Opinion: Seeing Through Apple's "New" iPhone 5c Illusion

Opinion
By
Published

While most of the tech press seems to have been awed by Apple’s colorful "new" iPhone 5c, I’m not biting. It's definitely not cheap, it's made of plastic, and it's hardly new. But of course, this was all obfuscated by Apple’s usual dog and pony show.

No really, it should; I've read the comments.

I trust that most of you have already caught a ton of the news, previews, early reviews, and analysis concerning the new iPhones. So I’ll spare you the ad nauseam re-hash of the facts, and cut straight to the chase: this is an editorial opinion piece about Apple's “new” iPhone 5c.

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104 Comments Comment from the forums
  • ps3hacker12
    great breakdown and a nice read, kudos to whoever wrote this.
    Reply
  • hannibal
    :-)

    iPeople make IT with bigger margins!
    Reply
  • wildkitten
    Not sure what the criticism is. As the author pointed out, Apple isn't doing anything different than it has all along. The 5c is at the same price point as the 5 would have been had they followed their same pricing from previous years, but the 5c does have some upgrades over the standard 5 which the author also pointed out.

    As for the case, sorry, not everyone prefers metal. And people can't praise the Moto X for it's colors on the one hand and then criticize Apple for doing it as well. It's still a very solid, well made phone. My S4 is made from a very good plastic and I prefer it, no matter how many people criticize it.
    Reply
  • jeepmanjr
    I feel ya. Personally? I think Apple represents overpriced yuppie toys. No Apple toys in my household. If you disagree, perhaps a history lesson is in order. Apple had an outstanding opportunity back in the day, they were greedy (very much like today) and squandered their opportunity(ies). Enter IBM and, ultimately, Microsoft. And here we are. LOL!! Please, spare me your juvenile Apple rants.
    Reply
  • adamovera
    11577282 said:
    Not sure what the criticism is. As the author pointed out, Apple isn't doing anything different than it has all along. The 5c is at the same price point as the 5 would have been had they followed their same pricing from previous years, but the 5c does have some upgrades over the standard 5 which the author also pointed out.

    As for the case, sorry, not everyone prefers metal. And people can't praise the Moto X for it's colors on the one hand and then criticize Apple for doing it as well. It's still a very solid, well made phone. My S4 is made from a very good plastic and I prefer it, no matter how many people criticize it.

    Apple took away a premium feature in exchange for a couple of minor things, yet left the pricing the same. It's a raw deal that clearly only benefits the company's bottom line.

    Now, had it killed off the 4 /4s and priced the 5c @ $450 (eliminating the mid-range altogether), that would have been a far more solid, though still too weak, entry-level move. Alternatively, if the company added the battery, camera, and/or color options to the metal iPhone 5, yet kept it at $550, that would have been a value-add to the existing order of things.

    As to the Moto X comment, I've never even seen one. However, I'm pretty sure the color options are a carrier-specific gimmick. On paper, it looks like a mediocre handset that's priced too high off-contract to make it interesting - to me, anyway.
    Reply
  • -Fran-
    I'm thinking that to keep the same price point they went plastic; otherwise they wouldn't have been able to put the new camera in, right?

    Cheers!
    Reply
  • Thierry Martin
    Apple bashing seems to be turning into a mental disorder.
    Reply
  • vmem
    I never thought I'd say that Apple botched a marketing campaign, but they did on the iphone 5C

    well, it may not really be the fault of the marketing team, but the phone is perceived as cheap, while the internals are far from that. This article points out all of this, and it comes down to the fact that Apple made a phone that people are only willing to buy at a lower profit margin to Apple...
    Reply
  • lansiman
    poor is the root of all sins,this is a very biased article
    there are dumb baboons that doesn't know how corporates runs
    everybody wants to be in Apple position from perspective of market power,the only reason other manufacturer like samsung LG doesn't set high price is because they can't,nobody would buy an S4 at the same price as 5S,like nobody would buy a corolla at BMW price,they sure did if they can,they are not out for charity
    cheapskate is those who expect a company to sell whatever stuff cheaply,and can't look past anything other than just the obvious
    Reply
  • sephirothmk
    Low end phones cost 450$? Holy kittens, I've been living under a rock!
    Reply