| | | 9:23 pm
Sep 10, 2013
Apple
iPhone 5C Might Not Be Cheap Enough in China
blogs.wsj.com
It has come to pass. The world now has an “affordable” iPhone.
The five colors of the new iPhone 5C are seen on screen at Apple Inc’s media event in Cupertino, California Sept. 10. Reuters
While detractors of Apple Inc.’s new iPhone 5c, unveiled in Cupertino, Calif. Tuesday have said the “c” stands for cheap, fans in the world’s largest smartphone market are saying it stands for something else: China.
In part that’s because more so than in any other market, Apple stands to gain sales in China from the cheaper offering thanks to the country’s huge number of low- and middle-income smartphone users. But it’s also because in China the new iPhone quite frankly won’t be all that cheap.
The unsubsidized 16GB iPhone 5c is being offered at 4,488 yuan ($733) in China, barely less than the 5,000 yuan Chinese consumers had to fork out for the iPhone 5 and significantly higher than the 3,000 yuan analysts had predicted as a likely price for the new phone. Carriers have yet to announce subsidized packages for the phone though even a subsidized device could still fail to reach the majority of China’s urban consumers, according to a projection from The Wall Street Journal based on income distribution data from research firm CEIC Data.
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