I can sum up the iPhone 5c poor sales very simply...
SHINY THINGS! SHINY THINGS!
You can only say that so many times before the kitten gets bored.
People know it's the same iPhone 5 & not cheaper. They're not stupid.
Apple had better come up with an A-GAME for the iPhone 6 because they botched it this time.
Apple simply priced it too high and too close to the 5S. It's an old iPhone 5 with a plastic shell and they got greedy. Make the 5C $349 unlocked and they will sell like hotcakes!
I wanted the best so I ditched my iPhone 5 for a Note 3 and never looked back.
You do realize that the 5c was a complete failure, right?
This might be the best "botch" ever then. Regardless of if the 5s sales better or not ... The 5c is still pretty much outselling EVERY android on the market in the US.
A complete failure? LMAO I honestly believe people in this forum have nothing better to do then get on these threads and talk *****.
The iPhone 5 and 5s is better to hold then the 5c is an opinion nothing more nothing less.
The 5 is more premium?? Umm maybe to you. Personally I despise the design of the 5/5s so to me there's nothing premium about them.
Like I said Apple sold 51 million iPhones. If the 5s is only outselling the 5c by 2 to 1... Then that translates into a lot if 5c's being sold... It's so damn simple
I don't want Apple to collect my fingerprints
I think I was a typical first time buyer this Christmas.
I looked at both 5S and 5C. Here, in this part of Europe, I could get about $300-$400 off the price of the phones if bought with contract (about $100/month initially).
Full price at Apple Store for the 32 Gb 5S was about $1200, and about $150 less for the 5C (from memory, the Apple Store is in "back soon" mode).
So, I could get the 32Gb 5S for about $650 with a fairly hefty 4G contract, or the 5C for about $500 also with contract. Both were a considerable expense. I figured if I'm going to blow half a grand I might as well get the Touch ID.
Which is what I did, and I'm very pleased with it. Seemed like everybody had the same idea as the 32 Gb gold was sold out most of December to the New Year in three out of four of the carriers.
I do think this was a predictable supply chain mistake by Apple, given some carriers' pricing policies and the 30% mark up in Europe. Here it's not a choice of $100 vs $200 (a doubling) between the 2 models; it's $400 vs $500.
But IMHO the main problem is that Apple's release cycle is too late in the year. If they had brought their models out a month or two earlier many more 5S would have been sold. Look at what a success the MacBook Air was (I bought one of those too) - there was plenty of time to review the purchase and decide to buy it well before Christmas.
Nothing personal, but to be honest, Europe and UK prices are extremely high. Cost of living in Europe is amazingly expensive. So do phones and everything else. I don't know what it is, taxes or traditions, but its very very costly place. I don't blame any European for going with cheaper Android phones or tablets, so expensive it is there.
The 5C did not sell well because the colors of the devices are AWFUL.
Get the colors right, Tim and more people will buy it. Let me make this easy for you:
Red
Black
White
You know, non-Barbie/girly colors. I can't believe how wrong all the analysis is of the 5c.
Every year they sell last year's model at about $100 less than the new high end model...although usually with gimped storage. They do it again this year, except give a cool new look, a bigger battery, 2 viable storage sizes, and the same front-facing camera as the high end model, all for the same price, and now all of a sudden it's a bad thing? I don't get some of you guys. Of course the 5C was never going to sell a lot...they knew that. Sold a little less than they thought...but the 5S sold more. All works out in the end.
I have a blue 5C...and I love it. It's absolutely beautiful. I thought I would never own another plastic phone after my 4, but this thing is made so well and is so perfect I really have no complaints. For free, I couldn't pass it up. I didn't want to spend the money on the flagship with the new screen sizes coming, as I really want a bigger screen. So, I got a free phone until that happens. Then I'll get the next flagship. For now, this thing is still crazy fast, pretty hard to push it to the limit in anything I do.
And I love the colors...hell I had a hard time picking which one I wanted. I too am confused by the lack of black, but I love bright colors. The blue is gorgeous in real life, I think.
Whilst I agree with the above, I still reckon that the 5Cs 'low' sales figures will still outstrip some other manufacturerss primary handset sales many times over, so I doubt that Apple will be too stressed by it all.
Nothing personal, but to be honest, Europe and UK prices are extremely high. Cost of living in Europe is amazingly expensive. So do phones and everything else. I don't know what it is, taxes or traditions, but its very very costly place. I don't blame any European for going with cheaper Android phones or tablets, so expensive it is there. Germany is cheaper, but UK is crazy expensive.
The thing is there are other smartphones on the market that don't have the latest and greatest or best specs but they're not labeled as last years tech. IMO the problem with the 5C is all the rumors that the "C" stood for cheap and Apple never did anything to quell those rumors. Second, this is the year they should have done away with the numbering scheme. Call it iPhone color or something else, anything but iPhone 5. Don't let the meme be its last years phone repackaged in a colored shell. I doubt the average consumer knows or cares whether their phone has "last years tech".
What's interesting is the 5C actually got good reviews. Even here most 5C owners are happy owners. It seems like one of those products where the people who hate it are ones that never had any intention of owning it in the first place. Who knows if Apple will keep it around. I actually think they should keep it as the 4S replacement and reduce the off contract price if necessary. But they may decide to scrap it. It's not like this is the first dud from Apple since Jobs 2.0. We had the buttonless shuffle, and the fat nano. And of course the cube. If nothing else perhaps the 5C experement told Apple that customers prefer metal over plastic and we won't see future plastic products from Apple. That's not a bad thing is it?