NPD DisplaySearch, a research company that tracks smartphone, tablet and PC maker’s orders, on Friday announced a poor response for the Apple’s iPhone 5C priced at $549 in China which was launched more than a month ago with the company’s flagship iPhone 5S.
According to the research firm, Apple’s iPhone 5C launch was mistimed and was priced too high. The launch missed out aggressive subsidies offered by Chinese mobile carriers during the “Golden Week,” a multi-day national holiday that began Oct. 1, the anniversary of the 1949 founding of the Communist People’s Republic of China.
Prior to the iPhone 5C September launch, the carrier had already decided on how much to offer consumers in new phone subsidies because of which iPhone 5C couldn’t be accommodated for reduced pricing during the ‘GoldenWeek’.
Tina Teng and Shawn Lee, two senior analysts with DisplaySearch wrote in a blog post:
“If Chinese carriers allocated a higher subsidy to new iPhone 5c subscribers, they would have less to subsidize other brands’ devices. Perhaps Apple miscalculated the launch timing, considering they were aiming at the China market”,
The two analysts also confirmed through their own sources that Apple had indeed reduced iPhone 5C orders with Pegatron and Foxconn. “Our latest channel checks confirm that Apple indeed has cut back 5C production by 35% and increased 5S production by 75%.”
Rumors about Apple’s iPhone 5c being “cheap” spread like fire as early as Q3 2012. By a cheap and low cost iPhone analysts expected the handset to be launched for as low as $350 unsubsidized. But the fact that Apple’s Iphone 5C is not cheap and has been priced at $549 disappointed analysts as well as consumers. That price wasn’t what Chinese mobile carriers had expected to be.
