I don't know why Apple didn't just keep the iphone 5 as is for a discount, the way they did for ipad 2 and iphone 4s. The iphone 5c is an inferior product to the iphone 5. It's made of cheaper materials, has a tacky look to it, and the colors are really ugly, unlike the pretty colors of the ipod nano.
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iPhone 5s Reportedly Outselling iPhone 5c Two-to-One Since Launch
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You answered your own question: better profit margins.
As to the complaints, I think that the 5C looks very nice in person. It feels very nice in the hand. It doesn't offer much for current iPhone 5 users, but for those of us who upgrade on two-year contracts it still represents a good hardware upgrade at a lower cost, while presenting a chance to diversify the phone's appearance.
Heh, in that case though they could've just picked colors that you liked better.
Obviously the 5c is cheaper to make than the 5. It's also more durable and has some minor improvements (battery, front camera).
I mean just look at the colors of the nano over the years:
The iphone 5c colors are so ugly by comparison. And yes, I've seen them in person.
The iphone 5c colors are so ugly by comparison. And yes, I've seen them in person.
You make a good point. I don't usually make comments like that, but I was feeling rather ambitious today.
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.
I'd definitely have bought a 5c if it was $100 cheaper. I'm definitely an Apple fanboy and will always be in their tablet and computer space, but they may well have lost me entirely to Windows phone now having had such a good experience with the Nokia 920 I bought instead. Of course, Apple pricing the 5c so high may turn out to be a good thing long term if consumers vote with their wallets and buy properly priced "mid range" phones such that the competition pushes Apple harder than otherwise. There is absolutely no way I'd ever buy a Surface tablet or another Windows PC, but Balmer and the boys have done a pretty nice job on the phone because it's a one handed operating system thematically structured rather than just being an app launcher. Don't get me wrong, I would have preferred a 5c but Apple gave me the opportunity to try another phone by pricing it too high and I think others will do a similar cost-benefit calculation and go with Android or WP8 over iOS.
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Bought the 5c
I just got the 5c for my daughter today. I'm not really sure what the surprise is with this article except for the fact that Apple didn't see this coming. I have the 5 and the 5c is just a 5 that's been repackaged. I will say this, it does seem a little snappier and the camera seems a bit crisper than my 5. If Apple would have at least put the better camera in the 5c (forget the processor and touch ID), I bet the ratio would be 1-to-1. I really like the feel of the 5c a lot!
I just got the 5c for my daughter today. I'm not really sure what the surprise is with this article except for the fact that Apple didn't see this coming. I have the 5 and the 5c is just a 5 that's been repackaged. I will say this, it does seem a little snappier and the camera seems a bit crisper than my 5. If Apple would have at least put the better camera in the 5c (forget the processor and touch ID), I bet the ratio would be 1-to-1. I really like the feel of the 5c a lot!
My kid told me today 5 kids in his grade got 5c over the weekend, strangely girls got the green and yellow, and the boy got the pink. I guess they must have taken advantage of $50 sales. It makes sense for parents to get 5c instead of 5s for their kids, that's savings of about $180/phone including 8% tax, and 5c is more tough than the fragile & elegant 5s, more suited for teenagers.
It's a good thing for apple to provide more options to different user base. There is no need to fight who is better or who is selling more as long as they both serve their purposes well.
It's a good thing for apple to provide more options to different user base. There is no need to fight who is better or who is selling more as long as they both serve their purposes well.
The genius of the 5c is that it's great advertising for iPhone in general.
The nightly news focussed on the colours of the 5c, and might have mentioned fingerprint sensor for the 5s.
It's still last year's model, which is fine for first timers, but with much more splash. Not to mention the none-too-subtle up-sell for the iPod Touch.
And the 4s is the cheapest phone, as has been the practice of recent years, so nothing's changed really, except better margins and colour!
As the year progresses, sales of the 4s and 5c will increase, as happened in previous years. Add an iWatch to wipe out the rest of the iPods, and Apple will have eaten itself & created the next big thing, all in plain sight, and none of the competitors or analysts guessed it, because they're just so far behind the puck, they can't even see the game.
The 5c is a way of reducing production costs, to recoup last year's margins, and a striking publicity gimmick to boot. I know non-tech people who really want to replace their 5 with a 5c, just because it's colourful and feels nice.
Apple seems to be increasing prices across the board to improve their margins, which is not good for consumers. Might not be so obvious inside the US, but here in Australia, the 32GB 5c sells for $30 less than the price of the 32GB iPhone 5, last year. That's not much of a price drop. The new iMacs are more expensive than previous models with, in some cases, lower specs (some have no external GPU at all). The new CPU is more about power saving than performance. Prices go up, to increase margins, and show Wall St how much of their bitch Apple has become.
What's escaping everyone, is selling almost double the number of phones this year, even in the face of the 'gold' shortage (it's a popular colour), not to mention an economic downturn & massive unemployment.
And don't get me started about how the gold and the grey are really shades of brown - that's Apple's greatest marketing hype, ever. Don't let anyone tell you Cook doesn't have a reality distortion field. It's not Steve-strength, but getting everyone to call that thing gold is a pretty impressive trick.
The nightly news focussed on the colours of the 5c, and might have mentioned fingerprint sensor for the 5s.
It's still last year's model, which is fine for first timers, but with much more splash. Not to mention the none-too-subtle up-sell for the iPod Touch.
And the 4s is the cheapest phone, as has been the practice of recent years, so nothing's changed really, except better margins and colour!
As the year progresses, sales of the 4s and 5c will increase, as happened in previous years. Add an iWatch to wipe out the rest of the iPods, and Apple will have eaten itself & created the next big thing, all in plain sight, and none of the competitors or analysts guessed it, because they're just so far behind the puck, they can't even see the game.
The 5c is a way of reducing production costs, to recoup last year's margins, and a striking publicity gimmick to boot. I know non-tech people who really want to replace their 5 with a 5c, just because it's colourful and feels nice.
Apple seems to be increasing prices across the board to improve their margins, which is not good for consumers. Might not be so obvious inside the US, but here in Australia, the 32GB 5c sells for $30 less than the price of the 32GB iPhone 5, last year. That's not much of a price drop. The new iMacs are more expensive than previous models with, in some cases, lower specs (some have no external GPU at all). The new CPU is more about power saving than performance. Prices go up, to increase margins, and show Wall St how much of their bitch Apple has become.
What's escaping everyone, is selling almost double the number of phones this year, even in the face of the 'gold' shortage (it's a popular colour), not to mention an economic downturn & massive unemployment.
And don't get me started about how the gold and the grey are really shades of brown - that's Apple's greatest marketing hype, ever. Don't let anyone tell you Cook doesn't have a reality distortion field. It's not Steve-strength, but getting everyone to call that thing gold is a pretty impressive trick.
I don't think Apple is trying to deceive anyone with the 5C and I agree that it is an attempt to get the 5 tech into a higher margin product but I still think that they were aiming for a free on contract price point originally but failed to get there at launch. As production is refined and costs reduced I see the 5C eventually being available free on contract, maybe early next year. I have to disagree on the 5 design though, it was a poor piece of industrial design as evidenced by the numbers coming off the production line with damaged finish and the consequential higher cost of manufacture. It would have been better to use slightly heavier stronger grade of aluminium with a more scratch resistant finish. This would have made the phone slightly heavier which would also have been a good thing in my opinion and would have made the phone much harder wearing. The 4 was a good design, after all most phones will break if dropped onto hard surfaces without a case. The 4 was slightly more prone to this because of having glass back and front but I dropped mine a few times and it survived even though I didn't use a case. The main thing that let it down was the antenna design which was eventually fixed in the 4s but was more a technical failure than a design issue. When all said my 4 still looks brand new where as my 5 finish is badly marked after about the same treatment and amount of use.
Longer Term Strategy
I have a view that I am surprised I have not seen talked about almost anywhere. I think to understand the 5C / 5S you have to look to the iPhone 6.
Before going into that, I also agree that the 5C is not the phone that will draw big lines and sell crazy volumes in the initial launch. It is the phone that will sit on shelves and in February and March when everything starts to slow down, it will just keep racking up the sales as it is offered at $50 on contract and people start snapping it up because the luster of the 5S has worn off on your average consumer.
But back to the original point. Why have two very similar phones (same form factor, screen size), this year. I think it is because the iPhone 6 will go bigger. Probably a 4.8 inch screen. The iPhone 6C (or what ever they will call it), will take the guts of the 5S but also stay at the current size of 4 inches and keep the colorful case (possibly adding black back into the mix). Bang. Apple now has a high performing (even a year from now), 64-bit phone in the familiar size and form factor (4 inch screen) hundreds of millions of people love. They then offer the iPhone 6 in 4.8 inches. It now makes perfect sense. They have a 4 and 4.8 inch phone on the market, both "premium" with the iPhone 6 adding some new stuff as well. I think going forward (at least a few years), they keep the phones at different sizes (so the iPhone 6S stays 4.8 but so does the 6C2 stay at 4 inches). The 6C2 therefore does not repackage the 6 but really starts to get its own unique identity. It just makes too much sense and it creates a perfect transition to multiple size handsets.
Today it seems a bit odd that they are so similar, but going forward, this allows them to actually have two form factors in the market. You just can't do that if you just keep selling last years model.
I have a view that I am surprised I have not seen talked about almost anywhere. I think to understand the 5C / 5S you have to look to the iPhone 6.
Before going into that, I also agree that the 5C is not the phone that will draw big lines and sell crazy volumes in the initial launch. It is the phone that will sit on shelves and in February and March when everything starts to slow down, it will just keep racking up the sales as it is offered at $50 on contract and people start snapping it up because the luster of the 5S has worn off on your average consumer.
But back to the original point. Why have two very similar phones (same form factor, screen size), this year. I think it is because the iPhone 6 will go bigger. Probably a 4.8 inch screen. The iPhone 6C (or what ever they will call it), will take the guts of the 5S but also stay at the current size of 4 inches and keep the colorful case (possibly adding black back into the mix). Bang. Apple now has a high performing (even a year from now), 64-bit phone in the familiar size and form factor (4 inch screen) hundreds of millions of people love. They then offer the iPhone 6 in 4.8 inches. It now makes perfect sense. They have a 4 and 4.8 inch phone on the market, both "premium" with the iPhone 6 adding some new stuff as well. I think going forward (at least a few years), they keep the phones at different sizes (so the iPhone 6S stays 4.8 but so does the 6C2 stay at 4 inches). The 6C2 therefore does not repackage the 6 but really starts to get its own unique identity. It just makes too much sense and it creates a perfect transition to multiple size handsets.
Today it seems a bit odd that they are so similar, but going forward, this allows them to actually have two form factors in the market. You just can't do that if you just keep selling last years model.
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I'm perhaps one of the few who'd prefer the 5c over the 5s.
While the 5s can't do anything over the 5c that would be important to me i think it's one of the worst looking phones that Apple has ever made. I don't like to color combinations (case vs. front) and I don't like the back of it with the brushed/non-brushed parts. And the gold-champaign-whatever color is totally out of question.
Technically they're more or less the same and both have screens that are just too small for today's standards. Heck, the web has moved on and screen designs are no longer made for 800x600 displays. It becomes increasingly cumbersome to surf the web with the iPhones.
While the 5s can't do anything over the 5c that would be important to me i think it's one of the worst looking phones that Apple has ever made. I don't like to color combinations (case vs. front) and I don't like the back of it with the brushed/non-brushed parts. And the gold-champaign-whatever color is totally out of question.
Technically they're more or less the same and both have screens that are just too small for today's standards. Heck, the web has moved on and screen designs are no longer made for 800x600 displays. It becomes increasingly cumbersome to surf the web with the iPhones.
I wouldn't be surprised if Apple released a larger iPhone sometime in the first half of next year and dropped the prices of the 5c and 5s by $50 each (making the 5c free at many retailers).
I doubt that will happen but, regardless of any new phone, I do think the 5C will reduce in price as its production processes are refined and Apple offer it to the carriers at a price that allows them to offer it free on contract. Of course it will stay the same price off contract
They had to redesign the 5 because it was a nightmare and therefore expensive to build. Remember all the stories about production problems, that didn't go away and they had to do something the 5C being what they came up with.
it's not matter of specs or being the flagship, in Europe the iphone 5c 16Gb is placed at around 600 (carrier free- and depending on the country), more than 800USD. Would you pay that money to get a 5c when you can add 100 and get a 5s instead?
I guess the questions are these:
If they kept the 5 instead of the 5C, would they have sold more 5's than 5C's?
Would they have sold more 5S's if they just kept the 5 as the second-tier?
Would they have sold more phones TOTAL if they kept the 5 and not made the 5C?
Was there enough differentiation between the 5 & 5S to keep the 5?
Why are they keeping the 4S?
Is the 5C cheaper to make than the 5, even with internals that are better than the 5?
Is Apple still selling a crapload of devices?
I'm guessing Apple knows the answer to all of these questions, and they're probably happy with their numbers.
I think the "Apple cutting production in half" headlines probably aren't helpful, but I'm guessing it's probably a normal function of the production cycle.
But who knows? Let's speculate.
If they kept the 5 instead of the 5C, would they have sold more 5's than 5C's?
Would they have sold more 5S's if they just kept the 5 as the second-tier?
Would they have sold more phones TOTAL if they kept the 5 and not made the 5C?
Was there enough differentiation between the 5 & 5S to keep the 5?
Why are they keeping the 4S?
Is the 5C cheaper to make than the 5, even with internals that are better than the 5?
Is Apple still selling a crapload of devices?
I'm guessing Apple knows the answer to all of these questions, and they're probably happy with their numbers.
I think the "Apple cutting production in half" headlines probably aren't helpful, but I'm guessing it's probably a normal function of the production cycle.
But who knows? Let's speculate.
Let's speculate on the 4S: they need an iOS 'ecosystem' accessing phone the carriers can provide for free to subscribers.
The real issue here isn't that the 5c is priced too high relative to the 5s. So tech-savvy iPhone buyers are paying a bit extra to get the 5s. No surprises there, and Apple still makes the sale.
The real issue is that the 5c is priced too high relative to the competition. It's not a compelling buy for someone who just wants a smart phone and isn't already an Apple loyalist.
When Apple's sliding mobile device marketshare stabilises at about the same level as the Mac's small PC marketshare, I wonder if Apple will look back on this period and wonder if they should have done things differently.
The real issue is that the 5c is priced too high relative to the competition. It's not a compelling buy for someone who just wants a smart phone and isn't already an Apple loyalist.
When Apple's sliding mobile device marketshare stabilises at about the same level as the Mac's small PC marketshare, I wonder if Apple will look back on this period and wonder if they should have done things differently.
The real issue is that crack analysts think that market share is the only important metric.
If we pretend that your scenario came to be, I'm not sure Apple would be filled with regret with 5-10% of a 3-4 billion unit market where they control the high end and all the other manufacturers are struggling to make a profit.
Or we could go check previous history.
While there have been headlines about cutting the NEWEST model production in half a few months after launch, I didn't find any headlines about cutting the non-flagship model production in half.
For example, last January people went crazy because Apple cut iPhone 5 production. But there was nothing about cutting iPhone 4S production.
The year before that, there was a rumor about cutting production of the new iPhone 4S, but again, nothing about the iPhone 4 older models.
So this report of cutting production of the older/non-flagship model seems new. Yet it still probably would've been ignored if Apple hadn't changed the case to make it seem like a new model.
Moreover, the ratio of flagship to non-flagship sales seems to be about the same as last year. That is, normal. What such normality means, all depends on what each reader expected for sales of the non-flagship model this time around
I have no opinion yet myself.
Not really. These stats may refer mostly to US sales. When the iPhone 5c start being sold in emergent countries, these stats may change significantly.