101–110 of 184 posts
At the unlocked price of $550 for the iPhone 5c and $650 for the considerably-better iPhone 5s, it doesn't seem like there's a huge price gap here. I have doubts whether it'll sell that well as the mid-level smartphone. The 4s is $450, which is closer to the price point I would have expected.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I see people already joking that the C stands for Clown Phone.
First it was Cheap, then it was Crappy, now it is Clown? I mean, the idea that there will be a real, actual funny joke around what the "C" stands for seems only real in the sense that people are talking about how there is going to be people talking about what the "C" stands for.
At the unlocked price of $550 for the iPhone 5c and $650 for the considerably-better iPhone 5s, it doesn't seem like there's a huge price gap here. I have doubts whether it'll sell that well as the mid-level smartphone. The 4s is $450, which is closer to the price point I would have expected.
It looks surprisingly good. One could even argue it looks as good or better than the metal iPhone 5's. I am disappointed that the 5C isn't the free (subsidized) version though. The iPhone 4S is sticking around for that.
4S is probably not long for this world. Right now, its filling a gap both in the product shelf (free) and in an amortization-of-development-costs schedule somewhere. Plus, it allows for some extra profit taking from the 5C for the moment as people eschew the 4S. I'll bet as 5C production ramps, the 4S goes away in X months. Its in Apple's long term best interests to get everyone on the same screen anyway...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They could also be pointing out that the device color matches the OS color. I'm pretty sure Apple has never done that before.
In Mac OS 8, the 'yum!' Gestalt selector returned a value corresponding to the case color. The OS tinted based on this value (at least on first install.)
No thanks Apple. I don't struggle to get my ass out of bed, go through a torturous 2 hour daily commute, sit on my ass and do something I dislike 8 hours a day to waste $500+ on a colorful iPhone.
Then again, the phoneless-smartphone (pocket tablets? Media/app players?) market seems to have been eaten by tablets and cheaper smartphones, in spite of its popularity with the kids.
Time will tell, but for the sake of argument: at c. $550 for the unsubsidised version this is a very high price point for the "iPhone for emerging markets" argument. I'm just very curious to see the market expansion with this "lower" tier model.
Apple's M.O. has been good/better/best, with increasingly older models making up the cheaper slots. Without a 5C, everyone would have expected 5S/5/4S. So with a 5C in the 'good' slot, that would imply 5S/5/5C -- but who would buy a 5 for $100 more, if it's barely distinguishable from the 5C?
And they couldn't have stripped a 5C down much further to build more separation -- at its core a 5 needs the internals it has to drive its display with the performance and battery life Apple aims for and advertises.
So as soon as we saw the screen dimensions and assumed 5C (vs 4SC), people really ought to have expected 5S/5C/4S.
Further, Apple's finally landed a few highly-sought-after carriers in the East, which will bring a ton of sales all by itself. So why would anyone expect them to take a margin hit pitching a more attractive $450 model (and at the expense of having any clear $550 offering) when they haven't soaked the early adopters yet?
Next year, the 5C will flow down naturally to the 'good' slot: 6/5S/5C. And its construction likely allows Apple to shoot even lower than the 4Ss $450 slot. That's when I'd expect to see Apple make a price play.
Perhaps even sliding everything down the scale a little, to make room for the rumored larger-screen iPhone at the new premium price point.
In any event, it will be interesting to see how they move forward from that. 6/5S/5C -> 6S/6/... 5SC?
Would the larger-screen variant flow down the way the larger screen of the 5 is simply becoming 'standard'? Or would it remain an essentially separate product that simply got refreshed at its existing price point and didn't have a deep bench of older models, ala iPod Touch?
Mostly I see this targeting precisely the US customers that would buy the old iPhone in years past - people that aren't interested in the latest and greatest features very well might be induced to upgrade by a fun color that stands out from their friends's iPhones.