The iPhone 5C is US$735 in China.
Yep, Apple knows us well. My next phone is to be bought off contract, which is why I wanted to see a decent $499 CAD iPhone 5C. It doesn't make a lot of sense to get the $599 5C CAD when the $699 CAD 5S is that much better. But it's actually not $699 CAD to my disappointment, because they jacked up the price again here, to $719 CAD. (The 5 was $699.) However, for such an advanced device, it's still only got 16 GB, so to go to 32 GB would be another $100, at $819.Well that's the thing. I would have liked for the 5C to be for me. I only buy phones off contract now. I don't want to spend $650 on an iPhone 5S. That's crazy. A $450 iPhone 5C would have been tempting.
And I buy phones for our employees. I can only go with the free on contract phones with our business plan. And it would have been sweet to be able to hand out iPhone 5C to the employees. But I gotta buy the lame 4S still (not even LTE).
It would have been really nice to see the 3G iPhone 4S retire and the 5C take it's spot at $0 on contract and the 5 drop to $100 on contract.
Where did the $735 number come from?
That's mostly a problem with the screwed up contract system. $650 and $700 phones are $200 on contract, yet a $400 phone is $100 on contract. WTF? I'm capable of basic math and this doesn't make sense to me. But that's another rant I guess.
And it's $600 in Canada.So it's clear the carriers get more profit through lower end phones
It's hard to talk both contract and non-contract pricing, so I'll stick to non-contract pricing because that's how the rest of the world talks. Flagship Androids are $600, but their midrange counterparts are $450. I tend to think the iPhone 5/5C is a bit better than most midrange Android phones. At $450 I think it's competitive, but at the same time it's Apple. They'd make people happy by pricing at $450, but with the Apple tax, I don't see why $500 wouldn't be unreasonable. $550 is crossing the line a bit though.
The iPhone 5 16 GB, AT&T carrier unlocked is $979.99 on sale at Newegg Canada (down from the original $999.99). Now that's truly stupid, considering the factory unlocked one in Canada was $699, and now after the price cut it's $599. I don't know what Newegg is smoking.
Actually even I (one of Apple's biggest critics) will admit that everything they did regarding imaging on the 5S is brilliant. The dual color flash is ingenious, slow-motion video is sweet (even if others did it first), the camera software has been much improved, and the image-quality is definitely top-notch.
TBH is there much hardware that's going to be user facing and innovative now?
I wouldn't doubt that the camera has gotten better, and I'd bet it's better than the One for most bright, normal lighting situations (just as the GS4m and LG G2 probably, beat it out in daylight) but nowhere near as good in low light.
I was responding to you saying that Android manufacturers aren't innovating. They definitely are, as much as Apple is at the very least. And if you compare the iPhone 5C to the HTC One or one of the other Android flagships, clearly you are getting more for your money with the Android phone. Take off the branding from the plastic body of the iPhone and the aluminum body of the HTC One.
Which would you think was made by Apple and worth $550 off contract?
Of course, once you turn on the devices you would see one is Android... and surprisingly, it's nearly as smooth as the one running iOS - as close as to make no difference - and with all the customization options that come along with it. The only area Apple is definitively ahead is app count, and that's mattering less and less each day.
I would disagree. Half the stuff from Android is either a gimmick or doesn't work right. I'm willing to bet the 5S will be comparable to or better than the HTC One in low light.
I used a friends HTC One and the only thing I was impressed with was the display.
?So? iPhones go
The Nexus 4 16 GB is $249 in Canada, which makes it actually a bit cheaper than in the US. There is no VAT built into the price. Any taxes are top of that, but it makes it easier to compare Canadian pricing against the US.Comparing phone prices across countries is difficult. The Nexus 4 sells for $249 in the US but its more in Euros and UK Pound. The phone easily goes for ~$500 in places where its not sold.
I see 5Cs for $800+ at Negri Electronics. It's typical for iPhones to run for more than their retail price at other stores. The cheapest way to get them besides the used market in the US or by stealing them IS the Apple Store.
I'm amazed it took this long for someone to bring this up. this has been my contention for the past year or so.
What is out there that can make a phone innovative right now? Most things are simply a minor upgrade, tweak or improvement. some things are nice like LTE-A, but we don't have it here, or 802.11ac, but how many people will upgrade to it. Will Apple lose any sales for not having it? Probably not much.
Someone will come out with that truly innovative feature but what is it?
I would disagree. Half the stuff from Android is either a gimmick or doesn't work right. I'm willing to bet the 5S will be comparable to or better than the HTC One in low light.
I used a friends HTC One and the only thing I was impressed with was the display.
when I first heard about the fingerprint scanner I was meh about it. But the more I thought about it and how it could be implemented the more excited I got. Plus you really have to start somewhere.
Apple still isn't really "innovative" by definition but they are definitely doing it better than it's been done and I think introducing at a good time for the market. Plus they have such a large market they can make it mainstream which only helps them.
I'm pretty excited for it. I can finally secure my phone without a stupid passcode lock. Plus if I can tie it to application security, purchases, password and the like I could now store the fingerprint on the phone and tie that to app logins. That to me would be a huge next step and save tons of time.
For me the next big innovation is one device for everything. Phone is my work computer, personal gaming system, tablet, console and can wirelessly interface with all of those devices. But like you said that's a hardware grind to that point. So I'm curious what's in between there?
... next step is wireless display links making the smartphone the only electronic you need other than screens (eliminating computers, consoles, etc.) This is achieved by slow and boring iteration of hardware spec.
Yeah, I'm disappointed (but not surprised) by the iPhone 5C pricing. I was hoping last years specs and a thicker plastic shell combined would allow Apple to sell this $200 cheaper.
Normally the iPhone 5, with it's thin premium aluminum build would drop to $100 thanks to the internals getting cheaper to produce after a year. With the 5C we get those same internals, some think they might even go with a cheaper display (with the same resolution) and toss this into a cheaper thicker plastic body. And charge the same price? Ugh, feels like a lose to me.
The iPhone 5C is built to help Apple do better in China (C doesn't mean cheap or color). And I bet the 5C is more than $100 cheaper than the 5S in China.
There is some gimmicky stuff from a few of the Android manufacturers, I would agree with you there, but none of the features I listed from HTC are gimmicky at all.
If you weren't impressed with HTC One, that's fine, but I'm betting a lot of people who got to use the iPhone 5C and the One would end up liking the One a whole lot more, provided they weren't a die-hard Apple or Android fan prior to that.
I'm open to all the mobile operating systems and devices, but I particularly like HTC's approach and the fact that you get a 1080p 468 PPI 4.7" screen, with 32GB storage, a built in universal remote, high quality front facing speakers, in an aluminum body, with a bonus $25 Play Store credit and a wireless HDMI media streamer, for the same price as a smaller plastic bodied phone with 16GB from Apple. I find that more impressive, but I guess to each his own.
Hardware wise you can do that now, it's just the mobile OSs are crappy on a big screen.
Bluetooth KB and mouse for input, cloud storage for docs, and there's a few wireless protocols for casting a display.
What I think will be cool is when we start leveraging the power of cloud computing on mobile devices. You could have a low power device that would have great battery life but off loads all its computing to a bunch of data servers. Supercomputer in your pocket!
1. EU prices include all the taxes, when you take that in to account the difference is less noticableComparing phone prices across countries is difficult. The Nexus 4 sells for $249 in the US but its more in Euros and UK Pound. The phone easily goes for ~$500 in places where its not sold.
when I first heard about the fingerprint scanner I was meh about it. But the more I thought about it and how it could be implemented the more excited I got. Plus you really have to start somewhere.
Apple still isn't really "innovative" by definition but they are definitely doing it better than it's been done and I think introducing at a good time for the market. Plus they have such a large market they can make it mainstream which only helps them.
I'm pretty excited for it. I can finally secure my phone without a stupid passcode lock. Plus if I can tie it to application security, purchases, password and the like I could now store the fingerprint on the phone and tie that to app logins. That to me would be a huge next step and save tons of time.
For me the next big innovation is one device for everything. Phone is my work computer, personal gaming system, tablet, console and can wirelessly interface with all of those devices. But like you said that's a hardware grind to that point. So I'm curious what's in between there?