Shubhankar Rustagi's blog

As of the 20th of September Apple Inc. has released as new phone to its very successful iPhone line, the IPhone 5c will be a phone that is priced between the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5s thus increasing their consumer base as now they are targeting the market which could afford a iPhone 5 but not a iPhone 5s and wanted something in between.

The unlocked iPhone 5c is listed on the apple store for between $599 to $719. But we see that this price has not been met by the same high quality feel as did the iphone 5. Upon research we can see that apple has been able to save $42 on the new plastic back that it has used in the iphone 5c unlike the metal back it used previously.  The iPhone also doesn’t have the fingerprint sensor that the iPhone 5s has and thus saves a further $7. Apple has outsourced its parts from its competitors like its “retina display” has been made with help from Samsung and its Camera sensor from Sony.

From this we see that even though Apple has saved money on the iPhone 5c  it has used it’s brand image and its dedicated fan following to be able to sell this product even though it does not have some features that other phones in its price range like the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the HTC ONE have. I believe that this practice is slightly unethical as it is not using ground breaking innovation to sell its product rather its name and fame.

Shubhankar Rustagi
10/01/2013 10:43 pm

Works cited,
Rooney, Ben. “UBS: iPhone 5C Plastic Saves Apple $42.” 30 September 2013. The Wall Street Journal. 1 October 2013                                      <http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/09/30/how-much-does-it-cost-to-make-an-iphone/>.