“While I wait to put my mitts on the new device, I’ll address the conventional hand-wringing over the 5C’s $549 pricetag (‘It’s too damned high!’ cry the masses),” Jean-Louis Gassée writes for The Guardian. “How is it that BMW has remained so popular and profitable with its ‘One Sausage, Three Lengths’ product line strategy? Aren’t all cars made of steel, aluminium, plastic, glass and rubber? When the Bavarian company remade the Mini, were they simply in a race to the bottom with Tata’s Nano, or were they confidently addressing the logical and emotional needs of a more affluent – and lasting – clientèle?”
“For most iPhone owners, trading up to the 5C is ‘free’ due to Apple’s reuse and recycle program,” Gassée writes. “I just took a look at the T-Mobile site where – surprise – the 5C is ‘free’, that is no money down and 24 months at $22 – plus a $10 ‘SIM Kit’ (read the small print.) You can guess what AT&T offers: 24 months at $22/month (again, whip out your reading glasses). Verizon is more opaque, with a terrible website. Sprint also offers a no-money-down iPhone 5C, although with more expensive voice/data plans. This is an interesting development: less than a week ago, Apple introduced the iPhone 5C with a “posted price” of $99 – “free” a few days later.”
Gassée writes, “After much complaining to the media about ‘excessive’ iPhone subsidies, carriers now appear to agree with [Asymco’s] Horace Dediu who sees the iPhone as a great ‘salesman’ for carriers, because it generates higher revenue per user (ARPU). As a result, the cell philanthropists offer lower prices to attract and keep users – and pay Apple more for the iPhone sales engine.”
Read more in the full article here.
Is Jean-Louis Gasse spreading Anti-Apple FUD? I understand that Be Inc going under sucked for him and those workers, but that’s life, and life ain’t fair. I liked BeOS back in the day. I still fire it up in VMWare from time to time, and I do wish it survived, but at least we have Haiku (even in its alpha state, it’s still better than WindBloze) As for the article itself, please don’t bring up “older iPhone models”. The iPhone is still seen as a luxury good in third world countries. True, any American can get one for free, but that’s not the case in India or Brazil. Oh and kids. They love colorful stuff. iPod Nano: Never Forget.
Actually, I take that back. He has every right to be angry…he is just aiming it at the wrong target. MicroShaft’s stupid Terms of Agreements pretty much screwed BeOS over. Their anti competitive practices pretty much killed off any chance of BeOS getting any market share, and they had to distribute it for free as a last ditch move to expose their OS. Palm eventually bought them…and did squat with BeOS. I liked that LG bought WebOS, and PalmOS, and ended all development for them. Karma bites back, Palm Inc!
Apple market share is to the dummy financial markets what the sudden realization of the 18-49 demographics was to the networks. Once they realized the premium part of the youth market (in 1969-72) they SHOULD be courting, they then canceled all of the rural “Hee-Hawesque” shows like Green Acres, Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction, etc.. In fact CBS the most egregious was known as the “Country Broadcasting System.” Android is the new Hee-Haw.
It doesn’t matter if you can get it for free in the US, over half the world’s population are in China, India, Indonesia and Japan. Except for Japan, about half the world’s population cannot afford a $550 phone. So Apple is just writing them off. I have 2 kids who need new phones. Am I going to spend upwards of $1100 for 2 phones they will likely drop in the toilet or 2 x $250 for a Nexus 4 which has a bigger screen and is WAY lighter than the iPhone 4 (which only has a 3.5″ screen) and still costs $450?
Yes, if Apple wants to have 2.3% of the market like BMW- fine- cater to the rich and famous and keep your profits. The rest of us will have to live with Android crap.
But I always thought that Apple was for “the rest of us”. I guess it’s actually for the “rich of us”. Mind you- I’m as big an apple fanboy as they come (I count 11 Apple products in my home). But my teenagers are getting Nexus 4s because that’s all I can afford right now (if the 5c had been $400, I would have gotten that, but not at $550).
So you are joining the Hee Haw side of the spectrum? I hope you enjoy your double wide trailer, and your sheep. Us city dwellers have easy access to Apple Stores. (The closest one to me is the Chicago Michigan Street location) while hicks like you only have Wal-Fart and those silly robot phones. Enjoy your Hee Haw Phone while us urbanites enjoy our iPhones, and our sophisticated urban life.
You clearly have low self esteem considering how you berate others for daring not pay for something they can’t afford. I bet you stand in line every year for days to be one the first with a new phone which for you is a form of empowerment.
You are what your eat, you are what you drive and now, you are which cell phone brand you use. That, or you’re an Apple executive responsible for the iPhone 5C sweating bullets.
Google shill. I would not be surprised if you were Eric T. Mole himself.
Since you live in Chicago or nearby:
Is your iPhone bullet proof? It probably should be.
BTW- Here is a map of mobile home parks in Cook County Illinois- Mr Hee Haw Double Wide.
http://tinyurl.com/mkahd6w
There are good arguments either way…I certainly don’t want to see Apple in a “race for the bottom” for zero margin crap…but at the same time, you need a competitive entry level product for the kids/firstimers. If they go eleswhere get hooked into the android ecosystem, apple loses a lifelong customer. As a long time apple fanboy, my investment in apple is in the tens of thousands… If apple is losing guys like us for an extra 150 profit on a 5 C that is short sited.
If you can get it for free, why pay more for some other phone?
I will never invest on share market again as soon as I get my capital back . AAPL performance makes me think this .
Android IS the new Hee Haw. Tell me any Apple Store that can be found in Dogpatch, USA? None, because Apple is too good for that. These Apple stores can be only found in “cosmopolitan” places such as Chicago (my home), NYC, DC, and San Francisco. Small Hee Haw towns only have Wal-Mart, and sell lame Samsung Galaxies. I am glad I live in one of America’s most sophisticated cities. I feel bad for those Android settlers…not.
Can we agree to stop calling the iPhone 5C as free.
22×24=$528 and if you buy it on T Mobile its $549.
Since when did buying anything on credit with 0% interest over 2 years equate to free?
The comms companies are happy to give a $21 discount on a continued 2-year data plan to retain their most affluent and higher spending customers.
If you are on a contract and beyond the 24month minimum you have already paid for the phone. You can of course continue to shell out to buy the new 5C.
If the naysayers are wrong and eventually a lot of iPhones are sold, then Apple’s share price will rise to some degree. But the real problem still lies with Wall Street’s expectations of how many iPhones Apple has to sell to believe the stock has any value. Supposedly, investors are already nervous that Apple doesn’t have enough pre-orders for the 5c. Apple investors are always nervous over something. Google investors don’t worry, Netflix investors don’t worry, and Amazon investors don’t worry. Apple merely has the wrong type of investors buying Apple stock. They’re all worrywarts. Anyone should be able to tell that these new iPhones will sell extremely well or should I say in higher numbers than past iPhones.
NFLX ,PCLN,AMZN,GOOG,LNKD. Surely after all this time of commenting on these stocks you have invested in them and made money? If not, why? Everyone else has. Even me. And I have done well in TWX and DIS also. At some point your comments don’t make any sense. If these stocks are making money, and they are, then invest in them. Or at least quit complaining about them as though you were being cheated. If you are invested in AAPL and are losing money, quit investing in AAPL. Getting mad and stomping your feet accomplishes nothing. If you are underwater in AAPL that’s not the fault of these other stocks. At what point in the $320 per share drop did you not understand that it was time to get out of AAPL? Nothing goes up forever. There are no guarantees. Just because you love a product doesn’t mean that you invest in the company blindly. It’s not a conspiracy against Apple. Life isn’t fair.
Of course, MDN…
AAPL getting hammered in the market couldn’t possibly be because of anything Apple leadership is (or isn’t) doing, could it?
If Apple wants to be BMW, it can. BMW’s market share — and profit share — is in the single digits. The way Cook is ignoring the Mac platform and overpricing the plastic iPhones, then market share – will be sure to continue its decline, with the iTunes marketplace ceding its clear lead to other platforms if Apple can’t do a better job distributing its products to all global markets at prices that consumers can afford.
BMW should also serve as a lesson: thanks to Bangle’s horrid styling he last decade, plus horribly overcomplicated and un-reliable electronics on board, BMW has been shamed repeatedly by the likes of Audi, Cadillac, and Lexus. Sure, BMW still makes very fine motoring cars, but take away sales of modestly-priced 3&4-series, and BMW would wither away to nothing. All of the rest of the range has long ago lost its way, straying far from being “ultimate driving machines”. BMWs are now bloated overcomplicated computerized land yachts. In Germany, only Porsche still lives true to the calling of a driver’s vehicle, and like Apple, Porsche overprices its products to the point where investors have written them off from ever serving the mainstream.
Apple fans, travel the world and you will find that neither BMWs nor Porsches nor Apples are commonly found even among the elites of the worlds’ markets. What does this mean? Simple: as a public company, Apple could again find itself being driven by both Timid Tim and by Wall Street to become a marginal player or even a takeover target in a decade or two. The only reason BMW exists as an independent company is because it is privately held by a family too proud to let it go; Porsche, one of its superior rivals, has already been bought out by a much more profitable mainstream global manufacturer. Don’t think Apple is immune to the same market forces.
I was against a cheap iPhone. But after seeing the presentation I think the 5C is a fantastic edition.