Thursday 12 September 2013

The Tale of Two New iPhones- iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S

Apple, formerly Apple Computers, the iPhone Creator, for the first time in the history of iPhone unveiled two new series of iPhones on the same day. For the entire six year history of the iPhone, Apple has staunchly stuck to offering a single line of models at a time. While it has increasingly placed both old and new models on sale alongside one another in its offerings, there hasn’t been a true new tier of iPhones ever.

But today on September 11, 2013, Apple launched its two latest flagship iPhones namely- iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S at an event on the company’s Cupertino campus. Apple introduced its latest flagship iPhone, in its ongoing battle against Samsung and the Android operating system for smartphone supremacy. From the past one and half years, Apple has expanded its iPhone line with some exciting and new models. Because Market segmentation and expanding competition from Android devices in emerging markets have been pushing Apple towards this for some time. Creating a less expensive version of the blockbuster device will allow Apple to target localities where the subsidy model simply doesn’t work.

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                                                                                                      Apple
One of those major areas is china, where Apple has a solid presence, but has been losing ground to other makers like Samsung. After many quarters of big growth, Apple’s share has slipped, allowing local Chinese brands to slot in above it in sales.

The "iPhone 5C" will be available in five colors - green, blue, yellow, pink and white. CEO Tim Cook calls the 5C "more fun and colorful" than any other iPhone. The 5C has a 4-inch Retina display and is powered by Apple's A6 chip. It also has an 8 megapixel camera, live photo filters and a rear cover that lights up. It will cost $99 for a 16 gigabyte model and $199 for a 32 gigabyte model with a two-year wireless contract. The phone is expected to help Apple boost sales in China and other regions where people don't have as much disposable income to spend on new gadgets compared with the U.S. and Europe.

The iPhone 5S, is "the most forward-looking phone we have ever created," said Phil Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide marketing at Apple. It will come in silver, gold and "space gray" and will run on a new chip, the A7, which is up to twice as fast as the A6. The iPhone 5s also features an improved camera, with a smart “True Tone” flash that can sense the coloring of your subject and choose a flash color to match it, as well as slow motion and burst photography modes; a motion sensing chip that will allow for improved health and fitness tracking; and a new 64-bit processor, which Apple says will boost gaming and graphics performance.

The iPhone 5s will be available in slate black, gray and a new “champagne” color (commonly referred to as gold) starting on September 20th. Like the iPhone 5, the iPhone 5s will cost $199 for a 16GB model, $299 for a 32GB model and $399 for a 64GB model, all with a two-year contract.

iPhone 5C:

The iPhone 5c was supposed to be Apple's weapon to take on Android in at least the mid-level smartphone segment, if an entry-level pricing was never going to come to fruition. However, one look at the off-contract pricing for the iPhone 5s in various regions, and all those hopes can be put to rest.

Because of its past intense competition with its Android Phone rival Samsung, Apple has been losing its place to Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Huawei Technologies Co Ltd in emerging markets such as China, and a more affordable 5C was deemed instrumental to helping it claw back market share.

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                                                                                                    iPhone 5C
The starting level 16GB iPhone 5c without a contract has been priced at $549 in the US. That comes out to a whopping Rs. 35,000 at current exchange rates (1 USD = 63.65 INR) and does not include the duties and other charges that come in while pricing a product in India. If you were hoping for a sub-Rs. 25,000 pricing for the iPhone 5c in India, it's safe to say we won't see anything like that.

The pricing in other regions is even worse, with the iPhone 5c priced at 599 euros (approximately Rs. 50,500) in Germany and 469 pounds in the UK (approximately Rs. 47,000). Of course both those prices include VAT, which can be sizeable. Pricing in Hong Kong is HKD 4,688 (approximately Rs. 38,500). However, it's the pricing in China, one of two "emerging markets" - the other being India - that the iPhone 5c was said to be targeting that is really surprising. The iPhone 5c price in China is 4488 Chinese Yuan Renminbi, which works out to over Rs. 46,500, without duties or any other charges.

                                                                    Apple Unveils iPhone 5S and 5C Video

With just a $100 price difference between the iPhone 5c and the iPhone 5s, it's a little difficult to fathom why the iPhone 5c even exists. The iPhone 5c surely won't help Apple penetrate into any newer markets, and its only selling point seems to the number of colors its available in.

It seems Apple is not willing to shed its 'premium' tag just yet, and that, more than anything else from Tuesday's event, will surely disappoint millions who were hoping to see Apple in a more 'affordable' avatar.


A few months ago when phone analysts started talking about a ‘cheap iPhone’, there was an indication that Apple would finally launch an affordable iPhone for price sensitive markets in countries like China and India. Apple did launch a ‘cheaper’ phone on Tuesday night. But this cheaper phone called iPhone 5C is hardly affordable.
iPhone 5S:

As expected, along with iPhone 5C, Apple announced its one more new flagship iPhone model iPhone 5S with wide ranges of new and exciting features. It runs iOS 7, and looks almost exactly like the iPhone 5 but comes in different colors: silver, a new "space gray," and gold — as was heavily rumored. The standout feature is Touch ID, which is an integrated fingerprint sensor in the new sapphire home button that scans your "sub-epidermal layers" at 500 points per inch to read your fingerprint and unlock the phone. You can also authenticate purchases, so buying apps, music, and movies in iTunes and the App Store just got a lot easier. There's a capacitive ring around the home button that activates the sensor, and it can read your fingerprint in any orientation. You can also have it authenticate multiple fingerprints, so you can share your phone with specific family members without having to reveal your passcode. 

Importantly, fingerprints are encrypted and stored locally on the A7 chip in the phone itself — Apple says fingerprints aren't available to apps, nor are they sent to any servers or shared with iCloud. The iPhone 5s will start at $199 for the 16GB model on a two-year contract, with 32GB for $299 and 64GB for $399. It'll go on sale September 20th, and Apple says the 5s will reach 100 countries and over 270 carriers by December. To help with that international expansion, the company has built in support for 13 LTE bands, which it claims is the highest number found in any smartphone.

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                                                                                            iPhone 5S
The 5s also has a new M7 "motion co-processor," which continuously measures motion data from the accelerometer, gyroscope, and compass — it's there to enable "a new generation of health and fitness apps." It works with a new CoreMotion API in iOS 7 that identifies user motion. It sounds a lot like the dedicated motion core in the new Moto X.

The camera has been improved with a new Apple-designed lens with an f/2.2 aperture and a sensor that's 15 percent larger — it's still 8 megapixels, but each pixel is bigger to let in more light. The camera software in iOS 7 is optimized for the newer sensor and does an automatic series of adjustments to white balance, exposure, the tone map, and autofocus to take the best photo — and it take multiple photos and picks the best one for you. There's also a "true tone" dual LED flash, with one cool blue LED and one warm amber LED so the flash matches the color balance of the light in the room.

iPhone 5S OfficIal Video
                                                                                           iPhone 5S Video     

There's yet more with the camera: it can take 10fps burst mode photos as long as you hold the shutter, it has a 120fps 720p slow-motion video mode, and it does automatic motion reduction by analyzing multiple frames when you take a single shot. It can also take 28-megapixel panoramas, adjusting exposure automatically as you pan.

Also the iPhone 5s has support up to 13 LTE bands, more than any other single model of a smartphone. This will allow iPhone 5s users to access high-speed Internet in more countries around the world. The new iPhone even supports Band 40, which is the same frequency band on which Airtel's 4G service has been deployed in India.

iPhone 5C vs iPhone 5S:
  • Price, With Contract
  • 5C: $99 for 16GB, $199 for 32GB with a cellular-service contract. Cases are $29 each.
  • 5S: $199 for 16GB, $299 for 32GB, $399 for 64GB on contract. Cases are $39 each.
  • Price, Unsubsidized
  • 5C: $549 for 16GB, $649 for 32GB.
  • 5S: $649 for 16GB, $749 for 32GB, $849 for 64GB.
  • Color and Material
  • 5C: Plastic body comes in five bright colors: fluorescent white, green, blue, pink and yellow. The 5C's body is comprised of a single part with no seams or joints. Apple's cases for the 5C are made of silicon rubber.
  • 5S: A metallic body that comes in silver, gold, and space gray. The model is constructed of high grade aluminum with chamfered edges. Apple 5S cases are leather.
  • Camera
  • 5C: 8 megapixel rear iSight camera and a new front-facing FaceTime HD camera.
  • 5S: The 8 megapixel camera features an f/2.2 aperture and a larger light sensor than the iPhone 5. A new camera app takes multiple photos with every shutter press and chooses the best picture in terms of light levels, sharpness, and stabilization. A two-LED flash adjusts color and intensity, offering what Apple claims are more than 1,000 combinations.
  • Technical Specifications
  • 5C: Apple-designed A6 processor/graphics chip, 4-inch "retina" display.
  • 5S: 64-bit A7 processor/graphics chip, M7 "motion coprocessor" chip for analyzing accelerometer and other motion data, home-button fingerprint sensor, 4-inch "retina" display.

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