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iPhone 5C to cost US$200 more in China
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Apple’s new plastic-backed iPhone 5C will sell for 4,488 yuan (US$730) in China, almost US$200 more than the US retail price of US$549 and only 800 yuan less than its top-of-the-line sibling, the 5S.
The pricing of what was expected to be a cheap model aimed at growth markets such as China and India has not only stumped investors, but also Apple’s fans in China, a country of 1.4 billion people and the world’s largest smartphone market, according to Reuters.
“My original estimate of the 5C price was around 3,000 yuan. But more than 4,000, I think for a budget version the price may be a little expensive. I don’t think I can buy one,” said Liu Donghai, a 25-year-old chemical engineer.
Apple unveiled the new handsets at its headquarters in Cupertino, California, on Tuesday.
For the first time, it also held a launch event in Beijing just hours later, a move seen as underscoring the importance of the Chinese market.
But the 5C’s reception in China, where fans have been known to queue for days for new products, was lukewarm at best.
The new iPhones have already been the subject of some criticism with prospective purchasers citing their small screens, lack of innovation and, especially, the relatively high price of the cheaper 5C.
Many web users took to their microblogs to complain that the “cheap” iPhone is not cheap but a “cheat.”
“The iPhone 5C is so expensive. Originally I absolutely planned to buy it, now the price makes me uncomfortable. Isn’t it just an iPhone 5 with a plastic back?” said one Sina Weibo user.
Apple’s share of the China smartphone market slipped to 5 percent in the second quarter, according to research firm Canalys, trailing not just Samsung but also the likes of Lenovo Group Ltd, ZTE Corp, Huawei Technologies and Xiaomi Technology.
“Even though Apple has a lower end iPhone now, its price is still considered mid-end in China and not low-end,” Sandy Shen, a Shanghai-based analyst for Gartner, told Reuters.
Around half of China’s smartphone shipments are in the 700-1,500 yuan range, said Shen, but competing on those prices isn’t an attractive prospect for Apple.
“Considering Apple’s old rival Samsung and domestic players such as Huawei, Lenovo and Coolpad all have phones in that category, Apple will still lose out in market share in these key segments,” she said.
The iPhone 5S and 5C are being released in versions for the networks of China Unicom and China Telecom networks, Apple said yesterday. Both China Unicom and China Telecom confirmed they would kick off the new iPhones with packages from next Friday but there were, as yet, no details of how much they would cost.
The early launch of Apple’s latest smartphones on China’s mainland is expected to stifle a thriving grey market worth billions of dollars a year built around smuggling from Hong Kong, where in the past the US tech giant’s gadgets have gone on sale months before they reach official channels on the mainland, according to Reutres.
The new iPhones support China’s 4G technology but Apple has yet to announce a deal with China Mobile, a deal expected to change the nation’s smartphone landscape because of the carrier’s 745-million customer base. But both will have to wait for the government to issue 4G licenses by the end of this year, according to industry insiders.
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