iPhone 5C Is a Smart Apple Move: 10 Reasons Why

By Don Reisinger

If all the reports are true, the iPhone 5C is being modeled after the iPhone 5. For Apple, that’s a good thing. The iPhone 5 is already a popular product, making the iPhone 5C immediately appealing to customers looking to get their hands on a new handset. Apple isn’t trying to do too much with the iPhone 5C, but it wants to refresh sales with an intermediate model a notch below the flagship iPhone 5S.

Although the excitement surrounding the flagship smartphones is always palpable, not everyone is so quick to buy the latest and greatest products. In fact, there are quite a few people out there who like the idea of buying a lower-end model to save some cash. The iPhone 5C appeals to those budget-conscious folks.

Apple needs a new revenue stream in the smartphone market. Granted, the company has been offering multiple iPhones for years, but they’ve done little to build excitement. The iPhone 5C should be able to deliver strong margins while exciting certain customers. It’s a win-win.

It might sound trivial, but history has shown that multiple color options really matter to customers. In fact, the more colors Apple, Samsung, and other companies offer, the more customers like it. Smartphone purchases today are as much about personalization as they are about features. And additional color options, which should be available with the iPhone 5C, cater to those who want that enhanced personalization.

According to reports, the iPhone 5C will be little more than an iPhone 5 replica, save for some design enhancements and the additional colors. That’s a good thing for Apple. It means that the company’s manufacturers won’t have any trouble producing the product and that its costs will be kept down. Best of all, more manageable costs usually mean more profit.

Sure, Apple could have decided to stick with its old strategy of reducing the price on previous products, but it loses excitement around its devices when it does that. By launching a new smartphone in the iPhone 5C, Apple can build up the hype and excitement that’s been lacking when it announces plans to reduce the price on last year’s models.

Apple really isn’t competing all that effectively with lower-end vendors. It has consistently offered products for the higher end of the market. The company’s older products might have similar specs as lower-end products, but they were once flagship devices. Apple has never actually introduced smartphones with the budget-conscious customer in mind. The iPhone 5C could allow for that, and thus, appeal more to customers.

Although the iPhone 5C is being called a “low-end” product by market handicappers, a recent analyst report from KGI Securities says that the product will actually deliver midrange capabilities, but come in at a low-end price. That means that the iPhone 5C will offer solid value. And in the smartphone market, solid value typically means strong sales.

The iPad Mini is perhaps the best template for what the iPhone 5C could become for Apple. The device was designed to appeal to budget-conscious and mobile shoppers, and has done so with ease. Meanwhile, Apple’s iPad sales have skyrocketed. There were even recent rumors Apple was preparing to introduce an “iPhone Mini” If the iPad Mini is such a success, there’s no reason to suggest the iPhone 5C wouldn’t follow suit.

Apple might still be selling the iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and iPhone 5, but the company truly needs more handsets to sell to customers. Those products, save for the iPhone 5, are known quantities and look elderly compared with current models on the market. With the iPhone 5C, Apple can deliver another worthwhile option while keeping its older products on store shelves. As recent history has shown, Apple likes its products to have staying power in the market.