Apple unveiled a pair of new smartphones this week – the flagship iPhone 5S and a new lower-cost iPhone 5C that features a plastic shell. The announcement from the Cupertino, California technology firm wasn’t a big surprise, as the basic details of the new offerings had been widely known for months.
The iPhone 5S comes in three colors – silver, gold and “space grey” – and features an updated A7 processor (rumored to be twice as fast as the A6 which runs the iPhone 5), a new camera and a longer-lasting battery. The new phone will also feature a fingerprint “Touch ID.”
With a contract, the new iPhone sells for $199 (16 GB), $299 (32 GB) and $399 (64 GB).
Apple vice president Phil Schiller called the iPhone 5S “the most forward-looking phone we have ever created.”
The iPhone 5C comes in five colors – blue, green, pink, white and yellow. It costs $99 (16GB) and $199 (32GB) with a contract and is said to match the capabilities of the iPhone 5, which was released last year.
Both new phones will go on sale September 20, although Apple will begin accepting pre-orders for the 5C on September 13.
In addition to its new gadgets, Apple announced upgrades to its mobile operating system iOS 7 – which customers can download beginning on September 18. In addition to the new phones, iOS 7 is compatible with iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S models.
Apple has sold more than 250 million iPhones since the first generation of the device was launched in June 2007. The iPhone 5 sold more than 5 million units the first weekend it was available.
5 comments
Still one button, no major improvements. Pass.
Have fun waiting in line for hours to pay hundreds of dollars for a small hardware upgrade.
I HATE these freaking things.Gimme a goddamn phone booth,and I’ll be happy.
http://rawforbeauty.com/blog/heres-your-zombie-apocalypse.html
If Apple has mastered anything it is building up the hype prior to the release of their mildly useful devices. Seriously, android system phones amount to 53% of the world market, Apple comes in a distant second at 26% (Crackberry’ s are a far more distant third at about 16% and falling – you don’t even want to know where microsquish comes in).
Their stuff is vastly overpriced based on utility and while their stuff generally works and works well, their customer service is only “fair to middlin”. When the effete, Starbucks generation finally gets a clue that Mac Books may be cool but my cheap ass HP does exactly the same stuff for about half the price, Apple will slide back into obscurity – in the mean time $494 a share baby!
New iPhones, same 4-inch display
The trouble with being a mega-company like Apple is that the bar is eventually too high. It certainly seemed that way when Apple unveiled the iPhone 5, a modest upgrade to the iPhone 4S, though at least it introduced a much needed bump in screen size. Yesterday, however, rumors of an even larger size iPhone were debunked when Apple trotted out a pair of new iPhone models still featuring a 4-inch display. A day later, the company’s stock is taking a beating.
In case you missed it, Apple on Tuesday introduced theiPhone 5S and 5C. The 5S model is an upgraded device with a 64-bit A7 processor (the first smartphone ever to have a 64-bit CPU), better optics, a fingerprint reader embedded into the Home button, and some new color options like gold.
The iPhone 5C takes the place of the iPhone 5 with a starting price of $99, but it’s made of colorful polycarbonate plastic with a steel reinforced frame that doubles as an antenna. It’s available in a variety of colors like the iPod touch.
Apple may have made two mistakes here, one for each device. First, it seems the public wants a bigger display, and if Apple needs proof of that, it need only look at Samsung and how well it’s Galaxy line sells. The 5S didn’t deliver, and while the 64-bit CPU is cool, only tech savvy users are likely to be geeked about that.
Secondly, the iPhone 5C is priced too high. Apple is choosing to make money straight away from iPhone 5C sales rather than aggressively go after market share that it lost to Android. Imagine if Apple priced the iPhone 5C at $50 or even free on a two-year contract. That probably would have swayed potential Android buyers into jumping ship, the hardcore anti-iOS crowd notwithstanding.
As a result of those mistakes, or perhaps because the expectation is so high these days, Apple’s share price is down around $28 today, or about 6 percent. The company is still worth hundreds of billions of dollars, but if you’re an investor, this is not what you wanted to wake up to in the morning.
What do you think about Apple’s new iPhone models? Do you agree that they’re overall underwhelming, or are the expectations too high?
Apple – over priced and underperforming.
My personal phone is a Casio Commando – a slightly old school android (a bullet proof one at that, doesn’t need an otterbox, the phone is completely waterproof – I’ve taken pictures underwater in the pool with it).
My “work phone” is a crackberry – aging technology with the one redeeming facotr being ultra long battery life, (I have a “Bold”, 2-3 years old, haven’t used an X but have played with one – aging tech still applies).
My oldest son has one of the new large Galaxys, middle son has a IPhone 5.
Hands down, the Galaxy is the best of the lot as a “smart phone”. The large screen is the easiest for my aging eyes.
For hippness, the IPhone is cool, it does have a better “music player interface” but it is fragile by comparison.
Crackberrys have had their day and won’t be around in 3-4 years except in applications where a controlled network is required.
All that said, I’ll keep my Commando – I’ve put it through hell and it just keeps running.