A quality control employee at Pegatron posted the picture above to her Weibo profile (gone now), appearing to show a large amount of iPhone 5Cs in testing mode, as noted by Nowhereelse/Engadget. The following quote was attached to the image:
“The low-end iPhone 5C to be launched for Chinese consumers in September doesn’t look much different than the Xiaomi Phone 2, right?”
It’s odd that the manufacturer does not have a better setup for testing the devices, but Engadget notes that this kind of testing setup has been seen before during factory tours.
The phone looks the same as other leaked components and mockups, and we expect it to be announced by Apple at their September 10th event.
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So, just for the Chinese consumers? If so, good for you Apple! Don’t be a bottom sucker like Samsung now or Apple 1986-95. Be the best phone in China and India!
WTF are you talking about? Why is that good for anyone? Apple making a new iPhone, that is every bit as functional as the frigging iPHONE 5, and will retail for less than previous iPhones (finally!) and you call that being a bottom sucker?
You are completely clueless. You are of course aware that Apple has had $0 and $99 iPhone offerings for years, and plans to continue that trend…except not with old out of date phones…but with brand new phones.
Surprised nobody mentioned the faceplate being black on a white model. Looks like apple would be going back to plastic screen if they are all going to be black for the different colored phones.
I would figure they would use white fronts like the latest touches. White accents the variety of colors better.
I’m surprised they allow employees to do this type of photographing. I’ve worked in companies that had strict rules against taking photos of manufacturing and assembly operations. I guess this employee isn’t scared of losing her job.
It probably does look a lot like the Xiaomi Phone 2. After all, many of those Android smartphones made in China were copied to purposely look like iPhones.
I felt certain that the low-end iPhone 5C would be made strictly for sale in BRIC nations and not be sold in the U.S. or Europe. Maybe it will stop Chinese citizens from coming to the U.S. to buy batches of iPhones to take back to resell in China. That would help ease U.S. iPhone shortages.
But the faces are black. That, the messy setup, and the casualness of it all has my gut calling shananagins!
I so desperately want ALL of this news about an iPhone 5C to be pure speculation and praying this photo is from a factory creating iPhone knockoffs.
I don’t at all understand why Apple would feel forced to produce a Wal-Mart version of the iPhone. It’s like Ferrari feeling threatened by the Civic so they start cannibalizing their product and cutting corners just to appeal to a no-credit/bad-credit/no-problem consumer.
Is marketshare that important that Apple would lower their standards and release a sub-par device made from low-grade materials?!! If it is true reports suggest that they’ll cut out Siri, which I’ll go on record as this being the worst decision Apple’s ever made since Ping.
If it is true I can’t wait to hear Cook’s explanation for this one. I usually give him the benefit of the doubt but I’m all but certain that Steve would never approve something like this.
But the faces are black. That, the messy setup, and the casualness of it all has my gut calling shenanigans!
This photo is just sketchiness all round. If quality control is that shit it looks really bad. If a random employee is taking photos of the to-be-announced iPhone and posting it to the Chinese Facebook equivalent, that’s even worse. I hope it’s fake. If it’s real she’s fired for sure, and Pegatron are out.
What are you talking about? Its a rack where iPhones are plugged in and powered on simply to run a test cycle program.
Also, those phones you’re seeing are fully assembled but do not have any protective plastic on them…so they obviously aren’t production models, but pre-production run models.
Common sense prevails!
Common sense does prevail, I stand by what I said. If it’s real it could mean some bad things: Pegatron look like shit, are probably not getting another contract, and the employee is definitely fired.
Also, if that’s the formal testing spot for the brand new iPhone, it does look really shady. Maybe I’m being OCD, but manufacturing always looks precise and clinical. A whole heap of new iPhones banged on top of one another on a mostly hollow thin metal wire rack DOES look sketchy. I wouldn’t leave my phone on something like that, and cramming 50 iPhones on one rather than a proper shelf is weird.
What you said about them being non-production models; no-one else has mentioned that. If that’s true, and the photo is legitimate, that makes it somewhat better.
God, and to think some poor kid is probably going to get his hands cut off for this foot (figuratively) so that a bunch of fanboys can get their rocks off is sad. Let’s hope these photos are actually leaked by Apple.
If this is a real leak, the person is so gonna get fired….
Did anyone notice that there appears to be two different plug types where the charging cord plugs into the phone? Some show a lighting type of adapter whereas the other shows an intermediate device in between the phone and lighting adapter? Look at the iP5c with the red screen…
Not especially significant. They probably make their own lightning cables there.
Looks like a micro(or mini) usb-to-lightining adaptor
Iphone 5c = iPhone 5 China?
Ye, or iPhone 5 Color
flashback before iphone 5 launched, news like this is very insterinsting :)