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Bin full of ‘iPhone 5C’ packaging captured in China, perhaps name of upcoming plastic iPhones? (Update: dubious)

WeiPhone forums (via Macotakara) has what appears to be a bin full of ‘iPhone 5C’ packaging (above). There is no way to verify if these are from an Apple production line or simply some knockoffs.

If these belong to Apple (big if), the assumption would be that the C will stand for “Color’ or ‘plastiC’ or ‘polyCarbonate’ or ‘China’ or ‘Cheap’ or ‘Consumer’ or something else in the same way that ‘S’ stands for speed. Theoretically, the aluminum model would be the iPhone 5S which of course would be speedier and have other upgrades.

As an example of Apple’s packaging, the 5G iPod touch looks to have a similar but thinner enclosure, right.

iLounge had previously gone on record with the prediction that the budget iPhone would be called the 5C.

Update: Nowhereelse.frĀ has disected the image and found some irregularities, below:

 

Has the Onion nailed it again?

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Comments

  1. Urbanist - 11 years ago

    C for Camera?

  2. anbotta - 11 years ago

    C = Cheap?

  3. Anthony - 11 years ago

    If you were to believe these were related to Apple’s next so called “cheaper” variant, I don’t think the “C” is the most interesting thing about the packaging, in my mind it would be that it still holds the name iPhone 5, leading to the possibility that the cheaper variant like rumors suggested would have the same internals as the current flagship.

    P.S. Thank-you for getting rid of the old commenting system!

  4. these boxes seem to be plastic and I would think that would get badly scratched in this bin. Don’t see Apple letting that happen… I’m pretty sure that even the cheaper iPhone would arrive with first class unboxing experience.

  5. Dry Eyes - 11 years ago

    The “C” stands for “Consumer” which is just a nice way of saying low budget.

  6. dryeyes - 11 years ago

    The “C” stands for “Consumer” version which is just a nice way of saying low budget.

  7. rob - 11 years ago

    C is for Classic

  8. iMAKO - 11 years ago

    The quality of the plastic shown seems like a real thing. But I find it odd that they are all cast like that, wouldn’t it bring lots of scratches on them? I’d expect a better way to carry them.
    I find the C for color a little odd too, I don’t know why.

    All in all I believe it’s the real thing though.

  9. Seth Weintraub - 11 years ago

    For the record, I think the Onion has some sources

  10. Steffen Jobbs - 11 years ago

    C is for the chumps who actually believe everything the see or read on the internet. It’s likely Apple’s new iPhones will be out within a couple of months.

  11. Selwyn - 11 years ago

    Or “Cook” as in Tim Cook?

  12. 7zeichen - 11 years ago

    What about C for CLASSIC? It worked Fine for the iPod.

    iPhone classic sounds wonderful.

  13. Automated Reply - 11 years ago

    ‘C’ for ‘Crap’? or ‘C’ for ‘Cracks easily’?

  14. Roary - 11 years ago

    Perhaps their future model lineup is a nod to Mercedes, with its C-class and S-class. Expect an E-class a.k.a. “iPhone E” in the future.

  15. Mason Kurtis - 11 years ago

    Bite my shiny metal a$$

  16. peterzanetti - 11 years ago

    Havin trouble posting with WordPress login. Getting an error that says Comment Cannot be Posted

  17. Tim Cock - 11 years ago

    iPhone Core

  18. Duston Foster - 11 years ago

    I can actually comment now!
    yay

  19. stetsong - 11 years ago

    This packaging style makes a lot of sense for an iPhone that’s going to come in a lot of colors. That way you can see which color you’re getting without Apple having to make a different box for each color variation.

  20. danbridgland - 11 years ago

    As an example of Appleā€™s packaging, the 5G iPod touch looks to have a similar but thinner enclosure, right.

    The iPod touch doesn't include a wall charger, it only includes the charging cable.

  21. danbridgland - 11 years ago

    Whatever the ‘C’ stands for, it’ll need to translate well across all languages. As ‘S’ for speed does.

  22. Jichan JC Chong - 11 years ago

    I think C is for Color.
    Previous iPhone 5 had only two version : Black and White – and no colors.
    (Think about when we print out something we have two options : Black/White or Colors.)

  23. rettun1 - 11 years ago

    I hope the iPhone doesn’t get too many spin offs. iPhone 5S and 5C, while a little strange, is understandable. I just hope it doesn’t turn in what Samsung has done with the s4 (S4, S4 Active, S4 mini, S4 Zoom, not to mention the octo and quad core variants)

  24. Lee (@leemahi) - 11 years ago

    Looks legit to me. Wow!! U guys finally fixed the comment section! You don’t know how many times I’ve given up on commenting when I’d touch the screen by accident then it would stop typing. Hated it so much. Then editing and trying to move the curser was hell.

  25. Jesse Lue - 11 years ago

    On July 25th, I and my wife had dinner at Ritz hotel in Taipei. There were3 person at next table.

    I heard one of them saying: “The bug pisses me off” and then showing a “small” iPhone. It is the size of iPod nano and looks very very thin and the screen is just the size of iPod nano. But the icons on the screen is iPhone. So I think this is mini iPhone.

    The other gentleman put a “regular” iPhone on the table. The left side of the iPhone is not like iPhone5, iPhone5’s top most button is a long bar, this iPhone’s top most button is a rectangle. Another feature caught my eye is the camera looked a little bit down into the iPhone. I think this is a iPhone6 or iPhone5s.

    My guess is that these 3 gentlemen come to Taipei for GM. Golden Master is the approval process for an OEMer to ship.

    So, I probably have seen the next generation iPhone. There are 2 models, one is like the current iPhone5,the other is of the size an iPod nano.

  26. Asis Haas (@AsisHaas) - 11 years ago

    the packaging looks like the back cover of low cost iPhone

  27. Ed Lucas - 11 years ago

    “C is for Cookie” – Cookie Monster

  28. Abi Darwish - 11 years ago

    I think the low cost iphone does not mean a cheap iphone per se, but it is cheaper as to target the teenagers who are generally cant afford the high price of the standard iphone. Look at the color options, boys and girls would love them.

    Differently, Samsung and other competitors are producing low cost smartphones in terms of quality and value. Look at the galaxy S4 mini.

  29. Heiko Rademacher - 11 years ago

    C for Crap

  30. dat1wp - 11 years ago

    iPhone 5[Cloud] is what I think the [C] is for.

  31. That’s why they are in the bin of ‘Photoshopped cases’.

  32. They’re not cases – they’re the new phone minus internals and screen!

    C = Colossus.

    It’s going to have a superdrive, a SD card reader, 16gb RAM, Nvidia desktop graphics card and most importantly NFC.

    Sign me up.

  33. C=Cheap(er)

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