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iPhone 5s Reportedly Outselling iPhone 5c Two-to-One Since Launch

danpass said:
The price does signify a brain fart though I think the 5C would be doing a bit better if they included adult colors in the lineup (black, gray, etc) or even metallic colors like a dark metallic copper.
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Agreed - my dad is actually looking at other options because black is no longer an option :/
 
The 5c will be outselling the 5s by late winter.

That's the way this works: early adopters go after the latest-and-greatest. The "old" phone (in this case, the 5c) overtakes it as more casual buyers (the mass market!) start becoming a larger portion of sales figures.

My dad bought a new phone last winter.... a iPhone 4S. It was last year's tech, -$100. Does that mean the iPhone 5 was a flop? Of course not. It means he is budget conscious. He doesn't care about having the latest and greatest.

He will probably buy the equivalent of the iPhone 5c in a little over a year... and he won't be part of the early adopters club.
 
blackhand1001 said:
For the month. Apple always sells a disproportionate amount of phones during launch month.
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Ten days of the month. Compared to the full month for competitors.

The competitors phones in comparison are nearing the end of their product cycle and will be replaced in a few months from now.
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The Galaxy S4 was about 4 months old in September.
 
Once a cell phone product is out in market for one year, the technology that chips & display represents is stale by one year.
After one year, putting one year old technology's chips and display into a good quality body does not make sense. Percentage of cost of chips&display to the cost of the body did look right.
So Apple decided to move all these chips and display to lower quality (compared to latest iPhone) body.
Apple should also change the packaging material so the last year's phone does not have same high quality packaging.

So I think Apple expected so sell iphone 5C same number as iphone5 if they had kept it this year and make more profit for each unit.
 
2-to-1 lead for the iPhone 5s over the iPhone 5c would appear to mark a decline from the launch weekend of September 20, when analytics firm Localytics saw the ratio at closer to 3.5-to-1 by tracking the new devices showing up on its network. At the time, we noted that the gap would likely narrow over time as the launch weekend focused on early adopters buying the higher-end iPhone 5s models that were in short supply, while over the longer term the iPhone 5c would more likely hold appeal for mainstream customers updating when their current contracts run out, and that dynamic appears to already be playing out in the weeks following the launch.
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Dunno if anyone can draw such conclusions yet. The 2:1 ratio seems to be down to there being no more 5s phones for sale anywhere whilst supplies of the 5c are plentiful. Once supplies normalise, then we can see the relative strengths of each model's market.
 
Well, we still need absolute sales figures. If both 5c and 5s sales doubled compared to 5 and 4s last year, it's still the same two-to-one margin, but would be a success. Just an example.
 
BaldiMac said:
I saved $150 on the 5C over the 5S. And I have a phone that will do everything I need for the next two years. That's compelling enough for me.
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I saved $300 on the Nexus 4 over the 5C. And I, too, have a phone that will do everything I need for the next two years. As an added bonus I got sleek, black-glass minimalism instead of shelling out $549 for a rainbow-brite middle-schooler's phone.
 
Nice try Apple, guessing the 5C would be the most popular, but people want the newest, best thing; not last year's model in new colors.

Here's what should have happened:

iPhone 5S: Starting at $200 with plan (as-is right now).
iPhone 5C: Starting at $0 with plan.
iPhone 5: Since it has the same specs as the 5C, it's also starts at $0 with plan, if you can find it.
iPhone 4S: Not even in the ****ing line up. Don't sell two year old tech, ever. Oh wait, this is the company that sold 3+ year old Mac Pros as "new".
 
iChrist said:
So it's ok for Apple to take advantage of less knowledgeable consumers??

The way Apple is marketing the 5C, it appears to be this year's new model. In fact, it is last years model with a plastic body.

Shady.

:apple:
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Millions of consumers make uninformed decisions about products they purchase every single day. That's not the fault of the manufacturers of those products. If a consumer chooses to buy a product without doing their research first, that's their prerogative.

The ultimate responsibility lies solely with the consumer to inform themselves prior to making a purchase. If the consumer chooses not to go to the internet and read or ask questions of a salesperson before handing over their money, that's their choice.

I don't know about your circle of friends, but pretty much everybody in my circle of friends (even my non-tech friends) know that the iPhone 5s is the one with the fingerprint scanner and the better camera with the slow-mo video and the iPhone 5c is the colorful plastic one that doesn't have the fingerprint scanner or the slow-mo video. For your average consumer, that's really all they care about. They don't care about the 64-bit, A7, M7 coprocessor tech mumbo jumbo.

If a customer buys a 5c and feels that they've been "duped" (I'd love to know how often this actually happens), they have anywhere between 14 to 30 days to return the device for a full refund.

Two to four weeks is plenty of time for a consumer to use the device and decide whether they want to have the latest and greatest phone or they're fine with having the technology from last year's flagship iPhone in a colorful, polycarbonate shell.
 
Reason077 said:
IMO the 5c is actually a better design. The curved plastic and solid feel of the 5c is much nicer to hold than the sharp square edges of the 5/5s.

But... I'd feel like a chump buying one when the 5s is only slightly more expensive, yet has specs that are a generation ahead. If the price gap were, say, £120-£150 rather than the £50-£90 it is now, things would look a lot different.
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Exactly. I think the 5c is a beautiful phone and I want one. It's just not a $550 phone.

I'll probably just get the retina ipad mini and not feel bad about splurging to upgrade to the cellular plus extra RAM model :)
 
basura! said:
I saved $300 on the Nexus 4 over the 5C. And I, too, have a phone that will do everything I need for the next two years. As an added bonus I got sleek, black-glass minimalism instead of shelling out $549
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Good for you!
 
rp2011 said:
This is how one should see the numbers, how many would a regular 5 have sold? A 5 with a more expensive case? A case that takes much longer to make. How much would it have cannibalized sales of the premium 5s?
When you look at it this way, I think the 5c strategy worked out perfectly, no cannibalization and higher margins from those who did buy it. A huge win for Apple.
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I agree with your premise but your conclusion doesn't seem to draw from it. The facts are that the 5c sold only marginally more than the 4s did last year at launch. So to answer your question, approximately the same number of iphone5 sales would have occured if Apple did not undertake all the marketing and development costs of a new model, the 5c, hence the 5c can be considered a failure, in that it failed to make a difference versus what would have happened had Apple just discounted the old iphone5.
 
Just bought my step daughter a 32GB iPhone 5C, traded in her 8GB 4s, so my total cost for a 32 GB iPhone was under 100 and she got 4x the space. Not going to happen with 5s, and she is totally happy with her 5c. I can see a lot of people in my position. I agree as others, I think you will see the 5c out sell the 5s, however, that might be because the price of these phones have started to be discounted even more. I think we will start to see the 16GB 5c free on contract and the 32GB at 50 or 100 on contract.
 
spicynujac said:
I agree with your premise but your conclusion doesn't seem to draw from it. The facts are that the 5c sold only marginally more than the 4s did last year at launch. So to answer your question, approximately the same number of iphone5 sales would have occured if Apple did not undertake all the marketing and development costs of a new model, the 5c, hence the 5c can be considered a failure, in that it failed to make a difference versus what would have happened had Apple just discounted the old iphone5.
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Except that the 5C has much higher margins than the iPhone 5 would have had. And the 5C gives Apple a way to market the iPhone brand other than a fingerprint sensor. And there is no evidence of increased marketing costs or significant development cost for the iPhone 5C. And when you say "the same number" you mean "the same proportion".
 
Iconoclysm said:
20% more? http://store.apple.com/us

$99 vs. $199 subsidized. That's 100% more. I wouldn't argue with the better value but for some people, even $99 is too much for a phone. Many stores in the US are selling the 5C for $49 now...so 300% more for the 5S....
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Subsidized means you're paying an extra $20 (padded on the phone contract) a month for 24 months...so $199+480 = $679 vs $99+480 = $579. I really see the value in the 5c compared to the 5s. That's a less than 20% over the expected life of the phone. I'd pay a bit extra for the better value. The long and short of it: the 5s give more bang for the buck, more rubble for the ruble.

I'm not a target demographic of either iPhones. I'm the sort who only uses a phone to make calls. $500 - $700 for a phone? Maybe if I didn't have kids to feed.:D
 
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