Apple throwing separate Chinese iPhone event Chinese press have received an invitation to an Apple event, in Beijing, to take place just hours after the fruity phone factory does its usual thing in Cupertino. Local news outlet Sina brought the world the news , and the image below that apparently translates as a promise of a “dazzling” day for China. The event will take …
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I agree with those who have been saying that the 5C was never targeted at the US/UK but at places like China where a significant portion of the population makes less in a month than what an iPhone currently costs. I wouldn't be surprised if you can't even buy one from an Apple store in the US, you'd have to order it online and have it shipped from overseas.
Given that the US uses different frequency bands to everywhere else, foreign variants aren't going to work very well in the US, particularly using 4G/LTE. (Chinese variants likely won't support LTE, as they don't have any LTE networks yet). For it to work properly in the US, Apple will have to release a US specific variant. (Asian/Middle Eastern variants should work OK in Europe, though). I think they probably will, but let's see.
I've got news for you: the UK market differs, just ask Nokia. Please do not lump us all in as minor Yank clones.
Also, what makes you think UK is such a big market? In Europe there are several bigger populations, e.g. France, Germany, Italy and possibly more disposable cash. I believe Switzerland is one of the more iPhone/head markets though lower population.
Perhaps you should learn that UK is in Europe and that Europe as a whole is perhaps bigger than USA, and other parts of Europe are bigger and richer than UK.
Is there a little Englander or Colonel Blimp or American arse licker icon?
Apple's strategy for the last few years has been that they release one new high-end phone, and the previous models then become their mid-market models. (Apple don't do low end phones). When they introduced the iPhone to Verizon, they produced a CDMA compatible version of their current high end phone (then the iPhone 4), but did nothing for the earlier models, so Verizon offered a high-end model only at first. This did clearly cost them business - once new models had been released and the iPhone 4 became cheaper, the total share of iPhones at Verizon went up considerable.
For China, Apple clearly can't do it this way. China is much poorer than America, and many people who want an iPhone will not be able to afford the new high end model. Therefore, if Apple have done a deal with China Mobile, they will have to make TD-SCDMA iPhones available at multiple price-points and not just the high end. They could do this by releasing new, TD-SCDMA compatible variants of the iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 as well as the new iPhone 5S, but they could also simply produce a new mid-market model of iPhone.
My theory is that this is the story behind the iPhone 5C. Apple's motivation for producing it is the need for a mid market TD-SCDMA iPhone for China Mobile. It certainly won't be restricted to China Mobile, and we will see variants of it for other network standards as well. Although we have been hearing things like "The iPhone 5C is aimed principally at developing markets, but will also be sold in developed markets", I think it is likely to sell well everywhere. At least, it will if it is any good.
.. I'd be shopping for blackberry as an acquisition.
The z10 and q10 both support many many more RF bands than Apple manage per SKU which suggests to me their years of radio experience is something Apple could really do with.
But then Tim Cook earns far more than me, so what do I know
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