The South China Morning Post is reporting that the iPhone 5c, created by Apple to target growth markets like China, has hit only a 2 percent share of all iOS devices after four months, in contrast to the iPhone 5s with a 12 percent share and the original iPhone 5 with around 15 percent …
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Image: tested.com
One of the big question marks around the iPhone 5C – the rumored name for the mid-market plastic iPhone – is how Apple will prevent the lower-cost phone cannibalizing sales of the iPhone 5 and 5S.
One possibility is to limit sales of the 5C to emerging markets. Apple could make it available in India and China, where price is a much bigger barrier to iPhone acquisition, and withhold it from North America and Europe. That would make a great deal of sense, but is extremely unlikely and an approach Apple has ever taken before.
Analyst Gene Munster has another theory, though one just as unlikely: that the 5C will omit a key feature of present-generation iPhones: Siri.
Additionally, we believe that Apple may exclude some software features, such as Siri, which we note was not an option on the iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4 upon launch …
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Photo: vr-zone.net
Apple supplier Pegatron is forecasting up to a 50 percent growth in its Q3 revenues despite its PC business continuing to decline, with the bulk of this growth likely to come from the iPhone, reports Reuters. Pegatron made the announcement after failing to hit analyst expectations in Q2.
“We expect revenue in the non-computing segment to grow by 40 to 50 percent in Q3 due to new consumer products. Q4 will also be higher,” said company CEO and President Jason Cheng in an investor conference.
Pegatron has been pretty much confirmed as making the iPhone 5C – the plastic iPhone – with some Digitimes-based rumors suggesting it may also be a secondary supplier for the 5S, whose production is being led by Foxconn. Both handsets are expected to be announced by Apple on 10th September …
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The report on working conditions at Chinese iPhone manufacturer Pegatron appears to confirm that the low-cost iPhone does indeed exist, is plastic and is not yet in mass production.
The introduction to the report (PDF), which provides a background to Pegatron, contains this statement:
Its assembled products include iPhone 4, iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, and low-priced plastic iPhones
A day-in-the-life report on page 27 of the report states:
Today’s work is to paste protective film on the iPhone’s plastic back cover to prevent it from being scratched on assembly lines …
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Michael Kukielka, otherwise known as the DetroitBorg, posted the excellent video above showcasing one of the plastic iPhone shells that has been leaking all over the web like crazy. Besides the focus on the thinner ‘iPhone’ font on the back, we’re not seeing too much in the way of new stuff here, but it is nice to see the comparison, especially with the iPod touch and the plastic iPhone 3GS (which was alluded to many months ago).
Check out our gallery of 10 different color options for the plastic iPhone here.
I have a feeling that these things, especially at a reduced price, are going to be very popular with the mid-tier set. Thanks Niels!
(Update: A similar video from TechExamined below)
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Choosing a phone is pretty simple if you’re the kind of person who wants the latest & greatest handset and has the budget to pay for it. Even if you’re not sure what platform you want, you’re essentially choosing between a handful of flagship products and are currently likely to walk away with an iPhone 5, Samsung S4 or HTC One.
There isn’t too much head-scratching at the bottom end of the market either: buyers there don’t care about the handset, and take whatever freebie their carrier pushes at them.
But the mid-market is where life gets complicated. You care enough about your handset to want something decent, both in specs and design, but you don’t want to take out a mortgage to buy it. It’s this market that is going to get incredibly colorful this fall … 
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All of these could be knockoffs of course as we’ve said countless times since news of the plastic iPhone is months old and Chinese companies are already confirmed to be building Android knockoffs. BenjaminTech via Gene
There has been no end to the low-cost, plastic iPhone rumors in recent months, and in return, no shortage of mock ups and renders showing what the device could potentially look like. We’ve seen a few images that allegedly show the backplate of the yet to be released low-cost iPhone, and we even had our own mock ups of the device in a selection of colors. The latest take on the device comes to us from Martin Hajek (via Gizmodo), who we know from many other projects in the past including another low cost iPhone concept. The design doesn’t stray too far from what we’ve seen and heard in the past, but the color choices seem to be influenced by Apple’s recently announced iOS 7 update. Head below for more images:
In addition to these new concept photos, some new high-resolution photos of the back shells for the purported cheaper iPhone have leaked. We can’t vouch for their authenticity, but they do seem to be higher-res photos of the previously posted shells (via @sonnydickson):
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Personally, I like these better. In fact, since we released our mockups 4 months ago, it has created a lot of time for knockoff makers to manufacture their own, in no way guaranteeing these or any of the others below are from Apple. via @sonnydickson
Click for higher quality images
We’ve been looking at plastic renderings of the highly anticipated plastic “budget” iPhone for almost 6 months now. Analysts, leakers, and reports from all over have pinpointed a plastic shell in a variety of colors. We even commissioned a ten-color rendering way back in April (above). Now Techdy shows us what it would look like if one of those shells was put on a screen and given a high quality video/image treatment.
As can be seen from the images above, all the rumors about the low-cost plastic iPhone seem to be true. The budget iPhone will be made substantially from plastic (we can feel it’s actually polycarbonate material). It will have a 4” screen, like the iPhone 5, and interestingly, the budget iPhone actually has a shape that’s similar to Apple’s original iPod. When we hold the budget iPhone in our hands, the plastic chassis does not feel cheap at all. Unlike the plastic build quality of the Samsung Galaxy phones, the plastic material used on the budget iPhone feels more sturdy.
And guess what, we were able to fit the display assembly into the new budget iPhone’s rear shell. The display assembly just seemed to fit perfectly inside of the rear shell.
Another video courtesy of @MTPFlyers:
And a third video from @DetroitBORG:
Thanks Cyril! More high quality images below:
French site Nowhereelse has posted what it claims are more leaked photos from China of casings for the long-rumored plastic iPhone.
We’re not entirely convinced these are the real deal and not just clones made based off of plastic iPhone rumors stretching back months. While the colors are broadly consistent with those of the iPod touch/nano, and we’d expect to see differences between metal and plastic, those colors look rather garish even allowing for the poor lighting. Comparison after the break …
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This morning, a pair photos claiming to depict the backplate for Apple’s rumored upcoming low-cost iPhone have appeared on the WeiPhone forums. The backplate, which is unverified to be legitimate, appears to be made of a plastic material and is shown in a green color. The overall design of the purported part lines up with past reports suggesting that Apple is developing a low-cost iPhone with a plastic-like-casing in a number of colors.
NowhereElse found two more including red, yellow and green variants.
Credit: Ferry Passchier
While the markets may worry about the effect of cheaper products on Apple’s still-enviable margins, those concerns may be misplaced in the case of a low-cost iPhone, reports Fortune.
Not to fear, writes Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty in a note to clients Monday. According to her calculations, a lower-priced iPhone should — paradoxically — raise those margins.
The way she sees it, if Apple lowers the cost of owning an iPhone, more people will buy them. And because the profit margins on even a lower-cost iPhone are so much higher than the margins on Apple’s other products, the net effect will be to lift the company’s gross margin …
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JP Morgan has put together an interesting case for Apple launching its new plastic iPhone as a mid-market device rather than a low-cost one, suggesting that Apple may price the phone at around $350-400.
The case, which AllThingsD describe as “pretty compelling,” is based on Apple’s approach with both iPod Nano and iPad Mini …
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A1427 (left) vs. A1469 (right) image via AnandTech
While initial speculation was that Apple’s quietly refreshed Apple TV would include an A5X processor, recent tear downs of the device have revealed Apple is actually including new silicon with a single core 32NM ARM Cortex A9 CPU and overall die size reduction of 50 percent. However, new information today revealed even more tweaked components in the new Apple TV that could account for significant power savings, reduced cost, and possibly new low-cost iOS devices from Apple.
Chipworks previously performed its usual analysis finding the new A5 chip measures 6.1-by-6.2 mm, compared to the larger 69mm2 previous generation A5, and features several redesigned components. While Apple reassured us the slightly upgraded Apple TV is identical in appearance and user experience for consumers, its tweaked components could have some major implications for future Apple TV products and possibly even other iOS devices.
Apple included a dual-core chip with 1-core disabled in the Apple TV, and Chipworks speculated the move to the redesigned, single-core silicon could signal Apple has plans for an additional single-core device in the future. This has not surprisingly lead to speculation that the device could be Apple’s much-rumored, low-cost iPhone.
With new evidence today of even further power and cost reduction changes in the Apple TV, it’s also possible Apple could lower the price on the device and/or enable further discounts through retailers (you can now find it as low as $85)…
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Samsung officially unveiled its flagship Galaxy S4 smartphone last night at a theatrical, Broadway-style presentation in New York, and analysts are quick to jump in today with opinions on what it means for Apple. AAPL is having a decent morning hitting a high of 442.50 and opinions from analysts seem to be split down the middle regarding whether the S4 has what it takes to cut into Apple’s market share.
Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray doesn’t seem too impressed with the S4 upgrade but noted Samsung’s new S Band is “a quick first pass for Samsung on wearable technology ahead of Apple’s watch. Munster added that he expects Apple to launch its smart watch product by 2014 (via Barron’s):
The Galaxy S4 appears to be largely an incremental update to the S3 including a slightly larger screen (4% larger on diagonal), better camera and processor, and updated software, but largely the same body style and casing. We believe some of the software features are unique, including the tilt to scroll, video pausing based on facial recognition, and hand gesture based interactions, but view these software improvements as minor compared with what Siri was to the iPhone 4S or even Google Now to Android.
Jefferies analyst Peter Misek thought the S4 will be “incrementally negative for Apple” but doesn’t view the S4 upgrade as “revolutionary” (via Zdnet):
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