“As I follow the rumor mill surrounding the fabled low-cost iPhone, aka ‘cheap iPhone,’ and more recently, ‘iPhone 5C,’ I’m starting to get worried,” Chris Maxcer writes for MacNewsWorld. “There’s a problem with the iPhone 5C — at least if it turns out anything like the leaked polycarbonate-case photos all over the Internet. The photos show a case design that looks rounded out of poured plastic, undefined and soft. The photos I’ve seen make the iPhone 5C look like they’re made for children.”
Maxcer writes, “While I dislike the generally vague design — again, from the photos that may or may not be accurate — the most terrible thing I’ve seen so far is the color. The iPhone 5C, in one widely linked photo, sports a bright sickly yellow, a garish orangey-pink-red, and a light green the shade of an unripe and diseased lime. Fortunately, there also seems to be a white polycarbonate shell iPhone 5C — but that won’t stop a certain number of people from buying the other colors, which I never want to see again, much less in person.”
Maxcer writes, “If Apple releases an iPhone 5C in hideous colors that looks and feels cheap, wow, it’ll be a dark day for Apple enthusiasts… I just hope that what we’re seeing now is some devious plot from Tim Cook to double-down on secrecy and out supply chain leakers.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The colors on leaked images are never what you see in Apple’s marketing images and certainly not what you see person (which even Apple sometimes has difficulty conveying in photographs and/or video).
The differentiation between iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S (“iPhone 6?”) and legacy models (which live on and which get EOL’ed?) will be interesting. Apple is usually quite proficient at product differentiation, so we have high hopes for the new iPhone family and where each member will sit in the hierarchy.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
If I were trying to discover leaks I just might dictate color variations in plastics and track them….
Yes. Because Apple would never release its most important products in vibrantly-colored polycarbonate.
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/specs/imac_333.html
Or this:
http://www.apple.com/ipod-nano/
Thing is the nano looks great (or relatively so to my eye) in those pics but when you see them for real they shine on the edges like cheap kids foil finish toys and the white fronts just accentuate it, they are anything but classy thats for sure. My fatboy nano still has a great refined finish by comparison. So who knows, never as confident in JI’s taste as I used too. And apart from the late hippy ones the first iMacs looked great the colours vibrant but tasteful.
yup.
chris – late to the mac partay.
Yup the iPhone 5C colored cases are a plot by Tim Cook to out the leakers in the supply chain.
Tim Cook is the real life Tyrion Lannister.
Codename: Project Wildfire.
“Any man who must say ‘I am the king’ is no true king.”
— Tim Cook to Samsung CEO during patent discussions
“Tim Cook is the real life Tyrion Lannister.”
Exquisite!
“Never forget who you are, for surely the world won’t. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armor yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you.”
“The photos show a case design that looks rounded out of poured plastic, undefined and soft.”
Doesn’t that exactly describe the Galaxy products?
Maybe he doesn’t like the Galaxy and hopefully we aren’t judging Apple products by their standards..
[[“I just hope that what we’re seeing now is some devious plot from Tim Cook to double-down on secrecy and out supply chain leakers.”]]
Or they could be a planted diversion for the gullible, easily swayed, easily excited, rumor followers, to divert attention from what Apple is really doing.
My bet is that its a plant…for the reasons cited.
Teens current wrap their current-gen high-end iPhones in cheap looking plastic case with all manner of offensive detailing, rhinestones, etc. This should be a step up.
writers that title articles like this, because of color choices are IMHO moron’s, one person’s dislike is always someone else’s, really cool.. Just because they don’t care for it, doesn’t mean that someone else won’t.. Its just like the changes in interface for IOS7, some people like them, some don’t.. Course most of the people that don’t probably don’t have access to or used a beta either..
It just occurred to me that this may be brilliant
Low cost for who?
Teens is what comes to mind
They love the colours
I will be watching for differentiation around that market segment
They also feed into the adult segment both through access in school and through the future workforce.
Build an army of student users.
Apple has done this for years
India, china, russia, etc. still waiting to see how apple addresses those markets but they always seem to surprise us with the obvious
Was that a poem?
Liked it.
The only thing backing this whole story up is speculation & hearsay. What IF these colored backs are produced by Apple, much like the bumpers, as accessories or the actual back isn’t plastic it’s a new liquid metal alloy that’s painted or coated?
Would he have said the same thing about the original iMac, the computer that saved Apple from bankruptcy.
Maybe we should let the purchaser decide what color is appropriate rather than the bloggers. Or, if this blogger wished to determine the color i should have, he can purchase it for me, and I’ll be happy.
Absurd. Apple needs to respond to the mid range smart phone market with something new. Polycarbonate shelled iPhones, available in multiple colors, is THE proper response. Samsung (and Android) are slowly making headway into the younger demographic and that’s exactly what this product – the iPhone 5C – would address.
Who knows what colors Apple will use specifically and debating whether or not they look good is fine but blasting Apple for POSSIBLY introducing a mid level smartphone is one way to find yourself on the wrong side of history.
You got that Chris Maxcer from MacNewsWorld?
Si.
As with any Apple product, before coming up with an opinion to an Apple product you have to see the final release and the product first hand to make a correct opinion/judgement.
My wife has been craving a purple iPhone forever. She doesn’t want a case, just purple iPhone. Hope the phone turns up in purple.
You must be Hank Schrader … not Joe!
Hey, at least there’s no Zune-ish brown.
Assuming the colors are reasonably accurate (an assumption, I know), the only question of importance is how many other people share Chris Maxcer’s taste. I can’t believe you can make an article out of this. I must be in the wrong field.
I remember when the NET was full of leaked photos of the potential iPhone 4. There was a lot of denial about its structure. I remember many statements like “Apple is not going to give up the iPhone 3 design because this design fits so confortable in your hand”. The leaks turned out to be true. There have been so many leaks around the iPhone 5C that I now accept it as true but as MDN’s take alluded to, you cannot trust that the pictures are of the actual colors. Factors like lighting, the camera, and your viewing device will all affect what you see. However, you can presume that they are close.
What does surprise me is that no one has commented on the colored iPhone 5(s) on the Apple.com iRadio web page. There you will find white iPhone 5(s) with red and blue anodized aluminum trim. What is that all about? Apple is using images of phones on a public web site that doesn’t exist in the wild? Are these the iPhone 5S? Will that be available in colors too?
What are they? IPod touches would be my guess.
The colored devices are the iPod Touch. But my guess would be if they go to color they would look very similar.
What I’m thinking, iPhone 5C is for China, especially for China Telecom. The trick is you can’t change the language, it’s missing 4G, is basically plastic iPhone 4S with bigger screen that is almost Retina, is using Chinese based iCloud and is 3990rmb instead of 5888rmb
And the reporter, being such a world-wide expert with long experience in market testing of consumer phone color acceptance, is now retired and donating his market research expertise for the price of writing news articles.
Maybe the C stands for China and we won’t be bothered with this model in Europe and the States.
The “C” stands for cheap…. or not.
Yum yum I want iPod tastilicious shades.
Just looked at iRadio web site, the side buttons on the blue and red phone are different to current iPhone5!!
How about this for speculation? Apple leaked the case, colors, and name of the iPhone 5C on purpose. This will allow the public time to accept the new design so when it reaches a store near you you’ll actually be excited about it.
These people’s rantings make me want to puke. Why can’t they at least wait until there’s an actual shipping product before getting all indignant? If they don’t like they colors, then don’t buy it or put a case over it. Why go nuts over nothing? The dude says it will be a dark day for Apple enthusiasts. Has he been elected spokesperson for millions of Apple fans and customers? Even if I didn’t like the colors, I’d rather Apple’s iPhone stand out from any other colored smartphone. If those iPhones become popular, every smartphone company under the sun will be putting colors like that on their own smartphones. I hope Apple patented those colors.
Perhaps the “C” is short for “children” instead of “cheap”?
So much passion in describing color preferences may come only from an idiot