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

[BaldiMac]

So it's officially a fail.

If by "officially", you mean "arbitrarily".

 

[Reason077]

Those 2 black icons on the new home screen look really ugly.

They look great on a black background, though.

 

[Saturn007]

"It's priced too high." "It's priced too high."

"That's why it's not selling."

"That's why it's not doing well."

"That's why it's more feature-rich, faster, better sibling is doing/will do so much better."

Hmm... all that sounds familiar.

Yet, it turned out that the iPad Mini was a sales hit!

Sure, the parallels aren't exact, but even the iPad 2 did very well indeed--and the parallel even more there-- with the iPad 2 even less of an iPad while the 5C is an iPhone 5!

 

[inkswamp]

I don't understand why most headlines about this are so negative. We lack the info to make a judgment about this one way or the other.

5C sales compared to 5S is meaningless unless we know the actual numbers involved. What really matters is whether the 5C is drawing new customers who might have otherwise gone with a cheaper Android phone.

 

[Twimfy]

Agreed - my dad is actually looking at other options because black is no longer an option :/

I'd hate to live my life worrying about what colour something is.

 

[spicynujac]

the primary reason [for iPhone 5C] was to lower manufacturing costs. I bet you next year the 5C will reach the $350-$399 range.

The BOM costs for recent iphones are as follows:
iPhone 5: $199
iPhone 5c: $173
iphone 5s: $191

So Apple went to all that effort to design and manufacture a new phone in order to shave $26 per phone? When the 5s itself was already a decrease in manufacturing costs? Sorry, but I just don't buy it. And with the price cuts of $50 already here for the 5c, isn't that manufacturing cost benefit already gone out the window?

The bottom line is Apple could sell the old iPhone 5 for "350 to $400" and still make a decent profit. The 5c could be considered a moderate success.. we will wait and see. But the big issue is the missed opportunity by Apple for a midrange phone. I want a 5c, but I am strongly considering a Nokia Lumia. Mainly because the Lumia 520 starts at $100 and with wifi tethering can power my ipad mini and all my ios apps

 

[dirtymagician]

Not majorly surprising, if you go into an Apple shop and try both i don't see any reason to leave with the plastic one, it feels horrid in the hand and nobody can say it doesn't feel cheap because it does and no amount of badly thought out holed cases and glossy apple adverts can change that.

If they want to make future iPhones with coloured backs then use the anodised/metal backing the iPod touch has - looks and feels great, i don't want to see plastic on an iPhone again unless it's a LOT cheaper.

 

[Klae17]

It's too damn expensive that's why!

I keep saying it, people will fork out £90 more and get the 5S. Why on earth would anyone want a 5C?

But people are buying it... So it isn't too pricy. More 5c vs 5s is not a good thing buddy.

 

[Mad Mac Maniac]

The BOM costs for recent iphones are as follows:
iPhone 5: $199
iPhone 5c: $173
iphone 5s: $191

So Apple went to all that effort to design and manufacture a new phone in order to shave $26 per phone? When the 5s itself was already a decrease in manufacturing costs? Sorry, but I just don't buy it. And with the price cuts of $50 already here for the 5c, isn't that manufacturing cost benefit already gone out the window?

The bottom line is Apple could sell the old iPhone 5 for "350 to $400" and still make a decent profit. The 5c could be considered a moderate success.. we will wait and see. But the big issue is the missed opportunity by Apple for a midrange phone. I want a 5c, but I am strongly considering a Nokia Lumia. Mainly because the Lumia 520 starts at $100 and with wifi tethering can power my ipad mini and all my ios apps

Well even if we presume those BOM's are accurate (they are just estimates), I argue that Apple is still coming out on top.

First of all, 26 bucks is 26 bucks. Imagine Apple sells 50M of this product over the course of it's lifetime, that's savings of $1.3B. That's nothing to sneeze at.

Second of all, those discounts are coming from the retailers NOT Apple. I seriously doubt (although admittedly have no way of verifying) that Apple has changed their prices to the resalers.

Third of all, the BOM doesn't account for manufacturing costs. The manufacturing difficulties with the 5/5s is the real problem. Sure the materials cost a bit less too, but that's not where the real savings lie. Yes there are costs to set up a new manufacturing line, but Apple will use this body for likely 2 years (or more). When economies of scaled are added in I'm sure those $26 savings go up significantly. Maybe double or triple.

 

[dru`]

They're literally taking last years left-overs and wrapping it in plastic. How would anyone think that's a recipe for success?

not literally. different camera, different battery, more LTE bands, etc.

i went up to my store to see the 5c in all its variations the white one looks and feels nice but the colors are hideous. they remind of crayons that never get used. it's not worth the price difference.

 

[laserbeam273]

When the iPhone 5 launched the iPhone 4 was free with contract and made up 9% of sales. The iPhone 4S was 23% and the 5 lead with 68%. That seemed normal to everyone.

Now the 5S is 64%, the 5C is 27% and the 4S is 9%.

They're pretty good numbers for a supposedly failure of a device because of mispricing..

Or do people think that Apple should sell 5Cs for cheaper so that they get less 5S sales?

 

[Tech198]

Makes sense..

Everyone wants the "Gold" phone, which is more tempting than others.

Do people buy the 5c for themselves or for other people? As this would explain why their not selling as good.

On the other hand, the 5c may win, just wait a few months till everyone settles down over the TouchID "excitement"..

 

[giantfan1224]

Not majorly surprising, if you go into an Apple shop and try both i don't see any reason to leave with the plastic one, it feels horrid in the hand and nobody can say it doesn't feel cheap because it does and no amount of badly thought out holed cases and glossy apple adverts can change that.

If they want to make future iPhones with coloured backs then use the anodised/metal backing the iPod touch has - looks and feels great, i don't want to see plastic on an iPhone again unless it's a LOT cheaper.

You do realize that what you're conveying is an opinion, right? And one not necessarily shared by everybody?

 

[macnerd93]

I did because in my opinion the design is 100 times nicer. Nicer told hold, less scary to drop and there's not a single colour of the 5S that I like.

The space grey is a fantastic colour, the thumb print scanner, slow motion video and burst mode are also pretty nice features and the fact that it flies using apps.

To me the 5C looks like a toy, but the major thing what put me off the 5C is the fact come the end of the contract (usually two years) its essentially using technology inside which is getting on for four years old.

 

[emoore]

The problem with what you're saying is that the 5C has been marketed from the get-go as the 2nd prong in the fork in the road for iPhone upgrades. Before, all upgrades were single, 3G to 3GS to 4 to 4S to 5. This is where the split happens, you can now either go 5 to 5S or to 5C. That's how its marketed. You have never seen Apple hype up a demoted model when a newer one came out. If what you are saying WAS really Apple's plan, then they totally failed on its portrayal. They have made it seem like the 5C is some kind of upgrade when it really isn't. The 5S is the real upgrade but, their portrayal and marketing doesn't show that. So even if you're right, you can't really blame people for thinking the 5C was supposed to be some "cheap" model.

Most people are going to be upgrading from a 4S or older. So either one is going to be an upgrade. While I do think the 5C should be a little cheaper, its not really the phone for people who have a 5, that's what the 5s is for.

 

[captain kaos]

IMO this is why Apple doesn't need "cheap".

Its not that, it shows they haven't made a "cheap" phone. If it was cheaper it would've been a bigger difference in price to the 5s and that would've brought sales of the C.

 

[terraphantm]

I don't understand why most headlines about this are so negative. We lack the info to make a judgment about this one way or the other.

5C sales compared to 5S is meaningless unless we know the actual numbers involved. What really matters is whether the 5C is drawing new customers who might have otherwise gone with a cheaper Android phone.

Arguably what's more important is how the 4S did at the same point last year. So far it seems the sales didn't improve that much, despite the R&D and marketing Apple put into the new phone. It does not appear to be drawing any new users that wouldn't have come by just keeping the 5 around.

This is one of those cases where not having focus groups likely hurt them.

 

[nzcatfood]

It's simple demand and supply theory: the higher the price, the less that is sold. Maybe Apple was being arrogant/hopeful and misjudged the market or maybe they just deliberately priced the 5c high for reasons like upselling to the 5s or to avoid diminishing the perceived prestige of their brand. Personally, I think they were too opportunistic and priced the thing US$50 too high because the 5c just isn't good value relative to the 5s. I'd quite like a lime green 5c to match my iPad 4 but not at that price. I went with a second hand big screen Nokia 920 instead at half the price, basically just to tide me over and to see what happens.

 

[mcphee7]

Its not that cheap but then again you could go buy a cheaper phone than the 5c.

It would be abysmal, but cheaper

 

[xyextra]

Arguably what's more important is how the 4S did at the same point last year. So far it seems the sales didn't improve that much, despite the R&D and marketing Apple put into the new phone. It does not appear to be drawing any new users that wouldn't have come by just keeping the 5 around.

This is one of those cases where not having focus groups likely hurt them.

How do you know the sales didn't improve much? We don't know for sure. We only know apple sold 9m 5s&5c combined on launch weekend, and sold 5m 5 alone last year. If 5 vs 4s was 3:1 at launch, then the combined sales were about 6.7m, then we add 1m channel filling for 4s, the total would be 7.7m, still far less than this year. If the combined sales improve a lot from last year, 27% of a bigger total could translate a much more 5c sales than last year's 23%.

 

[blackhand1001]

Ten days of the month. Compared to the full month for competitors.



The Galaxy S4 was about 4 months old in September.

Try about 6 months. It came out in march.

 

[kenosecon]

The BOM costs for recent iphones are as follows:
iPhone 5: $199
iPhone 5c: $173
iphone 5s: $191

So Apple went to all that effort to design and manufacture a new phone in order to shave $26 per phone? When the 5s itself was already a decrease in manufacturing costs? Sorry, but I just don't buy it. And with the price cuts of $50 already here for the 5c, isn't that manufacturing cost benefit already gone out the window?

The bottom line is Apple could sell the old iPhone 5 for "350 to $400" and still make a decent profit. The 5c could be considered a moderate success.. we will wait and see. But the big issue is the missed opportunity by Apple for a midrange phone. I want a 5c, but I am strongly considering a Nokia Lumia. Mainly because the Lumia 520 starts at $100 and with wifi tethering can power my ipad mini and all my ios apps

do these prices have included shipping, taxes and employee salary or it's just the materials costs?

 

[ColdShadow]

It will eventually possibly even surpass the 5S. Are none of you reading this article correctly?

actually,I did,you didn't..
read the button paragraph..Apple reducing production of 5C,that's only because there is way less demand for the 5C compared to the 5S.
you don't even need these reports to find that out,just ask around or visit an Apple store see how many people are after 5S and how many after 5C..
it's so obvious.. really think 5C sales will Surpass 5S??? I tell you thats NEVER gonna happen! not even if 5C was $100 cheaper.

 

[BaldiMac]

Try about 6 months. It came out in march.

Did you even bother to look it up?

It was released April 26, so it was just past 4 months old at the beginning of September.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_S4

 

[rp2011]

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.

I think a better comparison would be a 4 to 4s, not 4s to a completely new iPhone.