“This fall, Apple’s newly revamped iPhone lineup is expected to include the high-end ‘iPhone 5S,’ a plastic ‘iPhone 5C,’ and a low-end option with the legacy iPhone 4S, according to a well-connected insider,” Neil Hughes reports for AppleInsider.
“Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities said in a research note on Monday that he believes Apple’s anticipated ‘iPhone 5C’ will actually be positioned as the company’s mid-range device, not a low-end option as was previously rumored,” Hughes reports. “Instead, the company’s entry-level iPhone will be the iPhone 4S, he said.”
Hughes reports, “Kuo expects the so-called “iPhone 5C” to cost between $400 and $500 without a contract subsidy. Meanwhile, the iPhone 4S — first released in 2011 — will run between $300 and $400, according to Kuo. The updated lineup will also mean the end of the iPhone 4, which was first released in 2010.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Brawndo Drinker” for the heads up.]
Apple will only keep the 4S in play if it is cheaper to manufacture than the 5C. At this point, having a discrepancy in screen sizes and using glass instead of plastic may be more expensive, and Apple may want to just keep manufacturing concerns to two devices.
Yes and a cheaper metal phone than a new plastic one, a bit confusing to the average buyer perhaps. Seems a bit conflicting, surely a different, cheaper version of the 5C would be more logical, consistent and from a production point of view cheaper to produce overall. But not yet convinced about Cook’s logic as yet so who knows.
Apple will not in all likelihood keep the iPhone 4s on sale. The 30 pin connector is a defunct technology as it has been replaced by the lightning connector. Simple as that.
The iPhone 5c will be the base iPhone and the 5s will be the iPhone 5 replacement. The iPhone 5 will probably not be continued, however 5c, 5 and 5s would make a nice range, although removing the number from the range would be better all-round and simply have iPhone C, iPhone and iPhone S.
The 5c should come in slightly dearer than the iPod Touch. The iPod Touch, should be rebranded as the iPad Nano, so the iPad range is iPad Nano, iPad Mini and iPad.
The iPod range should be narrowed down (with a view to phasing them out completely within the next two years) to the iPod Nano and Shuffle, only rebranded as iPod and iPod Shuffle with lightning connectors. The iPod classic will be retired.
This is the most logical move for Apple going forward. The ranges were becoming fragmented. Back to basics and clear price options for customers: Low, Medium and High
I seriously doubt Apple will drop the iPod touch. It sells well with kids who want to play games but whose parents don’t want them to have a phone or pay for the data plan. It typically gets upgraded at the same time frame as the iPhone, so it’s not that much to engineer and it introduces people to iOS.
I know allot of people that have the iPod Touch. They sell millions if them evey quarter. It creates a halo affect for the iPhone. And if you buy an iPod Touch but select a phone from another manufacturer you are still in the iOS Eco system.
As Apple are, supposedly, huge music fans, and base a large part of the business around music, the iPod Classic should only be retired when there’s a solid-state version with equal to, or greater capacity.
And before anyone starts on the ‘stream music from the cloud, use Spotify, Rdio, etc, etc…’, that solution is useless when there’s no network available, or the network keeps dropping the connection, both of which are irritatingly regular where I live, and all the major networks cap data at 1Gb/month, which might give a week’s usage, if you’re lucky.
Real music lovers carry as much of their music as possible with them, at as high a bitrate as possible, which means a Classic.
Mine’s nearly full now, so I need a replacement of at least 200-256Gb, and I know of plenty of people who have far greater collections than I do.
C’mon, Apple, give us a 256Gb iPod, either a Touch, or a Classic with an SSD.
But you may notice, the iPhone 4’s have nearly 50% of
the iPhone market against iPhone 5.
Could be a huge selloff for christmas.
Could make sense, keep it until end of year..
I dont think, the iPhone 5c will sell in numbers like a 4.
Would be nice to see a iPhone 4x with lightning.
But I think, manufacturing cost of the 4 is higher than a 5c.
And apple want to increase money with a cheapter phone.
Not sure why they would keep the 4S in production. Makes sense to go 4inch all the way for a lot of reasons. Price=quantity for parts and apps/games wont need multiple versions of the same image for starters.
But Im not an analcyst and we know they’re always right
Agree; this analyst is stupid. iPhone 5C will have iPhone 4S’ internals (though taller screen), and it will be cheaper to produce since there is no steel and double-glass.
Hope they will discontinue the 4s and focus on 16:9 displays.
Kill the 4S, else it become’s apple’s XP.
Where’s the 4.8″ iPhone 5XL?
The 4S will be the cheap iPhone and the 5C & 5S will be the fingerprint reading new phones. 5C will be garish colors, and essentially unbreakable (still thin, I predict) and 5S will be über-classy with the 5’s good looks and potentially a liquidmetal frame around the edge, as the aluminum dents and chips when you merely give it a stern look.
I don’t think the 5C will have fingerprint reading initially. That’s a features reserved for the 5S (or 6) which helps to separate it.
There is one very clear and obvious reason why Apple will kill 4S: the 30-pin dock connector. If it remained in production, it would be the only Apple mobile device with the old connector, while all other have been moved to the new, slim Lightning connector. iPhone 5 has a far greater chance at remaining in production than 4S.
What, you want Cook to be decisive? The bobbled introduction of the Lightning connector continues to this day, with Apple shipping both connector styles. 3rd parties have barely ramped up the Lightning accessories production — presumably because of the expensive manufacturing cost and/or outrageous licensing fees.
If Apple wanted users to happily embrace a new connector, it would have deployed the connector across the whole iOS lineup much more quickly. Apple retail stores would hand out a free dock adapter with each new iOS gadget purchase for those users who had older Dock accessories.
As it is, Lightning accessories and adapters are rare & far too expensive.
Actually, no. The lightning connector has quite quickly been introduced across the entire line of new iOS devices. It first came on iPad mini; then, six months later, they put it on the iPhone and iPod, and at the same time, they re-introduced the full-size iPad (less than a year after the last refresh), where the only obvious reason was to replace 30-pin connector with the lightning one. At this point, there are no new mobile devices with the old 30-pin connector, and the only one still being sold out there are legacy iPhones (4 and 4s). All other devices, (iPod nano, touch, iPhone 5, iPad mini, iPad) have lightning connectors. So, I’d say, they were rather swift in moving the product lines forward to the new port.
There is no reason why Apple would want “us to embrace” the new connector. They made a calculated decision, and it show no ill effect. No sales were lost to possibly annoyed people stuck with old 30-pin accessories. A $30 adapter bridges that problem.
Apple’s consistent success is a consequence of their ability to change rapidly and not be anchored by some obsolete technology.
quickly? hardly.
1440 days and counting since the last iPod Classic update. no Lightning connector.
iPhone 4 and 4S: no lightning connector yet either. If Lighting is so superior, then Apple would have changed these just like the iPad.
iPad 2 still for sale, still using a dock connector. Is there a reason that Apple didn’t kill the old model? YES – because some people have a lot of dock accessories and are still choosing the old connector. I am not one of them as some rude people here surmise, but the point needs to be made.
Finally, iPod Shuffle can’t likely get the Lightning connector and still meet the price point. (which is an indication how the cable chipset makes Lightning significantly overpriced).
Finally, $30 or more to adapt any consumer-grade cable to any other consumer-grade cable is highway robbery. Apple should be ashamed of their crappy, oversized, wimpy connector adapters.
Isn’t ipad2 still available? That also still has the old connector.
In favor of the 5CheapPlastic? Nah I can’t see that happening.
iPhone 5s | iPhone 5c (If rumors are true) | iPhone 5 makes more sense as an iPhone line up. The 4 inch screen should be across the board, and then release a 4.5-4.7 inch phone in the future.
I hope apple doesn’t scrap the iPhone 5 that would be a bad move just like the iPad 3 being scraped
I don’t think the iPhone 4S remains in the lineup. Even the low-end iPod touch now has a 4-inch screen, so the low-end iPhone needs to match it. Plus, the iPhone 4S still has the old dock connector. And, Apple can’t have the “lowest” cost iPhone choice looking more expensive than the “lower” cost iPhone choice (the new “5C”).
If the current iPhone 5 is going away, I think the new iPhone 5C occupies both the $0 and $99 (with contract) price points, at 8GB storage and 16GB storage, respectively.
Guess we’re reduced to speculating what old ideas they’ll keep around rather than what new ideas might be in the “new” phone. It’s worrisome that the iPhone 5S looks to be the fourth year in a row they have used the same hardware design for their flagship product. What happened to Think Different?
Apple creating the 5C to just be a mid-range product doesn’t make sense. It makes much more sense that the 5C is a lower cost product (but not cheap) that uses less than cutting-edge tech, like previous generation processors, no fingerprint sensor, no liquidmetal frame, etc.
Keeping the 4S in production doesn’t really help Apple if the 5C is in fact a low-cost model. Plus it simplifies Apple’s supply chain and production because it eliminates one model iPhone plus all dock connector production.
Maybe, just maybe everyone is starting with an incorrect assumption. It seems to be assumed that Apple will continue with a three phone lineup. What if they release a new 5s and the 5 gets redressed in coloured clothing to cut manufacturing costs and becomes the 5c? For the next year they only offer the 5s and 5c and next year apple had the 6, 5s and 5c.
Having a 5c that is the same as a 5 with just a plastic cover doesn’t make sense; neither does engineering a handicapped phone. With just two this year, all models going forward have the lightning connector and 4″ screen without major reworks or creating a new low end phone.
A plastic low cost iPhone like the 5c is not a real Apple product and will be ignored until discontinued.