Apple recently dropped the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5c. They moved the iPhone 4s to a free phone and completely discontinued the iPhone 5. Is discontinuing the iPhone 5 a good idea or a bad idea? For marketing probably; however, the consumer may not be too happy about it.
For marketing purposes this idea is smart. The iPhone 5c, priced at about $100 for a 16 GB, replaces the iPhone 5 which was priced about the same. The iPhone 5s is priced at about $200 for 16 GB. Apple most likely realized that they could not move the iPhone 5 down to a free phone because it would decrease sales for the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c. All of the 5’s run on the same software and virtually the same internal drive so for consumers the obvious upgrade choice would be the free iPhone 5. To prevent this problem Apple instead discontinued the 5, made the 4s free, and created the 5c and the 5s.
For the consumer this sounds like a terrible idea. The iPhone 5c and the iPhone 5s are both priced above $100 which for some may be a bit overpriced. The only other option they have is to shift to the iPhone 4s for free. However, the problem with the iPhone 4s is that it only holds 8 GB of storage. Out of the 8 GB, 3 GB are already taken over by messaging; therefore, the consumer is left with only 3 GB leftover because in reality the internal drive takes up about 2 GB. So, only 6 GB are left to the purchaser for downloads, which really isn’t that much.
Overall, I feel that Apple is being selfish because they will not sell iPhone 5 for a cheaper amount, which is what usually would be done when a new phone came out. I myself ran into this problem and ended up with iPhone 4s, I’ve already run out of storage and am now begging my mom to upgrade so I can take her iPhone 4s which has 16 GB. While, Apple will keep profiting by their decision, myself and other consumers are all left with minimal choices.
