atheistic press: Apple again reportedly cutting orders for iPhone 5c, wild speculation ensues

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Apple again reportedly cutting orders for iPhone 5c, wild speculation ensues

Another day, another report that production of the iPhone 5c is being cut. This time out it's the Wall Street Journal that suggests that Apple has cut orders for the iPhone 5c for the 4th quarter with Pegatron and Hon Hai, the two companies that assembles them:

Apple Inc. has notified its two assemblers for the low-cost iPhone 5C that it is reducing orders of the smartphone for the fourth quarter, people familiar with the situation said, raising concerns about weaker-than-expected demand and its pricing strategy for the device.

There's no doubt that at launch, all the buzz was around the iPhone 5s. The highest end offering, the one folks queued up overnight to get, and the one that ultimately sold out pretty rapidly. The iPhone 5c wasn't that phone, and it's never supposed to be that phone. The iPhone 5c is the long game for Apple, and first month sales were never going to match that of the iPhone 5s. It just wasn't going to happen.

Cutting orders doesn't necessarily mean it isn't selling. It could quite easily also mean that Apple just made far too many of them to begin with. After all, it's the first iPhone available in 6 different colors, so there's bound to be a healthy level of inventory around. As for the pricing strategy; Apple doesn't sell 'cheap' devices. It's been said before, and it'll be said again. The iPhone 5c is priced at around the same mark the iPhone 5 would have been had it not been retired, and plastic doesn't always mean cheap. Anyone who's held an iPhone 5c would say the same.

On the flip side, iPhone 5s orders are said to have been increased. That's a good thing, a very good thing. There were a lot of disappointed folks on launch day, especially folks who wanted a gold one, and there are still many, many people waiting on their iPhone 5s. We'd be more concerned at this point if Apple hadn't requested an increase.

So, what do you make of all this? Typical 'Apple is doomed' mentality kicking in, or do you think there might be something to it? Earnings call day isn't far out, and while Apple doesn't usually talk specific sales by model, maybe there'll be something to put all the skepticism to bed?

Source: Wall Street Journal