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iPhone 5s and 5c Account for 5.5% of Active iPhones Worldwide

Unggoy Murderer said:
1. This is true, they are certainly within the leaders in build quality.
2. Quite obviously not, since nearly 40% of the chart is made up of iPhone 5's, which is a year old, and more than the 4S.
3. *Yawns
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Keep in mind that I'm mostly playing Devil's Advocate here. I personally own a 5s and I love this phone.

That being said, when the 5 came out last year, I wasn't very impressed with it as a flagship iPhone model. Maybe it was just because I was stuck on contract and was being sour grapes about a phone I couldn't own without paying full price for it. Plus, I was on the "WHY ISN'T THE SCREEN WIDER???" bandwagon back in the day. :eek:

Either way, I was in the apparent minority because the 5 did really well. So well, in fact, that now that the -s model is out, there's a lot of people now saying "Nah, the 5 is good enough."

I think the Touch ID might be a culprit in this. Touch ID is hardly a "new toy," it's just a very useful feature that, as Ive put it, disappears when we don't need it. Great for practical use, but harder to advertise, I think. The 4S's defining feature was Siri. In spite of being in beta for as long as she was, Siri was the new toy iPhone users looked forward to using. I won't speak for the 3GS as the smartphone industry was a little different back then, and Apple still had the "Wow, is that an iPhone??!?!?" advantage.

But the 5s? Sure, the processor is nice, but we've gotten spoiled overall by processing power. Nowadays, if we get a new smartphone, it's a given that the CPU should be better. Being 64-bit is a nice accomplishment, but the average smartphone user probably doesn't know what that means (And if their spokesperson is any indication, neither does Qualcomm. AYOOOOOO!!!!) The new dual LED flash is also awesome, but it's very situational.

I imagine there are many of these users who look at the 5s and all they see is:
- Touch ID, a feature which does nothing for the user if nobody else tries to use their phone.
- Dual LED flash, a feature which does nothing for the user if they aren't taking photos at night.
- It comes in gold.

Again, I love the 5s and I'm sure most of us on here understand the benefits of all of its enhancements. The issue here is the 5s is a phone that doesn't market itself as a "Must Have." The 5C did a better job with that, strangely.
 
Rufuss Sewell said:
?!?

Or the reality of the situation: They've made the most 5s' physically possible and sold all of them meaning they can't keep up with demand. And by this time next year the 5s will be at the top of the list.
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That's very true. I misunderstood the chart. I was thinking this was iPhone SALES when I originally wrote my first comment, as opposed to current ownership.
 
polee said:
Love my iPhone 5C!
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I gotta say, I went and held a 5C at the store the other day, and really fell in love with how it looked and how it felt. If I wasn't a tech enthusiast, the choice for me would easily be the 5C. I imagine that will be for a lot of average consumers too. I'm really tempted to buy one second-hand as a backup phone. Part of it is also nostalgia for me. iPhone 3G was my first iPhone, and holding the 5C really brings back memories of how much I loved how the 3G felt. The glossy plastic really feels great in the hand, and the 5C construction feels even higher quality.

I know snobs think using plastic is a step-down in quality, but not everyone likes the way the anodized aluminum feels on the 5S. Some people think it feels delicate but pretty. I'm torn between the two. I love both.
 
ALR26 said:
I have some older friends (ages 45-55) that don't feel the need to have the latest and greatest iPhone model. Back in July a couple I know upgraded their 3GS to a 4 (not 4s) for 99 cents with a 2 year contract. (I think this is absurd and a contract mistake on their part, but two each his own.) By the time they can upgrade they will have a 5 year old model that barely runs apps with any usable speed. I guarantee they will be complaining by next summer that their phone is has gotten slow and can't upgrade for another year, and again I will tell them they got what they deserved for being cheap.
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Considering most people pay around a 100 Dollars a month for a phone with a subsidized contract, and that adds up to 2400 Dollars over two years, getting a mid tier or top of the line really should be a no-brainer.
 
joshdammit said:
Keep in mind that I'm mostly playing Devil's Advocate here. I personally own a 5s and I love this phone.

(removed rest of post for pleasant viewing experience, thank me later.)
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Yeah, I agree with you on most of what you said, it does lack the "wow" factor that the iPhone 5 and 4S had.

However, what more can you do with a smartphone? I think (people may disagree) that Apple has run out of ideas. Sure, they could load it with nonsense like palm swipe or eye tracking like Samsung, but it's not really innovating anything, it's just gimmicky and tacky.

Therefore, they just improve what they've built on before. The upgrades to the camera/flash are certainly the biggest leap in any iPhone model. The CPU is a huge leap for mobile computing, and the TouchID is a very nice security enhancement. But that's all they are: enhancements.

The next "big thing" is definitely wearables or similar companion device.

In terms of really "new stuff", I don't think there's anything more can be done.

(note: I'm not bashing Apple for anything here, I love my iPhone 5 and other gear to bits, but I really think what I've said is the reality of it.)
 
Another happy 5C owner

Got one for my wife a couple of weeks ago. I like it enough I may get one for myself.
 
Wow, the 5s is really supply constrained. I would think that it would be higher than just 10% of the 5 at this point. Assuming it is going to eventually outsell the 5 by a considerable amount and assuming that those sales are somewhat frontloaded, I would think it would be at 20% of 5 after a month. But obviously Apple can't make them nearly fast enough to keep up with demand.

----------
TouchMint.com said:
I have a 3gs but the battery is sooo bad it needs to be plugged in to turn on haha.
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Have someone replace the battery for $50. Then sell it for $200.
 
To date sales of iphone is aprox 380 million
5.5% 5s and 5c. Is about 20 million units ..in one month... That is amazing.

Do the math for holiday seasons!!:)
 
Unggoy Murderer said:
However, what more can you do with a smartphone? I think (people may disagree) that Apple has run out of ideas.
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I couldn't agree with you more. I've been saying that smartphones are reaching a bottleneck when it comes to innovation. Smartphones can already do pretty much everything as it stands.

Sure, they could load it with nonsense like palm swipe or eye tracking like Samsung, but it's not really innovating anything, it's just gimmicky and tacky.
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I was wrong, I can agree with you more! :D

We're going to see the "innovation bubble" burst soon, I imagine. As more and more people buy Samsung/HTC's newest phones, they'll start to realize how much or how little they actually use all of these superfluous new features. For example, one feature that impressed me from a while back, was the ability to silence your phone by turning it upside down. Then I realized, why do I need that, when I can just hit the volume button when somebody calls, or press the decline button on the screen, or, y'know just put my phone on silent?? I imagine there are others who come to these kinds of rude awakenings (to be fair, that probably happened a lot when Siri first came out, too.)

Therefore, they just improve what they've built on before. The upgrades to the camera/flash are certainly the biggest leap in any iPhone model. The CPU is a huge leap for mobile computing, and the TouchID is a very nice security enhancement. But that's all they are: enhancements.
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Yep! That's why the iPhone has kept up its traction in spite of being "nothing new." Some like to dismiss it as kool-aid that the iSheep drink every year, which is really kind of offensive if you think about it. So we're all incredibly shallow, brainless drones who can't think for ourselves... and this conclusion was formed based solely on our preference in a mobile phone?

But yeah, the bubble's gonna burst any year, now. There'll be those who love Android phones for what they offer and will stick with it (especially those who own the Galaxy Note. I hear mostly rave reviews from Note owners.) But I think more and more people are going to realize that at the end of the day, all of these phones pretty much do the same thing.

And as you said, the next big thing will be wearable/companion devices.
 
TheRainKing said:
The iPhone 5 only has about 7% more share than the 4S. How is that 'by far' the most popular?
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iPhone 5 was on sale for only a year. 4S on the other hand is still on sale after two years and that too at a cheaper price after the first year.
 
This is a pretty useful graph to see. hopefully within a year or 2 most of the 3.5inch screens will be out of use (although I am guessing next year they will introduce a 5inch screen).
 
Impressed how many still use a 4. Starting to think we were a vast minority.
 
Squilly said:
I doubt I'm the only one thinking this but that's it? If 40% of users are on an iPhone 5, I suppose that means the iPhone 6 will have an even larger opening than the 5c/5s.
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You know it! I have an iPhone 4S and plan on waiting for the iphone 6:). The 5s or 5c only has slight improvements and not worth the extra cash. The 6 is said to be the real innovator and worth the wait.
 
joshdammit said:
I was wrong, I can agree with you more! :D
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Amen to that! While I don't think the smartphone bubble will burst (people will probably always need a mobile phone, unless the wearables do it better, which is unlikely), I DO think the Android bubble will burst... and I think its starting. Firefox OS and Ubuntu Mobile are two extremely promising OS's (and I had a hands on with FFOS, it's actually brilliant).

Androids popularity will tail off over the next couple of years when these two gain traction, and I hope Windows Phone comes in there too. OEM's are sick of Google, so the alternatives will look even more promising.

Rather than having two very large dominant OS's competing, I hope it becomes more varied with these newcomers. More variation: more competition. Through competition, hopefully new ideas will spring up.

I really, really think that the most exciting time for smartphones is upon us. :)
 
I thought there'd be a bit more 3GS users in this chart but doesn't look that way. Also that's more iPhone 5c sold than I had expected.

Unggoy Murderer said:
Yeah, I agree with you on most of what you said, it does lack the "wow" factor that the iPhone 5 and 4S had.
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Funny that you say the iPhone 5 and the 4S had the "wow" factor. When they were introduced there were so much complaints about then being underwhelming and how Apple was doom since the stock is down(sounds familiar, doesn't it?) as well as this is the final stroke that'll make people jump to Android. You can look at the threads

iPhone 4S: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1239060/
iPhone 5: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1438693/
 
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