Eh, no.
Suppose a 50-50 split between 5C and 5S, average selling price woud be 550.
Suppose a 30-70 split, average selling price would be 570.
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Apple Increasing iPhone 5s Production by 75%, Cutting iPhone 5c Orders by 35%
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Suppose a 50-50 split between 5C and 5S, average selling price woud be 550.
Suppose a 30-70 split, average selling price would be 570.
Comparing 5c sales to what they might have been if its price was lower is misguided. The real comparison is what the *profits* are relative to if they had continued with their previous sales model i.e. keeping the iPhone 5 and lowering its price.
We can't know if Apple is selling more 5C's than a hypothetically discounted vanilla iPhone 5 (although my guess is they are). But we can be nearly certain they are making more profit. The outer antenna band on the 5 is expensive, and by switching to a plastic case Apple has surely reduced the manufacturing cost of the 5C relative to the 5. Thus, greater margins and profits, and a clear win for the 5C strategy.
We can't know if Apple is selling more 5C's than a hypothetically discounted vanilla iPhone 5 (although my guess is they are). But we can be nearly certain they are making more profit. The outer antenna band on the 5 is expensive, and by switching to a plastic case Apple has surely reduced the manufacturing cost of the 5C relative to the 5. Thus, greater margins and profits, and a clear win for the 5C strategy.
Ugh
Next week's MR News: The Power of Grandma and Teen-age Girls - 6 out of Ten iPhone 5Cs Sold Are Pink & White Then Surprisingly Followed By Yellow & Green.
However, They Are No Match To The Apple Fanboys (95% men , over 30 Years Old) Who Opted for The Latest & Greatest iGadget, iPhone 5S
99.5% of iPhone 5S men buyers in the USA grabbed the space grey. In a poll conducted in a mecca of male Apple fanboys in the Northeast, the majority said they would have considered buying or would have bought the iPhone 5C if it is available in black as the color choices are all for the ladies or teenage girls. "This will serve as a great lesson to Apple for iPhone 6. Real American fanboys will only buy iPhones in black!", one of the fanboys said. The same fanboy also confessed, he is one of those trolling MR because he hated the very feminine look of iO7. He and his fellow redneck friends are glad that his "black iPhone 5S metal" (he refuses to call it space grey) is a fantastic contrast to the "bubble gum icons".
Next week's MR News: The Power of Grandma and Teen-age Girls - 6 out of Ten iPhone 5Cs Sold Are Pink & White Then Surprisingly Followed By Yellow & Green.
However, They Are No Match To The Apple Fanboys (95% men , over 30 Years Old) Who Opted for The Latest & Greatest iGadget, iPhone 5S
99.5% of iPhone 5S men buyers in the USA grabbed the space grey. In a poll conducted in a mecca of male Apple fanboys in the Northeast, the majority said they would have considered buying or would have bought the iPhone 5C if it is available in black as the color choices are all for the ladies or teenage girls. "This will serve as a great lesson to Apple for iPhone 6. Real American fanboys will only buy iPhones in black!", one of the fanboys said. The same fanboy also confessed, he is one of those trolling MR because he hated the very feminine look of iO7. He and his fellow redneck friends are glad that his "black iPhone 5S metal" (he refuses to call it space grey) is a fantastic contrast to the "bubble gum icons".
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What does this have to do with the price of rice in China? Or how well the 5s sells compared to the 5c?
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What MAN would walk around with a 5c with its girly colours
Any man who doesn't measure his worth by the color of his cell phone.
The problem with the 5C is that it doesn't really have a market.
It's a cheaper iPhone, but not cheap enough to appeal to prepaid customers who otherwise have a genuinely very good assortment of Android devices.
The reason the iPod nano succeeded while the original iPod did was, IMO, that the nano wasn't a 'cheaper' iPod (it wasn't cheaper because it used more expensive flash storage). It served a genuinely different market - those that valued portability and pocket-ability more than huge amounts of storage space.
If Apple wants to diversify the iPhone line, it needs to come up with iPhones that aren't just cheaper or have less features; it needs to come up with iPhones that have a variety of features which meet the needs of different customers.
It's a cheaper iPhone, but not cheap enough to appeal to prepaid customers who otherwise have a genuinely very good assortment of Android devices.
The reason the iPod nano succeeded while the original iPod did was, IMO, that the nano wasn't a 'cheaper' iPod (it wasn't cheaper because it used more expensive flash storage). It served a genuinely different market - those that valued portability and pocket-ability more than huge amounts of storage space.
If Apple wants to diversify the iPhone line, it needs to come up with iPhones that aren't just cheaper or have less features; it needs to come up with iPhones that have a variety of features which meet the needs of different customers.
Eh... have you been paying attention for the last few years? This has been Apple's strategy all along. They take the old model and sell it for $100 or so less.
In fact, the only thing I can conclude based on the numbers "analysts" have been publishing is that the 5c is doing about the same as the other year old iPhones.
In other words, so far, it seems that newer tech trumps new colors. I suspect the sales numbers change when moms and teenage girls get cell phones for Christmas.
Why? A low priced iPhone sold for little or no profit in India or China. Who cares if you get more marketshare if that marketshare doesn't lead to more profit?
I remember a few years ago, there was this so called "demand" for a cheap Apple laptop.
It sounded like a stupid idea back then and it sounds like a stupid idea now.
I am not buying the iPhone 5C (I had an iPhone 5!) but I am really hoping that if and when Apple makes the first announcement of the official breakdown of sales (though it is remotely possible), that iPhone 5Cs outsold iPhone 5s by a wide margin just to stop all this non-sense.
The C class look so cheap! the colors are horrible. It looks like when you leave a plastic on the sun for years... washed out.
They could have make the colors funkier, a really fluorescent yellow would have been really cool. Like when the first iMacs came out, "you even wanted to leaked them".
They could have make the colors funkier, a really fluorescent yellow would have been really cool. Like when the first iMacs came out, "you even wanted to leaked them".
That's kind of a ridiculous way to phrase it unless the implication is that supply/availability is the main driver of demand for one model over the other.
so just make a 4S w/ plastic backing... there not that hard
Oh, yeah. Basically Lol
So no more 5C, just a plastic 4S, w/ lightning port. And more colors!! Purple, all black, orange, navy, fuchsia, etc. Go nuts, Apple! Lol
The problem with that is all the whiney little apple haters that spend their lives in macrumors will switch their story to: "See, we told you that Apple doesn't know how to innovate anymore and did too little with the 5s. The sales numbers indicate that what little Apple did with the 5s was not worth the $100 premium over the 5c."
Its a double edged sword.
When paired with the text on the cover - "What, Us Worry? - Exclusive: Apple's Craig Federighi, Tim Cook, and Jony Ive never have been more certain they're right", it speaks of a growing sense of self-importance, of ego. (*)
(* - NOTE: The laughing shot and the caption may well have been BusinessWeek sticking words in the mouths of the Apple executives. Never trust "professional reporters".)
The wise man is always mindful of opportunities to make mistakes, and of the disasters that come from self-delusion. Those of us who've been around Apple since that start have seen these behaviors come and go in cycles.
So to answer your question, having the 5c flop speaks to Apple's "big 3" being overly confident. In the bigger scope of things, the market is giving them a gentle warning - for now....
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Or, you could look at exactly the same data and conclude that Apple, on an "S" release, gave enough innovative new content that the new model is in far greater demand than the equivalent of last years model.
It's all about what conclusions you bring to the data. If you came to see failure, there is a way to find it. If you came to see success, there is a way to find it.
The real wisdom is to not bring any conclusions to the data in the first place.
My thoughts:
Apple is a public company and under pressure by its stockholders to continue to grow 20+% a year and maintain or increase its profit margins. The 5c as it stands could never be sold by Apple for less and still maintain the required profit margins. In fact it is quite possible that Apple cannot be competitive (i.e. build a phone with enough features) at a lower price point and still maintain its profit margins.
For an iPhone to cost $300 unsubsidized, it would likely have to be equivalent to an iPhone 4 or possibly a 3GS in terms of technology and features. It would always be seen as 'old tech'.
Apple is a public company and under pressure by its stockholders to continue to grow 20+% a year and maintain or increase its profit margins. The 5c as it stands could never be sold by Apple for less and still maintain the required profit margins. In fact it is quite possible that Apple cannot be competitive (i.e. build a phone with enough features) at a lower price point and still maintain its profit margins.
For an iPhone to cost $300 unsubsidized, it would likely have to be equivalent to an iPhone 4 or possibly a 3GS in terms of technology and features. It would always be seen as 'old tech'.
When you don't have more money be it $, , ¥, silver or gold. My take is that they will not be adding any more colors to the 5C line and perhaps and additional color for the 5S. I'd love to see a shiny platinum or titanium 5S.
Sadly, this seems to be the likely answer. It's not consumer friendly, if consumers are looking for a lower iPhone entry point. I think we should all accept the fact that apple does not want to keep it's hold on the market share.
Apple seems happy to let it continue to slip away, as long as it sells 5% more phones, year over year. I just hope they are happy when the smart phone market ends up like the PC market of the early/mid 90s.
I still think that the 5C is purely there so they could ditch the 5 which was a pain to produce. It is selling better than the old 4S did when the 5 came out so it still looks like a win win for Apple to me.
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Probably because the original 5 was badly designed making it difficult to manufacture and prone to scratches. They needed to replace it as soon as possible and the 5C is just that, its replacement.
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Probably because the original 5 was badly designed making it difficult to manufacture and prone to scratches. They needed to replace it as soon as possible and the 5C is just that, its replacement.
5c would sell well if it was unlocked and without a contract at $300-400. Apple needs to stop being so greedy.