The iPhone 5C has finally been officially unveiled by Tim Cook at Cupertino, California. And as per rumors that have been doing the rounds prior to the launch, the iPhone 5C will indeed be a colorful affair, what with it being available in attractive shades of yellow, white, pink and green. Also, setting aside all rumors and speculations, the 5c comes with a 4 inch retina display while an A6 chips makes up its core.
All these specifications and speculations however find little importance when the issue of the price tag of the iPhone 5C is taken into consideration. A whooping $549 for the 16 GB set and $649 for the 32 GB variant in the US market is what the smartphone will cost in the US. Buyers in the UK would get the 16 GB at £469 and the 32 GB for £649. All talk about Apple going to take a note of the top end smartphone market being squeezed seems to have been thrown out of the window in one go.
Another very surprising aspect has been Apple ignoring the Chinese market in their iPhone 5C strategy. It would cost the buyer a massive $700 which is quite out of reach of majority consumer base there. It was in this market that speculation had spoken about the iPhone 5C entering as a competing device for the other devices available there. Apple has a mere 5 percent market presence in the Chinese market which is considered as one that most big time makers of Smartphone’s aim for.
Apple has not even tied up with any major service providers in other markets to allow for the growth in demand for the iPhone 5C in those markets. Brian Marshall of Apple technology analyst team hinted at them expecting a 40 percent profit margin from the sales of iPhone 5C. This places the hopes that Apple pins on the iPhone 5C much higher than what they had and achieved from their iPhone 4S. They have analysed that consumers now desire top of the technology and style stuff, but whether iPhone 5C reaches to that height is to be seen.
The launch of the iPhone 5C has been announced to be September 20 in the US and UK. There can be some price cut expected when the device is launched in other markets later in the year.