Stocks flew up in Apple’s favor when they announced a record amount of iPhone opening week sales, with nine million iPhone 5S and 5C units shipped in the first three days.
Apple did not disclose the split of how many iPhone 5S to iPhone 5C units were sold and we believe this may be due to the cheaper plastic iPhone not doing as well in stores, putting questions on Apple’s two iPhone strategy.
According to KGI Securities analyst Mingchi Kuo, Apple may have sold 11.4 million iPhone 5C units this quarter, quite a lot lower than the 17 million projected at the start. This means the iPhone 5S took the lion share of the 34 million iPhone sales this quarter.
There are a few reasons the iPhone 5S has sold 23 million and the iPhone 5C only sold 11, the major reason is the price, many expected the iPhone 5C to be significantly cheaper than the normal iPhone, but it was only $100 cheaper on contract and still a high-price off contract.
Other reasons could be the majority of iPhone buyers having enough disposable income to pay for the iPhone 5S and having no reason to grab the cheaper version. Apple’s biggest markets are the US and places with higher average wages, people able to get the newest phone.
It looks like the iPad Mini had a lot more success than the iPhone 5C. Apple could have replicated the idea with the smartphone, making a similar design with worse internals – this may have worked even better than the plastic iPhone 5C.
Either way, Apple is going to stick to this model for the rest of this year and next year we may see a larger iPhone 6, smaller four inch iPhone 6 Mini and the iPhone 6C.