Sales Gap Between iPhone 5s and 5c Narrowing Over Time
Following the initial launch weekend for the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c last month, analytics firm Localytics reported that it was seeing about 3.5 times as many iPhone 5s units showing up as iPhone 5c units, highlighting a strong preference for the higher-priced models by early adopters. At the time, we noted that the gap was likely to narrow over time and a report last week from a separate research firm indicated that the margin had indeed fallen to two-to-one.
Localytics has now published a new report that provides a more complete look at the data over the past month, revealing how the iPhone 5c has been steadily gaining traction both in the U.S. and abroad, with the iPhone 5s-to-iPhone 5c ratio falling to 1.9 in the U.S. and 2.3 globally. Localytics' numbers are cumulative since launch, indicating that the current sales ratios are even closer.
The iPhone 5s remains in very short supply, with carriers such as Verizon indicating that they could have sold even more units of the device had supplies been readily available. The iPhone 5c, in contrast, has seen good supplies throughout Apple's distribution channels, allowing the company to meet demand. As a result, the ratios at which the devices are being seen are not exactly reflective of true demand, but it seems clear that demand is evening out a bit following the initial surge from early adopters focused on the iPhone 5s. As more mainstream customers look to upgrade when their current contracts run out, demand for the two lines may end up being in significantly closer balance.
Popular Stories
Apple is set to unveil iOS 18 during its WWDC keynote on June 10, so the software update is a little over six weeks away from being announced. Below, we recap rumored features and changes planned for the iPhone with iOS 18. iOS 18 will reportedly be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history, with new ChatGPT-inspired generative AI features, a more customizable Home Screen, and much more....
Apple today released several open source large language models (LLMs) that are designed to run on-device rather than through cloud servers. Called OpenELM (Open-source Efficient Language Models), the LLMs are available on the Hugging Face Hub, a community for sharing AI code. As outlined in a white paper [PDF], there are eight total OpenELM models, four of which were pre-trained using the...
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of "Let Loose" and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
There are widespread reports of Apple users being locked out of their Apple ID overnight for no apparent reason, requiring a password reset before they can log in again. Users say the sudden inexplicable Apple ID sign-out is occurring across multiple devices. When they attempt to sign in again they are locked out of their account and asked to reset their password in order to regain access. ...
Best Buy is discounting a collection of M3 MacBook Pro computers today, this time focusing on the 14-inch version of the laptop. Every deal in this sale requires you to have a My Best Buy Plus or Total membership, although non-members can still get solid second-best prices on these MacBook Pro models. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Best Buy. When you click a link and make a...
Apple used to regularly increase the base memory of its Macs up until 2011, the same year Tim Cook was appointed CEO, charts posted on Mastodon by David Schaub show. Earlier this year, Schaub generated two charts: One showing the base memory capacities of Apple's all-in-one Macs from 1984 onwards, and a second depicting Apple's consumer laptop base RAM from 1999 onwards. Both charts were...
Top Rated Comments
People who have described the 5C as a flop are wrong.
Wildly. Wrong.
I guess you missed all the Apple is doomed spin last week because the 5C production was apparently cut.
Also, the fact that the phones are available in more locations has no bearing on the sales gap closing. If you're implying that emerging markets are impacting it, notice how the gap is wider outside the US.
Once people realize this it'll be good. Bad things is they will now spin it a different way. Why? Because for some reason the Apple. "Fans" don't think a plastic phone can have quality. Well I'm sorry, but the 5c is a quality device. Just as the iPhone 5 is a quality device. I understand that some people prefer aluminum over plastic. So be it... There's just no sense in hating on a product. It's your opinion
My opinion is that I do NOT like the design of the 5/5s. I had a launch day 5 and returned it to stay on my 4s. The only reason I'm not on the 4s now was because of LTE. That said the sales gap between the 5 s and 5c will only get more narrow now. Early adopters have mostly gotten there...
Here's an instance. At my local Best Buy:
Customer: do you have the 5s in Gold ?
Employee: no, we have it in gray or silver.
Customer: I don't want those colors.
Employee: we do have most colors of the 5c.
Customer: isn't it plastic?
Employee: oh, I don't think you can consider this normal plastic.
Guess what happened ? They walked out with a white and pink 5c. Was it because it was pushed on them? Maybe, but it sold.
The 5s is in stock in my city everywhere just not Gold.