Apple to Reportedly Stop Production of iPhone 5c in 2015

[jayducharme]

I'm not surprised by the announcement. I really do like the design though. It feels great to hold. If its processor and storage had been upgraded, that would have been my next phone. I guess the 6 is a good compromise, with the curves of the 5c but in aluminum.

 

[KPOM]

What is your logic behind that? if your product is strong, why not? Does it give competitors some advantage that there competitive research doesn't already tell them? Never is a strong word, and apple hasn't followed your logic in the past.

Also, do you thing samsung would go back and say.. hey, let's repackage our S3/s4 into a plastic shell, make the screen smaller, and resell it as new and innovative?

Other phone makers, including Samsung, don't release hard sales data at all.

As for Samsung, they produce multiple versions of essentially the same phone all the time. The Galaxy Alpha is essentially a Galaxy S4 packaged in an aluminum shell with a smaller screen and peddled in 2014 as a "new" phone.

 

[Xenomorph]

Originally released as a lower-cost option last year

It had better storage than other 1 year-old devices, but it wasn't exactly a "lower-cost" option when it came out at the SAME price-point as them.

iPhone 3GS (8BG): $549
iPhone 4 (8GB): $549
iPhone 4S (8GB): $549
iPhone 5C (16GB): $549

 

[BMcCoy]

Ummm, how exactly is free on contract expensive?

Because "free on contract" is just a US euphemism for "pay off in instalments".

It's a cunning ruse by the US carriers to get you onto expensive contracts, by pretending the low price you pay at the start for the handset is "subsidy" where in fact it's more correctly a "downpayment".

You still pay off the full price of the handset, just over the course of your contract.

The contract amount you pay every month includes about $15-20 for the calls, text and data, and the rest of your monthly fee is what you are paying for the handset. On a 24 month contract, multiply that by 24, and you have the figure you are paying for your handset.

In many other countries, there is far more transparency into what proportion of the contract is the handset payment, and what is the calls/text/data. And in the UK, a large percentage of contracts are SIM-only, ie. just the calls/text/data. Usually costing £10-15. And we buy the handset outright at the start, SIM-free. The total two year cost of this is usually less than going for the full contract and paying off the phone in instalments, since there is obviously going to be a charge for credit built into that payment plan.

 

[osofast240sx]

That is one of the more clever industrial design solutions that I have seen in a while. Did you design it?



Now you're just being ridiculous

sony's new camera will need at least 64g to be useable.

 

[TMRJIJ]

The end of 5C

Image

https://www.behance.net/gallery/20454249/iPhone-EDITION

Cool design XD but where is the home button?

 

[Xenomorph]

Other phone makers, including Samsung, don't release hard sales data at all.

As for Samsung, they produce multiple versions of essentially the same phone all the time. The Galaxy Alpha is essentially a Galaxy S4 packaged in an aluminum shell with a smaller screen and peddled in 2014 as a "new" phone.

Samsung releases their amazing "shipped" numbers. They will proudly announce 50 million devices have "shipped". They won't mention that 40 million of them are still sitting in a warehouse somewhere, with no one wanting to buy them.

Also, they release several different devices with the *same* name. How many different phones were released with the Galaxy S name? Galaxy S II name? Lots. Different hardware, features, CPU, radios, and even a different look. They started making them similar-looking with the Galaxy S 3, but the internals are still radically different.

 

[KPOM]

Tim cook is leading apple into the ground with mediocre products and not pushing for excellence. And yes share price is up, but that is just riding the coat tales of past glory. I love the new microsoft/samsung ads, they really do call apple on there stagnancy. Some are dumb but hey, they are right, the new thing is in, bigger screen!

Apple's stock price has doubled since Tim Cook took over. That's not "riding the coat tails of past glory." He's been CEO for just over 3 years now. iPhone 6 and 6 Plus were developed entirely under Tim Cook's leadership. Remember that 3.5" and later 4" were the "perfect" screen sizes, and iOS through version 6 had no semblance of resolution independence.

Cook had the guts to part ways with Scott Forstall. While it was controversial, and Ive hasn't been perfect with software design, ever since then, iOS has seen substantial under-the-hood improvements that made the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus possible without the kludgy "letterboxing" used for older apps on the iPhone 5.

Samsung, meanwhile, is panicking because their profits have fallen 75%. They are likely to replace the CEO of their mobile division. And it isn't like they have really pushed the envelope much either. What's different between the S5 and S4? An even bigger screen? They haven't even made the jump to 64-bit yet (and yes, there is a significant benefit to it even in devices with less than 4GB RAM), and by the time they release their own designs (and not just a stock ARM design), Apple will be on its third generation 64-bit processor.

 

[osofast240sx]

I'm not surprised by the announcement. I really do like the design though. It feels great to hold. If its processor and storage had been upgraded, that would have been my next phone. I guess the 6 is a good compromise, with the curves of the 5c but in aluminum.

its s rumor about a device that is selling better than the Galaxy S5.

 

[Prof.]

Only two? I saw two just yesterday.

I see one to three a day. Granted they might be the same people I see at UIC lol.

 

[nia820]

I've only ever seen two of these since they were released. I've already seen two iPhone 6s.

Really? I agree the 5c wasnt as popular as 5s but it still sold well and I've seen quite a few 5c around

 

[macduke]

sony's new camera will need at least 64g to be useable.

If they use that in the next version. If it has 4K it will probably be off by default since most people don't need that yet. Just like 60fps video is turned off by default on the iPhone 6. I also think that h.265 will enable smaller 4K video files, so the next iPhone might support that.

 

[sualpine]

they should just give all 5C's to chairty, or throw them in the garbage.

You can pry my 5C from my dead cold fingers.

 

[KPOM]

Because "free on contract" is just a US euphemism for "pay off in instalments".

It's a cunning ruse by the US carriers to get you onto expensive contracts, by pretending the low price you pay at the start for the handset is "subsidy" where in fact it's more correctly a "downpayment".

...

In many other countries, there is far more transparency into what proportion of the contract is the handset payment, and what is the calls/text/data. And in the UK, a large percentage of contracts are SIM-only, ie. just the calls/text/data. Usually costing £10-15. And we buy the handset outright at the start, SIM-free. The total two year cost of this is usually less than going for the full contract and paying off the phone in instalments, since there is obviously going to be a charge for credit built into that payment plan.

I think we all know how contracts work. Until recently there was no monthly benefit to being off contract in the US, so consumers did the rational thing and re-upped contracts every 2 years to get new phones at subsidized prices. That's changing since T-Mobile started a price war about 2 years ago and decided to try weaning customers from contracts. Today all T-Mobile accounts are non-contract, and you purchase the phone through an installment plan. AT&T and Verizon still offer traditional contracts, but are trying to get more customers to sign up for their Next and Edge plans, respectively, which offer discounts of $15-25/month if you go contract-free and purchase your phone outright or through an installment plan.

Individual plans are generally more expensive in the US than the UK. You can get a basic 1GB line for $45 before taxes (about $55 with taxes) on AT&T or Verizon without a subsidy. The carriers here really push "family plans" with shared data allowances. AT&T and Verizon recently offered "double data" plans and while those have ended, they are still offering promotional plans that make 10GB available for $80 plus $15 per smartphone. The other thing to remember is that many people are eligible for discounts of around 20% through their employers. The discounts usually slightly more than offset the taxes and fees, so the end price winds up being closed to advertised.

 

[nburwell]

I briefly owned a 5c a few weeks ago. I will admit it was more comfortable to hold than my 5s. I did see quite a few of the 5c's out in the real world over the past year, although the majority of people using them were teenagers. My brother has one for work that he's still rocking though. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple were to come out with a 6c along with the 6s next year.

 

[calaverasgrande]

I really didn't like the 5C when it came out. I hated all the colors at first, however I found the green and white models actually look pretty good in person.
This phone has been quite the hit at my workplace for a corp phone. It had a great price point compared to the 5S, and you dont need a case for it. It's also pretty skinny and light. More recently our corporate mobility portal dropped them to be our entry level 'free' phone ($0.99). Which is going to be a memory starved 8gb phone, natch.
I hope they do a 6c at some point based on this. But I kind of doubt it unless pressure from enterprise mobile depts can make them think otherwise.
We don't even allow Android on our corp network. Only BB, WP8 and IOS. So yeah we are pretty much top to bottom IOS with a handful of BB holdouts. I still have yet to see a single WP8 brought in by an employee, or requested.

 

[Thomas2006]

So basically Apple will be stopping production of 4" devices and most likely will replace the 5C with a 4.7" version. I would be surprised if the 5s sticks around next year too.

The 5c has an A6 (32-bit) processor while the 5s has an A7 (64-bit) processor so the article should have stated Apple will stop producing iPhones with 32-bit processors. If so, then the iPad mini will also get the axe next year with iOS9 being the last 32-bit version.

The following is from a developer page from Apple:

Starting February 1, 2015, new iOS apps uploaded to the App Store must include 64-bit support and be built with the iOS 8 SDK, included in Xcode 6 or later. To enable 64-bit in your project, we recommend using the default Xcode build setting of “Standard architectures” to build a single binary with both 32-bit and 64-bit code.

Apple almost has their ducks in a row. First, get their consumer apps to have feature parity on both OSes and architectures (done). Second, get both OSes to have feature parity on their own architectures (done). Third, get OS X running on ARM processors and iOS running on Intel processors.

The third duck will happen with the release of OS X 11 and iOS9. Running OS X on ARM will allow Apple to release a MacBook with an ARM processor in it. Running iOS on Intel processors allows Apple to continue selling the models they currently sell while making it possible for consumers to use iOS apps natively. iOS running on Intel processors will work similar to how Rosetta ran PowerPC apps on Intel processors.

 

[blairh]

I call the 5C the 'mom iPhone'. I see tons of middle aged ladies around town rocking it. Combination of price and 'pretty' colors.

 

[NY Guitarist]

I was really surprised to read that Apple is still selling the 4S.

 

[Spock]

My fiancé has the 5c and loves it. She hates my iPhone 6 because of the screen size, says it looks to much like an Android phone. I don't think its a bad idea for Apple to have 3 screen size options.

 

[KdParker]

Currently the 5S is one year old tech. As was the 5C , as was the 4S, as was the 4 when they were all $99. As the 6 will be next year. What's your point.

Apple tried to dress it up as something new last year that's all. It was a marketing attempt, simple.

My point is why by a phone with cheaper plastic when I could buy the iPhone 5 for the same price.

 

[mpavilion]

In this day and age, who wants to spend $500 on an 8GB phone?

No one -- that's why Apple crippled it by cutting the storage down to 8GB (only) here in U.S. -- so no one would have the option of an entry-priced iPhone with adequate storage, and would be forced to buy at least a 5S. D*ck move.

 

[KdParker]

So anyone buying a 5s right now is stupid? What could Apple have put in the 5c (that didn't compete) that wouldn't have made it a flop in your eyes? Does every mid priced Android or Windows phone have The latest and greatest tech?

The latest specs or at least better specs.

Give people a reason to buy the 'cheaper looking' (I assume it was cheaper to make) plastic phone.

 

[oliversl]

For the price of the iPhone 5c, users should had the opportunity to buy and iPhone 5 which has a much better build quality.

iPhone 5c is cheap, and the old Apple does not make cheap product. The new Apple does make cheap product, just watch at the camera and flash in the iPhone 5s, they look not as good as in the iPhone 5.

 

[mojolicious]

My point is why by a phone with cheaper plastic when I could buy the iPhone 5 for the same price.

Because the 5c is better to look at, better to hold, and more durable?

Just putting it out there...