“In four months, Apple will reveal new iPhones,” Buster Hein writes for Cult of Mac. “It’s as certain as the changing of summer to fall: Leaves die, kids go back to school, and the world gets a shiny new iPhone, delivered with love from Cupertino. But when Tim Cook takes the wraps off this year’s version, what’s to become of the poor, sad, unloved iPhone 5c, still begging the world to caress its unapologetically plastic frame? Will there be a sequel?
“The iPhone 5c has been one of the most perplexing Apple products since the quick life and death of the iPod Hi-Fi stereo system. At $549 off-contract, the iPhone 5c is by no means inexpensive, while its guts are comprised of remnants of 2012’s top iPhone, the iPhone 5. It’s neither the cheap, mass-market phone analysts were craving to counter Android’s growing dominance of the mobile market, nor is it a compelling enough mid-tier device to make you wish you hadn’t just jumped up to the iPhone 5s,” Hein writes. “Instead of giving Apple a foothold in rapidly expanding Asian markets, the 5c is perceived as a candy-colored flop — a rare miss for Cupertino.”
“But is the iPhone 5c really a dud? Tim Cook admitted iPhone 5c demand turned out to be different than Apple thought, but also revealed both the 5s and 5c outsold Apple’s previous products, as well as every Windows, Blackberry and Android flagship its first sales quarter,” Hein writes. “‘One thing’s for sure,” says top Apple analyst Horace Dediu, “Apple does not care about sales volumes alone… ‘The question shouldn’t be about the 5C but about the slot it occupied,’ Dediu told Cult of Mac. ‘Does it remain defined as it currently is — a ‘mid’ slot with ‘low-end’ still occupied by older models? Or do the low and mid get fresh SKUs?'”
Much more in the full article here.
Related article:
Why would anyone buy an iPhone 5c instead of an iPhone 5s? – September 10, 2013
I use the iPod Hi-Fi stereo system regularly in our school and would buy a couple more if I could.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000BKBYY0/ref=dp_olp_0
I’m starting to see the iphone 5c everywhere in Toronto. Seems that they have taken off in terms of popularity. They also stand out in a crowd.
Me too, but here in Philadelphia. I used to never see them – until about a month or so ago. Now I see them several times a day. I think several retailers (Best Buy? RadioShack?) have recently had amazing deals on them, which may be the driving force behind this.
But you only notice that an iPhone is a 5C if it doesn’t have a case covering the back. Otherwise you don’t know if it’s a 5S or 5C.
It’s very simple. It continues AS IS (at 8GB, maybe with new colors) as the FREE (with contract) option. The $99 option for the upcoming iPhone lineup will be the iPhone 5s.
The following year, Apple releases the iPhone 6s, and the iPhone 6’s technical design becomes the iPhone 6c (as the $99 option). It does not necessarily need to have a plastic body; it could be stamped color-anodized aluminum, like the current iPod touch. And the iPhone 5s becomes the FREE option.
This way, each technical design is used for a full three years in the iPhone lineup, going from the top option to the FREE option. That’s how Apple HAS BEEN doing business since the iPhone 3gs.
Going forward (since the iPhone 5), every year there is a “new look” iPhone at the top, it becomes the “C” model the following year when the “S” model occupies the top spot.
NOTE: The iPhone 5c as the FREE option will be even MORE popular than it is now (at $99).
The 5c is a well-disguised Trojan Horse. For what? For liquidmetal phones. Recent patents demonstrate how liquidmetal can be used in machinery designed for polycarbonite injection-molding. All those 5c machines can be used to create lqmt phones with minimal transformation.
That said, I still believe that iWatch will be the only liquidmetal Apple device for two years. I don’t think the iPhone 6 will have sapphire or liquidmetal. I expect the 6s to get sapphire and the 7 to be lqmt. No inside info here. Just a guess.
See here:
http://liquidmetal.com/our-process/liquidmetal-injection-molding/
And possibly here:
http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2013/11/apple-files-new-liquid-patents-covering-an-injection-mold-the-creation-of-the-bottom-portion-of-the-iphone.html
Dammit I wish I had known the iPhone 5c was a flop before I just them for my kids last weekend.
Gotta say, I question the biases of a reporter who compares off-contract prices of phones in the US. NOBODY buys off-contract phones here. Just last weekend, I upgraded two kids to 5c phones for $99 each. The 5s model would have cost me $199. That’s 100% more, for the mathematically challenged. How is 100% not a significant price differential? What would have counted as significant: 1,000%? Maybe 1,000,000%?
Hack job. Try again.
Today’s Lesson In FUD:
…What’s to become of the poor, sad, unloved iPhone 5c, still begging the world to caress it…
Note the induction of FEAR: Oh no! I hate being poor! It’s sad to be sad! Being unloved is terrible! Everyone wants someone to caress them! Oh the frightfulness of being the iPhone 5c. I’d be afraid to go near something so fearful.
Experience the Uncertainty: How can Apple possibly be worth buying, or AAPL for that matter, if they have such a fearful and fear inducing phone! I can’t imagine Apple has much of a future with that kind of device on the market! Maybe I should avoid their products and their stock!
Get lost in the Doubt: How can I count on ANY Apple product? What if I bought one and it too turned out to be poor, sad, unloved, and begging for caresses? I’d also be seen by my peers and overlords as being poor, sad, unloved and begging for attention! What would become of me? I’d be shunned, just as the world has shunned the iPhone 5c!
Notice how all of the above is total Bullshit with no basis in human sanity, unless you’re an animist, let alone fact. These are your tools! Abuse them wisely and you shall Screw The World! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!
Or you could decide to be humane and sane, as opposed to psychopathic. It’s your choice. 😉
The iPhone 5c is incredibly comfortable in one’s hand… not so with iPhones 4, 4S, 5, 5S and their sharp edges.
I am seeing a lot of 5c’s among trendy young people who can easily afford a 5S – it’s a super-fast, really neat smartphone.
I think the 5C becomes the 4S in terms of apple’s offering in the US. The 4 and 4S may be available in dev. countries still, but def. not anywhere apple is trying to launch iBeacon, etc. as they need Bluetooth 4+ to be pervasive for many new sharing features, etc.
It is the last of the 32-bit iPhones. All new Apple iOS devices will be 64-bit. It’s future was known the day it was unveiled.
Think different and please be informed. Apple will be all 64-bit and the other Google crap isn’t. Reality is what it is even if APPLE ADS DON”T ADVERTISE THAT iOS IS BEST OF BREED!
Wrong. The 4S is still available.
I see the 5C simply taking the 4S’ place in Apple’s lineup. Apple spent too much time and money developing the 5C to simply terminate it, plus (despite misreporting) it still sells very well.
My 5c fits smoothly and nicely in my back or front pocket. My wife has the 5s and I don’t envy her phone at all. I know it is better, but not that noticeably better. A very unintrusive phone.
When longtime dominant cell phone manufacturers get usurped by a new comer, they will LIE, CHEAT, STEAL, etc to get even with the newcomer.
I expected this and will continue to expect this type of “news” story to continue until the dirt is shoveled on the grave of some of these worthless companies.
I anticipated that Apple would introduce a 5SC. But now I’m not altogether sure. They may want to keep a higher-end look and feel phone at 4 inches. Then again, they may want to drive more to the 4.7 inch higher margin phone. They will use the 5.5 inch to drive margins and make the 4.7 inch look inexpensive.
I think this is likely:
5C free 8GB (on contract of course)
5SC or 5S $99 (16GB), $199 (32GB)
6 $199 (16GB, etc.)
6 XL $299 (16GB, etc.)
My two youngest kids have the 5C, and they love it. Plays all the latest games, it’s fast, and they don’t need 64 bit or TouchID. They’ll use those phones for at least 2 years, and then we’ll either trade them in on new iPhones or keep them around the house as iPods and home controllers.
I always viewed the 5c as a supply chain play (which is Cook’s area of expertise). Not sharing the same time-consuming-to-manufacture aluminum shell with the 5s freed up significant production capacity for the high end model. Meanwhile, going with plastic shells and stamped steel internals for the 5c ensured ample supplies at launch, and reduced production costs.
Introduction of the iPhone 6 indeed presents an interesting choice for Apple, since the potential production bottleneck with the 5 and 5s sharing the same exterior is no longer an issue with the 6 going to a different design.
I think the manufacturing of the 5s will come to an end this year – it proved to be a fairly expensive assembly process.
The 5c will stick around on the low end.
An updated “5c” w/5s specs (A7, TouchID) for the middle.
And new iPhone 6 at the high end.
If Apple finally decides to release a larger phone, you can be damned sure you’re going to pay for it; iPhone 6: 4″ @ $199, 4.7″ @ $299 (on contract).
Ford Taurus outsold BMW… and?
I’ve had one for 7 months now and it’s been great. Can’t figure out why everyone is turning up their noses at them…
So this writer builds up the assumption that it is a flop only to claim it isn’t a flop after all. Easy this writing malarky isn’t it.