Big screens are in and Apple agrees. A new report by The Wall Street Journal revealed that the company plans to roll out two new iPhone models with more generous screen real estate in 2014.
According to sources of the WSJ, one of the new models will have a 4.5-inch screen while the other distinct unit will have a 5-inch-plus display.
"Both new models are expected to feature metal casings similar to what is used on the current iPhone 5S, with Apple expected to scrap the plastic exterior used in the iPhone 5C, these people said. The phones, expected in the second half, won't include a curved display, a feature recently introduced by rivals including Samsung Electronics Co., the people said. They cautioned that Apple's plans weren't final and that the company could change course," the report said.
The sources also added that the smaller unit is almost due for mass production while the bigger sibling is in preliminary development.
With Apple being mum about the exact sales figures of its iPhone 5c, media outlets have jumped to the conclusion that the company might just kill the iPhone 5c. Just like the case of the Pentagon-BlackBerry love affair (or not) that made headlines this week, things might have been taken out of context. The WSJ source said, "scrap the plastic exterior used in the iPhone 5c" and not scrap the 5c itself.
With Apple CEO Tim Cook excited and optimistic with how the iPhones will perform in China and reports before that the iPhone 5c can be a secret weapon of the company in stealing Android's market share, Apple might not have enough reasons to pull the plug and see its young and daring colorful project gone too soon.
In fact, there is a good chance that Apple will tweak the iPhone 5c and offer it with a lower sticker price for entry-level buyers and fulfilling its destiny of making the company's smartphone available to the mid-spectrum of the market as it should have done from the start.
A new report of the Kantar Worldpanel ComTech seems to support that way of thinking.
"While there's no doubt that sales of the iPhone 5S and 5C have been strong, resurgent performances from LG, Sony and Nokia have made making year on year share gains increasingly challenging for Apple," said Kantar strategic insight director Dominic Sunnebo. "Some people worried that Apple was risking its historically high consumer satisfaction levels by releasing a lower cost, plastic iPhone. However, the latest data for the US shows that the iPhone 5C has an average owner recommendation score of 9.0/10 versus 9.1/10 for the iPhone 5S. Both devices attract different customers but crucially each group of owners remains very happy with their choice and are recommending it to others,"
"Apple now accounts for 69.1% of the Japanese market, 43.1% in the United States, 35.0% in Australia and 30.6% in Great Britain," the report disclosed.
It will be very difficult to forecast 5c's real fate without the actual sales figures but with proven customer satisfaction, why will Apple kill a potential Android killer especially when you have China, India, the rest of Asia, and Brazil in its crosshair?
