“Judging by the comments – or lack thereof – from Apple executives, the company’s mantra for its less-expensive iPhone 5C seems to be: ‘If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all,'” Daisuke Wakabayashi reports for The Wall Street Journal. “Apple sold 51 million iPhones in the December quarter, good enough for a 7% increase from a year earlier but less than the 55 million units that analysts were predicting. It was a disappointing figure, considering Apple had expanded its iPhone line-up for the first time by offering a high-end iPhone 5S and a more affordable 5C. Tuesday morning, Apple shares were down more than 7% on Wall Street.”
“Apple executives never directly pointed to the 5C as the culprit, despite repeated analyst questions. Instead, they stayed mum about the 5C while praising the 5S at every turn,” Wakabayashi reports. “The closest that Apple came to blaming the 5C was when CEO Tim Cook told analysts that the iPhone “did not do well” in North America because the demand “mix was stronger to the 5S.” Later on the call, Cook said consumers flocked to the 5S because of its fingerprint sensor, a feature missing from the 5C… One sign of the demand trend: The average selling price of the iPhone proved resilient to the pricing pressure facing other smartphones. It came in at $637 in the December quarter, compared with $577 in the previous quarter and $642 in the year-ago period. The iPhone 5S starts at $649 without a contract, while the iPhone 5C starts at $549 without contract.”
“The 5C represented a tweak to Apple’s iPhone strategy. In the past, Apple had targeted more price-sensitive consumers by offering its previous generation iPhone at a $100 discount,” Wakabayashi reports. “This time, it offered the 5C, ostensibly a new model but essentially the same hardware as the previous-generation iPhone 5 with a plastic case that comes in five different colors.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: MacDailyNews’ SteveJack on September 10, 2013, the day the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c were revealed:
Let’s get real: If $4.17 per month means anything at all to you, you really can’t afford a smartphone to begin with. Over a two-year contract, the difference between the two iPhones is less than 14-cents per day!
The iPhone 5s is separated from iPhone 5c in many ways: Touch ID fingerprint recognition, materials quality, the camera’s larger 8MP sensor with 1.5µ pixels, ƒ/2.2 aperture, dual LED True Tone flash, Burst mode, slo-mo video, improved video stabilization, a 64GB option, and, of course, the A7 chip with 64-bit architecture and M7 motion coprocessor.
nless you’re allergic to aluminum and/or fine craftsmanship, there is no reason why anyone who can afford an iPhone would not buy an iPhone 5s (unless you’re buying a first iPhone for your son or daughter). Even then, if you want a brightly colored polycarbonate phone or some feeling of extra protection from drops and dings, slap a plastic case on the iPhone 5s. There, it almost weighs as much as the 5c now.
The bulk of any smartphone cost is the data, not the phone.
Am I missing something or is the price difference between the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5c too insignificant to ever consider opting for the 5c?
Why the hell would anyone buy an iPhone 5c instead of an iPhone 5s?
It seems to me that Apple is using the iPhone 5c as a tool to push buyers to the 5s (well, at least those buyers who can grasp a simple value equation).
Once Apple gets the customer to the websites or into the stores and the prospective buyer can see and/or hold both phones and learn that they’re only separated by a mere $100, my guess is that Apple figures they’ll have plenty of upsales occurring. Upsales that will boost Apple’s iPhone margins nicely.