet)

Just like how CC companies must tell you how long it will take to pay off your balance by making minimum payment and what it will total.

Just like how you get to know what your gas milage should be before you buy a car.

Just like how you get to know how much energy every major appliance will use before you buy it.

Look, we don't all have the time or the resources to research every purchase we make. While I believe many of these warnings are silly, there are many things that people don't know and little way of knowing without simple breakdowns of how things work. This is one of those simple consumer heads-up.

 

[nspindel]

This is a bit unfortunate, because the 5c is actually a very nice phone. My son and I both have the 5, and my wife's 4s was ready for an upgrade when the 5s/c came out. I looked at it this way: I sold her 4s for $200, so I could do a costless upgrade to either the 16gb 5s or the 32gb 5c. For a user like my wife, who was running out of space on her 16gb phone and does nothing with her phone that would benefit from a 64-bit processor, the 5c was a great choice. She loves the phone. But the market has spoken, I guess.