iPhone 5: Dilemma in Choosing which Phone to Buy

Last year, Apple announced their new product, the iPhone 5. For this product, Apple released two versions of the phone to market two target groups: iPhone 5C which has a plastic, coloured case for those who are cost-conscious, and the iPhone 5S which has a higher quality metal case, and is for those who want a more luxurious version of the iPhone 5C, but for twice the cost.

With Android phones making more than 70 percent of the over-seas market, Apple uses a combination of cost leadership strategy (producing quality iPhones for a low cost) and differentiation strategy (both iPhones have cutting edge techonology)  to close the gap between them and their competitors (Samsung, Motorola, etc.), and to increase the amount of costumers. Using this strategy, Apple has a competitive advantage against Android phones, and is selling more iPhones than the initial forecast while Android phones, such as the Samsung Galaxy 4, isn’t getting the same amount of demand. This strategy was a huge leap for Apple who had to balance between growth through a gain in interest in iPhone 5C, and profitability through the higher quality iPhone 5S. Fortunately Apple’s end result is favorable. A question that I left with after reading the article is: Will this marketing strategy be in the next product that Apple produces? Or is this strategy going to be temporary?

Image: http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/iphone5-intro.jpg