Apple CEO Cook:

[V-Tech]

 

Tim Cook is sorry if you?re disappointed that the iPhone 5c isn?t a budget phone aimed at consumers in emerging markets but he never meant to give you the impression that it would be. In an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, Cook says that Apple ?never had an objective to sell a low-cost phone? that would compete on some level with the dirt-cheap Android handsets that have been flooding into emerging markets. Instead, Cook says that the goal with the iPhone 5c was ?to sell a great phone and provide a great experience, and we figured out a way to do it at a lower cost.?

 

While it?s true that Apple is simply not built to compete on the very low end of the market ? ?We?re not in the junk business,? as Cook tells Bloomberg Businessweek ? many analysts were expecting the lower-cost iPhone to sell for $450 off contract at most and not the $550 off-contract price that the company announced earlier this month. This has led to a drop in Apple?s share price since the iPhone 5c launch because investors believed that Apple?s new device would at least have a mid-range price that would make it more attractive to consumers in China, India and Brazil. As things stand now, however, the iPhone 5c seems to have little hope of cracking key emerging markets at its opening price point.

 

?It raises the question: Is Apple truly a mass-market provider?? Enders Analysis analyst Benedict Evans tells Bloomberg Businessweek. ?Or do they wind up with 40 percent of the U.S. market, a third of Europe, and nothing anywhere else??

 

 

 

http://bgr.com/2013/09/19/apple-ceo-cook-interview-iphone-5c/

[Growled Member]

 

While it?s true that Apple is simply not built to compete on the very low end of the market ? ?We?re not in the junk business,? as Cook tells Bloomberg Businessweek ? many analysts were expecting the lower-cost iPhone to sell for $450 off contract at most and not the $550 off-contract price that the company announced earlier this month.

 

Analysts are so stupid. Apple would be crazy to sell a low price "junk" phone. Not when their top of the line does so well. 

[ATLien_0]

Apple for one never said it was going to be a "cheap" or "low budget" phone to begin with, that was all analysts. In fact did Apple ever actually mention a cheap phone prior to last week? After seeing the initial concepts, I saw the 5c as 5 "color", while most analyst saw it as 5"cheap" 

 

Also Apple has never done low budget or cheap, take the Macbook/iBook vs the Macbook Pro 

[techbeck]

Mid range pricing would be nice.  Doesn't have to be a dirt cheap phone.

[xWhiplash]

Apple for one never said it was going to be a "cheap" or "low budget" phone to begin with, that was all analysts. In fact did Apple ever actually mention a cheap phone prior to last week? After seeing the initial concepts, I saw the 5c as 5 "color", while most analyst saw it as 5"cheap" 

 

Also Apple has never done low budget or cheap, take the Macbook/iBook vs the Macbook Pro 

 

 

I thought 5C was 5 Color as well.

[vcfan]

i said it from the beginning that this wasnt going to be a cheap priced phone. this is apple we're talking about. they will gladly sit in the low marketshare range if they are still making large margins. is it the right strategy? or is tim cook following a script already laid out for him?

[Xerino]

And yet that $550 iPhone 5c costs about $125 to make... the iPhone 5 costed apple $197 to make, but since the 5c has a plastic case and lesser components than the 5 did, it would probably knock $75 or so off the manufacturing cost.. gotta love that apple tax.

[vcfan]

Not sure, really can't see Steve Jobs ever releasing anything as ugly as the iphone 5c's, but then again they used to have those silly colorful computers and clamshells.

 

not saying the 5c was a steve jobs creation. what im wondering is, is there a strategy written in stone, such as "if we have to, lower cost of older models and re release as new products. low cost and margin is never an option".

[Growled Member]

Mid range pricing would be nice.  Doesn't have to be a dirt cheap phone.

 

I think they still sell their 4S for that.

[Dot Matrix]

Analysts are so stupid.

 

Exactly this. Why do we keep posting BGR links, again?

[AJerman]

We see that now, Tim. :laugh:

 

A lot of people wondered when all we had were leaked pics of a case if it was going to be a low cost iPhone, and that's understandable, but in reality it turned out to be even more of a rip off in a way. Instead of continuing to sell the previous year's iPhone for $100 less, they now took the previous year, used a few cheaper components for them, and sell it at the same price as they normally would. I'd MUCH rather have an iPhone 5 than an iPhone 5C due to it's construction. Now they are reserving that quality construction for the latest only. That's not to say the 5C is bad. I haven't even touched one yet, but it's still not the same quality and cheaper for them to build than the 5 would have been.

 

 

Exactly this. Why do we keep posting BGR links, again?

I stopped visiting BGR a long time ago because their quality dropped massively. Most of what they post now seems to be crap.