back to article 8GB iPhone 5c is real, but no market-maker

Apple's stroll towards the bottom of smartphone market has seen it officially, if quietly, release an iPhone 5c with a mere eight gigabytes of storage. The new model appeared on Apple's Australian online store today priced at $AUD679. The 16GB and 32GB models are $739 and $869 respectively. It has long been assumed that the …

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  1. LarsG

    It would have to be £100-150 to qualify for a cheap phone. Less memory coupled with a high price just makes it less desirable.

    1. big_D Silver badge

      Yep. We replaced my fiance's iPhone 3GS last week. She got a 120€ Lumia 620 (she wanted something that wasn't any bigger than her dead 3GS) and didn't want another Apple phone and didn't like using my Galaxs S3 (the UI, not the size).

      So far she is happy with it.

  2. SuccessCase

    "One thing is clear: Apple currently has little or no intention of duking it out at the bottom end of the smartphone market, where $US100 is reportedly the sweet spot for those seeking to connect “the next billion” to the internet. Microsoft and Google are more than willing to go there, as Nokia's newly-minted Android range and Google's generous licence terms for the operating system attest."

    Well considering Samsung make most of their profit from the Galaxy range of handsets - e.g. their high end range - and Apple and Samsung between them last reported quarter made more than 100% of smartphone handset profits (more than 100% is possible because, the average profit for companies not Apple and Samsung was in fact a loss), it's pretty clear Apple have adopted the right strategy. The 5C was never an attempt to compete at the bottom end of the market, but an attempt to slightly expand their constituency to include customers who are not interested in paying top whack for a high-end model with every state of the art feature, but who nevertheless want the Apple experience and are still prepared to pay a significant amount for it. For sure they thought they would be selling more of the 5C. In hindsight, it should probably also have had a metal construction (a slight adaption of the iPhone 5). However the colours are eye catching and previously the introduction of colour after a period of colour uniformity has worked very well for them.

    Also the 5C, when it was in the drawing board was planned to maintain volume in the face of an expected assault where the Samsung S4 would dilute the high-end; which never really materialised due to the S4 not being the ground breaking release Samsung had hoped it would be. Samsung failed to make inroads into Apple's share of the high-end market and Apple failed to make inroads into the high to mid level market.

  3. mrdalliard
    WTF?

    An 8GB iPhone is close to useless. The OS takes up some of that storage - so how are you ever supposed to install updates? (For example, iOS 7.1 needed 2.1GB).

    The only way would be to remove any content you put on it first. Pointless.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I stopped buying 8GB phones 4 years ago

      so the 5C 8G at todays price point is an expensive chocolate teapot.

      However the other announcement that Apple didn't make, at the same time that they didn't announce the cheap 5C 8G was that the iPad2 on the AppleStore has been replaced by the 'retina' iPad4 16GB and that this is quite a good deal, relatively speaking, with almost enough speed & space & battery to run iOS7.1

      It's down to £329 with the non-air A6X cpu/Wi-Fi, strangely its more than a tenner cheaper than that in most of mainland EU, and if you fancy a bit more off then there's a few iPad4's on refurb at £279

  4. Karl Vegar

    8 gb iPhone pointless..?

    Well, yes if you're buying the handset yourself.

    But, when corporate is supplying the handset (, and the beancounters already have whined themselves a decent 5S, and the VIP's are exempt from regular policy), some beancounter could very well find that this is a good idea. Small savings pr handset, will give some substantial savings if you multiply it enough times.

    Needless to say, understanding that most any decent midrange smartphone will be better (and possibly cheaper) than a nerfed into uselessness iPhone will be saddly lacking among the exec's who someone has sold on the idea that IOS is the better mobile OS.

    Meanwhile at mission central, the resident BOfH is stringing his crossbow, whistling the Willhelm Tell overtyre...

  5. Rathernicelydone

    I am still trying to figure out the point of the 5C...

    1. gazthejourno (Written by Reg staff)

      Helps Apple's advertising department burn through its budgets before the end of the financial year. London's plastered in ads for the things, and yet they still aren't shifting.

  6. UncleMike987

    Out of date...

    This is a bit of a dumb article to post.

    Yesterday, you had an article asking "Is Apple about unleash a cheaper 8GB iPhone 5C? O2 'leak' suggests: Yes", and I replied to it, pointing out that the 8Gb iPhone 5C was already available on the Apple UK website, ready for delivery within 24 hours.

    And today, you're ignoring that, and proudly announcing the same phone is available on an Australian website.

    Am I missing something ?

  7. JeffyPoooh
    Pint

    Apple would do better at the other end of the Chinese market...

    At the risk of generalizing, many of them are more interested in explicitly-and-obviously expensive bling than colourfully-embarassing, cheap-as-chips bargain versions. Offer them a diamond encrusted 256GB version that is visually-obviously (bright red, perhaps blinking?, maybe laser beams light show?) the most expensive version and it'll sell out instantly.

    Sometimes it seems that the Apple Marketing people don't get out much.

  8. Melbourne Gopher

    iPhone is a luxury product

    Earlier this week I bought a very nice unlocked Moto G for my wife for AUD 238. It's faster than the 5c and has a bigger, higher resolution screen. In terms of hardware the only advantage of the iPhone is the camera, but I can't justify spending an extra $441 for that. Given that Motorola is now owned by Lenovo it's probably safe to assume that their phones will only continue to get cheaper.

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