» Redefining “flop”
Daniel Eran Dilger points out that despite what everyone said, the iPhone 5c has done pretty well:
Speaking to analysts during Apple’s Q2 earnings conference call, chief executive Tim Cook stated that 69 percent of iPhone 5c buyers were new to iPhone, while 60 percent had switched from an Android phone. For the cheaper iPhone 4S, the ratios were even higher (although the sales volumes were much smaller): 85 percent were new to iPhone, while 62 percent switched from Android.
“Flop” was some sort of crypto-pundit code for “didn’t sell as many units as the iPhone 5s or as many as Apple expected.” Yet, it sold better than the iPhone 4S at the same price point from the previous year, which none of them seemed to understand.
There were rumors late last year that Apple would discontinue the iPhone 5c in the next update cycle. I really doubt that will happen. Would they bring back the iPhone 5 as the low end product? The 5c is doing better than people said and I think the having the plastic model at the low end makes even more sense, so I don’t see it being discontinued.