iPhone 5S and 5C Expected to Launch in Japan on September 20

[Piggie]

I'm guessing the colored models will be very popular. They will be good enough and be cheap (for an iPhone)

Why will anyone buy the flagship iPhone?

Presumably Apple will deliberately cripple this phone in some way to keep is worth than the more expensive model in all aspects by a noticeable margin.

A cheaper model needs to be "Worse Enough" so that there will still be enough people who want to pay the extra for the better model.

The problem comes when you make the cheaper model too good and damage your high end sales.

Problem for Apple is getting the balance right between worse enough, and not seeming too worse when put up against competitors phones selling for the same money

Apple being Apple won't price this cheap as they will still want to made sad people feel as if they are better than others as they own an Apple product

 

[Pigumon]

September 19 in USA please, 13 hours earlier.

But Japan is a day AHEAD not behind. So it makes more sense they'd get it 16 hours earlier.

She wants the D

WELL SAID. All girls should.

I'm still really up in the air about what I'm going to do with my upgrade. If the iPhone 5S doesn't wow me, I might be ditching the iPhone.

Had iPhones since 2007, but the last few releases have been really disappointing.

I think you should ditch the iPhone. Youve had it now time to try something else.

I agree except for the ditching part. Nothing on the other side is any more extraordinary either. Maybe the tiny stylus for Samsung, that's about it. More megapixels in camera phone don't make the lenses any bigger which is way more important; and until Apple adds some real memory to them so I can finally store ALL of my music... I'm sticking with my iPhone4, the ecosystem is just too good to ditch.

 

[atlatnesiti]

Counting down and looking fwd to the keynote...

With all these rumours coming thick and fast, we probably know everything there is to know already. I don't think there is anything else that Apple will demonstrate come the keynote day. The magic, mystery and suspense of keynotes is truly gone this day and age I'm afraid

 

[ValSalva]

With all these rumours coming thick and fast, we probably know everything there is to know already. I don't think there is anything else that Apple will demonstrate come the keynote day. The magic, mystery and suspense of keynotes is truly gone this day and age I'm afraid

So true. And we are still three weeks away. At least WWDC was full of big surprises. Most people really had no idea what was going to happen in June. I guess iPhones are too popular to avoid supply chain leaks.

 

[Lancer]

3,5" (was) perfect size
4,0" (is) perfect size
4,5" (will be) perfect size

I just want a faster iPhone that has good battery life. I'm planning on getting an iPad Mini for Christmas (if Santa doesn't bring me one) so a bigger screen size doesn't matter to me.

 

[fluchtpunkt]

I cry a little inside when I don't hear rumors of a bigger screen this close to the reveal.

I still have a tiny bit of unreasonable hope that Tim Cook only doubled down on secrecy for the bigger iPhone

 

[japanime]

So, if the Nikkei is true, NTT DoCoMo still won't get the iPhone.

Too bad, as Softbank is the Japanese equivalent of AT&T. I really want to upgrade my iPhone 4. I haven't tried KDDI yet; maybe it's time I make the switch.

 

[anomie]

You'll be surprised how many "size queens" are out there, loyal Apple iPhone users for many years, that will make a switch to Android or Win phones the moment they'll see unchanged screen size with the announcement of so called new iPhone 5S. Most manufacturers release the mini versions of their flagship phones these days and even these have bigger screens than current iPhone 5 LOL

First I am surprised that you really wrote "LOL" at the end of your post, since we live in the year 2013..
Anyway, maybe you´ll be surprised how many people just don´t want big screens.
If Apple starts only releasing screen sizes bigger than the iphone5´s screen, they´d lose me as an customer.

And as you said yourself, manufacturers like Samsung release phones bigger than iphones and still call them "mini", that´s ridiculous.
But I guess you cannot even see through them..

Last thing: why does it mean so much to you how many people swich from Apple to other manufacturers? Why cant you be happy with your Android phone an leave them be?

 

[kycophpd]

This report is accurate.

 

[jamesdvb]

So I would assume preorder date is the 13th of September?

Yeah...

Based on the last few releases, it's highly likely that events will play out like this:

- No more betas between now and the golden master
- new iPhone announcement at 10am Pacific on Tuesday, September 10th
- iOS 7 Golden Master released to developers the afternoon of Tuesday, September 10th
- preorders for the new iPhone start Friday, September 13th (unless Apple chooses a different date due to superstitions about Friday the 13th)
- iOS 7 public release on or about Wednesday, September 18th
- new iPhone officially on sale, and preorders delivered, on Friday, September 20th

 

[monty77]

To those off to Android to fulfil their big screen desires I think a good chunk of you will be back. I went to the other side last month, I lasted 3 weeks.

- Screen was nice but too large, reckon 4.3-4.5" will be the sweet spot
- Google ecosystem < Apple .. in pretty much every way. Do like G+ though
- Photostream and iMessage are superb - no 2 ways about it
- Whatever the fanboys say it is not a rock solid device, I had to reboot several times due to not getting calls, not cool and something I don't get in iOS - even in the early iOS7 betas!
- Google play store and refund policy is very nice, apple should steal some things here

 

[WilliamLondon]

With all these rumours coming thick and fast, we probably know everything there is to know already. I don't think there is anything else that Apple will demonstrate come the keynote day. The magic, mystery and suspense of keynotes is truly gone this day and age I'm afraid

I disagree. We don't know everything about the 5C, we only know a couple of things and we're assuming all the rest.

There are several posts in this thread alone pointing out that a large number of people will opt for the 5C over the 5S, and I agree completely. But, what each of those 5C sales represents is a missed 5S sale, which is the flagship product as we know, and the product with the most profit for Apple. That's the first problem, I'm sure Apple realises this. The other risk is that the public starts to equate the price of the 5C with the price of the iPhone. I still don't believe that a faster processor (which you can't really say the 5C is slow), a better camera, a fingerprint sensor (whatever), the colour champagne/gold, and a large storage option (128GB) are reasons for the masses to buy the premium model. Apple knows this, they know those features aren't compelling to buy, but they certainly are compelling to forgo to save some significant money on an iPhone. So, the masses start equating the price of the iPhone with the 5C, and in the minds of the public the price of the iPhone is the 5C - who in their right mind would pay more for an iPhone than an iPhone costs? Hard core techies, status conscious people, all or most of whom have more money than sense.

Apple knows all this, much better than we do, and I can't imagine they'd risk that pot of gold the iPhone delivers in profit to them each year, so what I assume is that there is something we don't understand about either the iPhone 5S or the iPhone 5C. At this point the phones are too similar, and that would not be very Apple, or very good business. I think we're in for a surprise or two.

 

[bbeagle]

To those off to Android to fulfil their big screen desires I think a good chunk of you will be back. I went to the other side last month, I lasted 3 weeks.

- Screen was nice but too large, reckon 4.3-4.5" will be the sweet spot
- Google ecosystem < Apple .. in pretty much every way. Do like G+ though
- Photostream and iMessage are superb - no 2 ways about it
- Whatever the fanboys say it is not a rock solid device, I had to reboot several times due to not getting calls, not cool and something I don't get in iOS - even in the early iOS7 betas!
- Google play store and refund policy is very nice, apple should steal some things here

This is a very good, insightful comment. I wish the entire message board could be filled with posts like this instead of meaningless Android/iOS battles.

 

[Bazooka-joe]

Europe is big. UK and Germany yes. Greece and Portugal no, unless they are bailed out with iphones instead of short term notes.

The UK and Germany are normally the first in Europe and I can't see that changing

 

[bbeagle]

I disagree. We don't know everything about the 5C, we only know a couple of things and we're assuming all the rest.

Right. We don't even know if the alleged 5C will be even sold in the same places as the 5S. It's possible the 5C is only for China ('C' for China maybe?), and the 5S is for everyone else.

 

[Steve121178]

Some people just want the best phone. The clincher could be:

-- Slightly better internals with latest processor
-- Improved camera
-- Fingerprint unlocking
-- Availability of alluring champagne color
-- The only phone with 128GB option

I want the best iPhone but what you have listed above wouldn't make me upgrade from my iPhone 5. Slight upgrades in each area isn't worth the £600 it would cost to buy the 32GB version, assuming prices stay the same.

 

[Bazooka-joe]

I disagree. We don't know everything about the 5C, we only know a couple of things and we're assuming all the rest.

There are several posts in this thread alone pointing out that a large number of people will opt for the 5C over the 5S, and I agree completely. But, what each of those 5C sales represents is a missed 5S sale, which is the flagship product as we know, and the product with the most profit for Apple. That's the first problem, I'm sure Apple realises this. The other risk is that the public starts to equate the price of the 5C with the price of the iPhone. I still don't believe that a faster processor (which you can't really say the 5C is slow), a better camera, a fingerprint sensor (whatever), the colour champagne/gold, and a large storage option (128GB) are reasons for the masses to buy the premium model. Apple knows this, they know those features aren't compelling to buy, but they certainly are compelling to forgo to save some significant money on an iPhone. So, the masses start equating the price of the iPhone with the 5C, and in the minds of the public the price of the iPhone is the 5C - who in their right mind would pay more for an iPhone than an iPhone costs? Hard core techies, status conscious people, all or most of whom have more money than sense.

Apple knows all this, much better than we do, and I can't imagine they'd risk that pot of gold the iPhone delivers in profit to them each year, so what I assume is that there is something we don't understand about either the iPhone 5S or the iPhone 5C. At this point the phones are too similar, and that would not be very Apple, or very good business. I think we're in for a surprise or two.

Some good points there. Made me think as every year I give my daughter my old phone so I was going to give my daughter my IPhone 5 and buy a 5S.
I am wondering if next year, the resale value of a used Iphone 5 is going to be greater than a used 5C...if not then I may sell the 5 and buy her a 5C

 

[Rogifan]

I want the best iPhone but what you have listed above wouldn't make me upgrade from my iPhone 5. Slight upgrades in each area isn't worth the £600 it would cost to buy the 32GB version, assuming prices stay the same.

What would make you upgrade (besides screen size)? And is Apple really expecting a lot of 5 users to upgrade to the 5S or is this more geared towards those who are currently using a 4/4S? I know I won't be upgrading because my 2 year contract isn't up.

 

[Sodner]

Keynote on Sept 10th.
Pre-order Sept 13th.
Available Sept 20th.

 

[James717]

I believe it was over 2 painful months last year. Probably the same this year. Some countries are prioritized over others. Ironically, where the stuff is made, China/Taiwan, is not where it's available first.

someone told me s.Korea, taiwan, China are all proud Of their produced electronics. As such, they delay Apple's new products to clear out their own stock or give their new products a small window to react.

I don't think that's true, but it does make a bit of sense.

I've got requests to bring to China iPhone's bought from HK not because it is cheaper, but because it was still not available. Yeah 2 months delay was about right.

 

[Sodner]

Snip........
But, what each of those 5C sales represents is a missed 5S sale, which is the flagship product as we know, and the product with the most profit for Apple. Snip.........

Speaking of things we don't know. We do not know what the profit margin on the 5C will even be. It's not out of the realm of possibility that due to lower component costs and manufacturing costs that the 5C could have a larger margin for profit. Heck we don't even know what the price is going to be.

 

[patent10021]

Wow, i'm in Japan that week - might just buy the C to play around if the price is nice. With the current exchange rate it might be even cheaper.

It will be locked to Softbank or AU.

----------

So do we think Europe will get it on the 20th too?

Forget Paris!

 

[dashtekahe]

Anybody knows when we will get the unlock factory? With contract or without doesn't matter.

 

[ChrisTX]

I'm still really up in the air about what I'm going to do with my upgrade. If the iPhone 5S doesn't wow me, I might be ditching the iPhone.

Had iPhones since 2007, but the last few releases have been really disappointing.

I felt the same way last year and have gone the other way since. I've owned the S3, S4, and the Nexus 4. What I've assessed since my switch is that the iPhone is better at just getting stuff done. While I like the tinkering, and bells, and whistles that come with Android. It's the simpler things, and fluidity that "just work" with the iPhone that I miss. Sure the iPhone might not be a mini tablet in size like the competition, but from my personal experience, it is far more reliable. I am seriously considering the Note 3, but more than likely will be returning to the iPhone. I need a phone that is a little more reliable, and stable than the one I use now. I have an iPad readily available, when I need a bigger on the go experience. Just my $.02

 

[Steve121178]

What would make you upgrade (besides screen size)? And is Apple really expecting a lot of 5 users to upgrade to the 5S or is this more geared towards those who are currently using a 4/4S? I know I won't be upgrading because my 2 year contract isn't up.

I buy my phones SIM free & I have two iPhone 5's. They both do everything I require of them so there's really little incentive for me to spend an awful lot of money on replacements after just 12 months.

I am personally very happy with the screen size and if Apple made them larger (such as 4.5") they would lose me as a customer. The compact slender size of the iPhone 5 is absolutely perfect for my needs. I would like a better camera and better battery life, but that would not make me upgrade right now. I think the 5s will be a perfect upgrade for those who own anything other than an iPhone 5.

I will also be spending a lot of money on the Xbox One & PS4 and a load of games in November so Microsoft & Sony will be getting my money. Apple will need to move away from offering small incremental updates if they want my cash this year.