" ... their mobile phone is the ultimate status symbol "
I feel sorry for them.
While sales of Apple's brand new "not-so-budget budget phone" 5C founder, Apple may have found a way to take on Samsung in India. Reports from the trade are rife that the 8GB iPhone 4 will be back on the shelves at a price of 15,000 Rupees (about £150, $240). This is nearly half the price it was before it was discontinued in …
I know several people, [stereotype alert!] all of them happen to be women, who want the iPhone 5C. They like iPhones, because they're used to them and they've got apps and iTunes. And they like the idea of a bright pink phone. I didn't ask, but should have, whether they were also reacting against Apple's horrible decision with the iPhone 4 to go all glass. Basically creating the iSoap. In my experience almost all plastic phones are less slippery than the metal ones, except with HTC's nicely ergonomic 'Desire' type ones with the rubber backing.
So I guess Apple thought the risk of losing lots of customers, and profits, in the West to a cheap plastic handset was more than the gain of having a lower priced model. Although I don't see why they couldn't just do a re-cased version of the 4 - or even update the 3GS with a bit more RAM and a slighly faster chip. Or even just have a 3rd world model, that they don't sell in the West. All the other mobile firms have models that only sell into certain markets, so I don't see why Apple couldn't.
Apple stick with a few models as that's all they need - easier to support and better resale values. Samsung make a phone for every man and their dog and it shows - the top models may retain some value but the rest are basically disposable after 18-24 month contract is up. On a TCO basis the iPhone may be more initially but perhaps less over it's actual lifetime or if not less - much closer.
Given that a new iPhone comes out every year and true fanbois will queue up like sheep to get their hands on the latest model as soon as it's available, who keeps an iPhone for more than 12 months? It makes the Samsung phone with it's 18-24 months of ownership look positively long-lived!
When Carphone's Charles Dunstone ordered 250,000 Pink Motorola Razrs and I was at Moto, we thought him mad - but knew he was clever. Remember this was a phone where the entire world production run was initially set at fewer than 500,000. This was the Christmas where Nokia, which had been late to the 3G party cracked 3G. Before the pink Razr they had 80% market share in Carphone.
With the pink Razr Motorola's market share in Carphone went to 80% ousting Nokia and Samsung. They sold several million of the things and we, as Motorola, had given them an exclusive on pink. We ended up negotiating to buy the exclusive back.
I've never got my head around pink. Is it dull tech companies waking up that there is a female market or is it lame and patronising.
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"I've never got my head around pink."
Nor I, but it shows that what people want, and what designers think they should want, are often different.
My wife doesn't like any phone colour other than black. And she wouldn't be seen dead in anything pink. I haven't dared ask what the "official" colour name is of the jumper she's wearing right now.
Just what version is the iPoop 4 running? I bet it isn't the latest and Apple should clearly support it forever! I'm going to cry about it lots on every Apple article now because it's so smart to do so and makes me feel better about my purchase of brand X.
*waits for the downvotes*
I'm running iOS 7 on my three year old iPhone 4 and see no reason to upgrade as it is still in perfect condition and does everything I ask of it. I don't expect it will get iOS 8 but unless there's some really fabulous feature, I'll stick with the 4 and get every last cent of value from it. My colleagues are already replacing their android phones, some have done so twice in the time I've been on the 4.
@Shane Sturrock:
Apple has a planned obsolescence technique, in case you didn't notice. This is why so many iThingies are rolled over every year by their owners.
iThingie owners do this far more often - just because your 'colleagues' are switching doesn't mean the larger market follows their thought process. They are better suited to the Apple sheep program, ideal for people who don't/can't think or need connectors that can't be plugged in the wrong way.
@JaitcH - then their "planned obsolescence technique" ain't working too well. My 3GS still works fine, and I'll probably get a hand-me-up 4S when my daughter's plan ends and she upgrades to a 5S. But that's nothing to do with Apple.
Sorry, but your loathing of anything Apple is causing you hallucinations!