The high cost of Apple’s iPhone means that it struggles to compete in China, with rivals like Samsung offering a whole range of devices designed for different budgets. But a low-cost iPhone 5C could change that.
One analyst believes that as long as Apple prices it right, the device could help the Cupertino company become the number one smartphone vendor in China, crushing Samsung on the way.
The iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C are all but official at this point, but if you had any doubts that new iPhones are coming soon, The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has told its supplier Hon Hai to start shipping the new iPhones in September.
Apple’s suppliers have been mass producing parts for the new iPhone since June, but are ready to ship them out this Fall. According to the report, Apple will announce both a high-end and low-end iPhone at an event in September, but the WSJ says it’s not clear whether they will launch on the same day, or if Apple will opt to showcase one device.
Apple is expected to announce the new iPhones at a media event on September 10th, as well as new iPads and the final version of iOS 7.
Source: Wall Street Journal
Rumors of Apple releasing a gold-colored iPhone have been hard for some to swallow, but according to AllThingsD’s sources, Apple plans to introduce a gold iPhone at the September 10th keynote.
While many Apple fans are worried that a gold iPhone would look too gaudy and doesn’t match the Apple design aesthetic, John Paczkowski’s sources says the gold iPhone will have a white face with a gold black plate and chamfered edging.
Rather than using a bold ingot gold tone many have feared, the gold iPhone will be more of a champagne color. No word on whether the gold iPhone will be priced differently than other models (we doubt it), but we’ll just have to wait and see the final product on September 10th.
Source: ATD
This week on The CultCast: Jobs! We’ve seen it, and now the question is — is it any good? We’ll discuss the much-hyped movie (100 percent spoiler-free), Ashton Kutcher’s performance and love for the man, plus examine if the real Jobs fits the fictional portrayal.
Then, an all new Yay & Nay: September 10th edition. We’ll yes and no our way through the rumors and what we expect at the all-but-confirmed Apple iPhone event.
Have a few laughs whilst getting caught up on this week’s best Apple stories. Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below and let the audio adventure begin. Show notes up next!
At this point in the rumor cycle, it would be easier to list things we don’t know about the iPhone 5C. Apple’s lower-cost model will likely be announced alongside the 5S on September 10, and it will probably look a lot like the iPhone 5. The main difference is the plastic shell, which will reportedly come in several colors.
We’ve seen leaked parts for just about every 5C color already, and now some closeup images have surfaced of a blue shell.
What you see above comes from Tactus, a reliable parts leaker that was one of the first to go hands-on with 5C parts earlier this year. The company’s sources are saying Apple will offer the 5C in white, black, red, yellow, blue and green. The iPod touch currently sells in black, white, pink, yellow, blue and red.
Source: Tactus
It seems hard to believe that Apple would come out with a gaudy-looking iPhone, but according to the rumor mill, Apple is set to release the iPhone 5S in black, white and gold. We haven’t seen any convincing evidence of the gold iPhone yet, but if MacBoutic is to believed, these are the first leaked photographs of the golden iPhone 5S shells.
The Apple logo and the word “iPhone” have been deliberately blurred out, but it looks like the anodized coloring has been applied to all metallic parts — something that’s not possible in a post-production paint job, but doesn’t rule out the possibility of Photoshop.
Even though we can’t verify the authenticity of the photos, they’re the best evidence we’ve seen so far. We’ll have to wait until the iPhone event on September 10 to see how real it is.
Source: MacBoutic
Via: Engadget
China Mobile may be the world’s biggest carrier with over 740 million subscribers, but it is yet to tie up a deal with Apple for the iPhone. That could change this fall when the Cupertino company unveils the iPhone 5S and a low-cost “iPhone 5C” for emerging markets, which are expected to include support for China Mobile’s 4G LTE network.
According to China Mobile chairman Xi Guohua, the company is already in talks with Apple, and “both sides are keen” to reach a deal.
Until Apple’s Developer Center was taken down due to a security breach, the Cupertino company was steadily rolling out new iOS 7 betas every other Monday — and it appears that trend is set to continue now that everything’s back to normal.
Sources familiar with Apple’s plans say that we can expect iOS 7 beta 6 to arrive next week, ahead of a Gold Master release on Friday, September 5.
Although we expect the iPhone 5S to look a lot like the iPhone 5, there may be one model that won’t be confused with its predecessor — a white and gold one. It’s been the subject of countless rumors in recent months, and this photo, posted to Chinese social networking site Weibo, could prove it’s real.
The low-cost “iPhone 5C” hasn’t been announced yet, but it already feels like we’re pretty familiar with it — mostly because we’ve seen so many pictures of its plastic rear shell. But most of those — the high quality ones, at least — have included the white model.
A new hands-on video that has surfaced today shows off the yellow model in all its glory.
AAPL shares rose 5.6% in value today after word came out that billionaire investor Carl Icahn thinks the company is ‘extremely undervalued.’ The stock was trading above $493 a share after 3PM ET today — a nice $26 jump up from the stock’s closing price on Monday.
Icahn revealed on Twitter that he spoke briefly with Tim Cook today about the company’s future and that he’s decided to make a large position with Apple:
Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster might be a bit of a laughing stock when it comes to the so-called Apple HDTV, but he’s still one of the go-to soothsayers for investors looking for an early heads-up on what Apple might do next. In a new report, Munster is making a rather strange claim: he says that Apple’s low-budget iPhone 5C will ship without Siri.
Although it was hard to believe first, it’s looking increasingly likely that Apple’s forthcoming foray into the mid-range market, the iPhone 5C, will come in that cheap, colorful plastic casing we’ve seen leaking out of China time and time again over the past few weeks.
More proof for the pudding? We’ve seen the physical casing of the iPhone 5C before, but it never had any guts. Now, we’re starting to see other parts, and they match. Case in point? Volume buttons, in red, green, yellow and blue.
We’re less than a month away from seeing what the iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S will look like—fingerprint sensor and all—but some artists on Dribble have been dreaming of a new feature for the iPhone: an infinite screen.
Claudio Guglieri’s iPhone 6 Infinity mockup and template sparked a mess of awesome rebounds from other artists who added their own bits of flair to the idea of an iPhone with a display that wraps completely around the device.
Take a look at these other great mockups:
A rumored September 10 iPhone event has been given an all-important “yep” from The Loop’s Jim Dalrymple. It’s the closest we’ll get to an official confirmation before Apple sends out invites to the much-anticipated shindig, which will likely see the iPhone 5S and the plastic low-cost iPhone 5C get their official unveilings.
The rumor mill is starting to kick into full gear when it comes to Apple’s plans for the iPhone lineup in 2013. Over the weekend, it was reported that Apple would be holding an iPhone event on September 10th, and the company is widely expected to unveil not one, but two new models: the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C. The 5S will be the successor to the flagship iPhone 5 and sport upgraded specs, while the 5C will have a plastic back and come in multiple colors.
When it comes to the iPhone 5S, this year’s upgrade could be pretty predictable—A7 chip, better cameras, etc. But then there’s the bet that Apple will do something radically different with the hardware and add a fingerprint sensor. Now the 5S could feature a redesigned home button made of sapphire. And we can’t forget about the iPhone 5C…
Apple will hold its next iPhone event on Tuesday, September 10th, according to AllThingsD, a site that has a spotless track record when it comes to predicting these dates. Last year’s event for the iPhone 5 was held on Wednesday, September 12th.
Parts for Apple’s rumored low-cost iPhone, recently dubbed the ‘iPhone 5C’, have been trickling out of the supply chain overseas for the past few months. We’ve seen nearly all facets of the upcoming device, including a slew of bright colors Apple is considering for the plastic back.
China has been historically known as the homeland for cheap Apple knockoffs, and the unreleased iPhone 5C is no exception. Thanks to the wealth of leaked parts that are floating around, you can buy a hollow iPhone 5C right now for 98 Chinese Yuan.
By now we know exactly what the iPhone 5C is going to look like thanks to more component leaks than you probably care to look at. But the latest gallery is the only one you should care about, because these high-resolution pictures show off the iPhone 5C’s plastic rear panel better than ever before.
We’re getting to the stage in the Apple rumor mill when next-gen parts start leaking left and right out of the supply chain overseas. Multiple parts for the iPhone 5S, low-cost iPhone 5C, and upcoming iPads have already surfaced. Now alleged parts for the upcoming iPhone 5C and iPad 5 have been partially assembled and shown off on video.
While the authenticity of these kinds of leaks should always be questioned, today’s leaks are corroborated by previously reported parts for Apple’s unreleased products.
It’s not uncommon that we see accessories for new Apple devices before they’ve even been announced — we covered the first cases for the iPhone 5C earlier this week. But they usually come from no-name manufacturers in China who are scrambling to get their products out there before anyone else, even if it means building them from rumored specifications.
It is uncommon that we see premature releases from big brands, however. But Spigen SGP has already made its first iPhone 5C cases and screen protectors available to order on Amazon.
The fifth-generation iPad is expected to adopt a whole new form factor, much like that of the iPad mini’s, only bigger. And proof of that comes with this leaked rear panel that has surfaced in China. Although the new model will have the same 9.7-inch Retina display as the existing iPad, this panel proves it will be significantly thinner, and narrower, with thinner bezels down the sides of its display.
Scarcely a day goes by that Martin Hajek does not open up AutoCAD and feverishly model something he thinks Apple might be working on, and today, it’s the colorful box of Apple’s so-called “budget” iPhone, the equally so-called iPhone 5C.
Pretty snazzy, although I’m not sure I think much of the Lomo filter! These are renders, Martin, not 1970s-era porn movies.
Source: Flickr
With competition around the iPhone at an all-time high, Apple could use a huge boost in sales numbers, so Tim Cook made another visit to Beijing this week to recruit the world’s biggest mobile carrier, China Mobile, to bring the iPhone to its network.
China Mobile Chairman Xi Guohua was on hand Tuesday to meet with Cook, and according to the Chinese firm, the two discussed ‘matters of cooperation’ between the two companies, which means they were probably talking about how much money they’d both make if China Mobile sold the iPhone 5C.
Planning to get the new “iPhone 5C” when it goes on sale this fall? Well, you’ll want a good case to protect its smooth, plastic back from getting all scratched up, and Amazon already has you covered. Elago Design has begun taking pre-orders for its $24.99 slim fit case, which will ship on August 23.
