Actually, what Apple did with the 5C was pure marketing genius. Think about it. Normally, when Apple normally releases a new model iPhone, they keep the previous model around, and drop the price by $100 or so. So what does that do for sales for that old model? Not a ton. Maybe a little uptick in the old model, but that's it. Because there's a stigma to the old model that it's just that. The Old Model. The budget conscious consumer that was likely on the fence about buying that model before may go out and get it, but that's about it. Just steady sales continuing.
Now, this time, they've taken the old model (in this case, the 5), kept it pretty much exactly the same, except slapped a cheaper to make plastic back on it, lower the price by the $100 they normally do, but rebranded it as a new device. What happened this time? It's a launch event, with pre-orders that are selling out of some variant models. Although we haven't seen actual numbers yet, I'm thinking we'll see a large surge of these units sold, compared to what the "old models" have done in previous new model releases.
And people are gobbling them up, because they are not the "old model", they are the new 5C model. And on top of it, I'm sure it's even a little cheaper for Apple to make these with the plastic back compared to the aluminum.
So what have they done?
Taken the old device, made it for a cheaper price, with cheaper materials, rebranded it, and resold it at the price they would have normally sold it for had they not changed it, likely in record volumes, by creating an image that it's a new device.
Pure genius. I honestly think that in the distant future, Apple will become the case study in colleges for Economics and Marketing classes. They've become masters at feeding off of human emotion to drive sales. "Don't sell them the old device as an old device. Sell them the old device, at a better profit margin, as a new device."