back to article Plastic iPhone 5Cs? Nah, we'll flog India our OLD iPhone 4 models - report

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 …

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  1. frank ly

    " ... their mobile phone is the ultimate status symbol "

    I feel sorry for them.

    1. Tom 7

      Re: " ... their mobile phone is the ultimate status symbol "

      And even if they're dumb enough to need a status symbol I doubt they're dumb enough to have an out of date one!

  2. ukgnome
    Trollface

    "not-so-budget budget phone" 5C

    Well nothing about the phone specs suggests it should be a budget phone.

  3. Tom Cooke

    3GS

    What my Indian friends always say they'd like is any *3GS* model - they're almost indestructible compared to the more fragile 4/4S/5...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: 3GS

      Bumper / case perhaps?

  4. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

    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.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      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.

      1. Gordon 10

        Resale

        Apple dont really care about resale values. They care about creating a caché and user loyalty to their brand. Resale value tends to be a result of that.

      2. qwertyuiop
        WTF?

        Can't agree

        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!

        1. mastodon't
          Gimp

          Re: Can't agree

          My 3GS is in its 5 year and still going strong, My original IPhone is the music system in the Mrs car

          Baaaaa!!!!

        2. <shakes head>

          Re: Can't agree

          ME 2 and a half years now

        3. Roger Houghton

          Re: Can't agree

          The 99% of iPhone owners who don't fit your somewhat tiresome 'fanboi' stereotype.

    2. andreas koch
      Paris Hilton

      @ I ain't Spartacus:

      > . . .

      And they like the idea of a bright pink phone.

      . . . <

      Paris would tell you that that colour is not pink. It's "SickSalmon".

    3. Philip Lewis

      "And they like the idea of a bright pink phone."

      .. and therefore I conclude they are very definitely not French!

  5. Simon Rockman

    Don't underestimate the power of pink

    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.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Don't underestimate the power of pink

      Apparently the pink Razrs were useful for trimming Bikni Lnes.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Don't underestimate the power of pink

      "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.

  6. Robert Grant

    I thought Apple did this already

    Sell the previous model to developing markets.

    (And next year's model to Android users, under the Samsung brand :) )

    (Not an Android user.)

  7. Alan Denman

    Obviously 'Made in Rumania'.

    I wondered what would happen to all that dead horse.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Low price 5S in plastic case? .... that comes in 2-3 years time as I'm sure Apple will want to build the same regular upgrade path for this "low cost" Indian market that they do with the latest iPhones in the "high cost" world. At least they should still have plenty of available stock then!

  9. CanadianMacFan

    5c was never a budget model

    It was only a business analyst guessing before it was launched that said the 5c would be a budget model and everyone jumped on the bandwagon.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Fragmentation alert!

    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*

    1. Shane Sturrock

      Re: Fragmentation alert!

      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.

      1. JaitcH
        WTF?

        Re: Fragmentation alert!

        @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.

        1. Rastus

          Re: Fragmentation alert!

          @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!

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