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iPhone 5c

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Announced alongside the iPhone 5s in September 2013, the iPhone 5c ($0 on contract from the Apple Store) is currently Apple’s entry-level iPhone. Made with a plastic rear shell and a glass face, it is effectively a repackaging of the iPhone 5, seemingly designed to create differentiation with the highly similar-looking iPhone 5s.

The iPhone 5c continues to use the A6 chip, 8 megapixel camera, and 4-inch Retina display found in the iPhone 5, but modestly improves the front-facing FaceTime HD camera, adds support for more LTE bands, and increases the color choices from two to five. Apple chose a basic white, as well as somewhat faded green, blue, pink, and yellow tones. Every version has a black front.

One thing that the iPhone 5c’s new shell offers is durability: the glossy plastic rear shell is not as easy to accidentally scuff or shatter as the metal and glass iPhone 5 it replaces. On the other hand, Apple only offers it now in an 8GB capacity, which is too little space to store apps, music, and video at the same time. As it’s currently sold, the iPhone 5c is designed to be a very basic phone for first-time iPhone users, as well as something to get people in the doors to choose something better. We wouldn’t recommend it over any other current-generation iPhone unless you only plan to use it for communications, very small apps, and video streaming — not storage.

Best Buy & Walmart Black Friday ads bring the year’s best Apple deals

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From 9to5Toys.com:

Yesterday it was Target. Today the Best Buy and Walmart Black Friday / Thanksgiving deal advertisements are now official. Both ads feature heavy discounting on iPads, iTunes cards, iPods, Macs, and more. The most impressive deals at Walmart include an iPad mini for $299 with a free $100 gift card, and free gift card offers with the purchase of an iPhone 5c/5c. Best Buy offers up to $200 off a new Mac laptop, 15% off iTunes cards, and an Apple TV for $85.

While we haven’t seen Apple’s Black Friday deals for this year, it’s pretty safe to assume they won’t stray too far from the ‘education pricing for all’ strategy implemented at preceding Black Friday promotions.

Head over to 9to5toys for complete coverage of these ads and all others that have leaked thus far as well as best deals as they happen.
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Apple’s market share in Japan overtakes USA, with more to come

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Photo: japantimes.co.jp

Apple’s share of the smartphone market in Japan has hit 37 percent, greater than the 36 percent share in the USA, reports the WSJ.

Sales got another boost in late September when NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan’s largest wireless carrier, began offering the iPhone for the first time to its 61.8 million customers. Even before that, the iPhone was Japan’s best-selling smartphone, with a 37% market share in the six months ended Sept. 30, according to Tokyo’s MM Research Institute. That’s comparable to the iPhone’s 36% share in the U.S. in the third quarter, according to Kantar Worldpanel ComTech … 
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Bloomberg: Apple to introduce larger, curved screen iPhones in Q3 2014, enhanced pressure sensors for later models

Concept render by <a href="http://news.softpedia.com/newsImage/Brilliant-iPhone-6-Design-with-Fingerprint-Scanner-and-Curved-Glass-Envisioned-Video-5.jpg/">Federico Ciccarese</a>

Bloomberg is reporting that “sources familiar with the plans” say Apple is planning to release two new iPhone models next year with curved displays. The two phones would have 4.7 inch and 5.5 inch displays respectively, both substantially bigger than the 4 inch Retina Display currently offered in the iPhone 5s and more in line with Samsung’s S4 and Note 3.


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Boost Mobile starts selling the iPhone 5s and 5c today for $200 off for new customers, starting at $349 unsubsidized

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From 9to5Toys.com:

As we’ve noted on a few occasions, Sprint pre-paid subsidiaryBoost Mobile is now carrying the iPhone for the first time in its history. Launching today, the iPhone 5s and 5c are $100 off of Apple’s retail price if ordered online. However, Boost is running a special promotion until November 24th where you get an additional $100 off if you switch in store from another carrier. I confirmed the deal with a PR rep who said:

Yes. Now through Nov. 24 new customers who come into a participating Boost Mobile store and switch to Boost Mobile from another carrier will be eligible for a special in-store promotion of $100 off any device bringing new customers  additional cost savings.  The link below will help consumers find participating stores in their area that are selling iPhone.

Boost Mobile plans start at $55/month but drop significantly as you make payments on time. Find the nearest Boost Mobile here.
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Apple Stores to soon offer iPhone 5s & 5c screen replacements, other repairs

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iPhone 5s Teardown via <a href="http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPhone+5s+Teardown/17383">iFixit</a>

Apple is gearing up to soon begin hardware repairs for the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c in its chain of retail stores, according to sources with knowledge of the upcoming initiative. These sources say that Apple Stores will be able to replace several parts of the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c on-site, meaning that Apple will no-longer need to fully replace iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c units with damage or other problems…


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Ten days of iPhone 5s and 5c sales help Apple break 40 percent in U.S. smartphone market

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Apple’s share of the U.S. smartphone market grew by 0.7 percent in the last quarter to reach 40.6 percent, according to comScore data.

Sales of low-cost handsets mean that Android’s position as leading mobile platform is safe, with a marginal drop to 51.8 percent of the market, but Apple remained top of the vendor rankings …


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Apple to Devs: Gold iPhone not best for marketing materials

Earlier this month we reported that Apple had changed its developer marketing guidelines after years of only allowing images of the black iPhone in marketing material. Since Apple’s new lineup of iPhones features a number of new colors for the device for the first time, we noted that Apple tweaked its guidelines to allow other colors of the device, including white and certain iPhone 5c colors. Now, Apple has updated its guidelines once again, this time specifically excluding the gold iPhone 5s from the list of colors allowed in photography and video marketing material (via MacRumors):

Feature only the most current Apple products in the following finishes or colors: iPhone 5s in silver or space gray, iPhone 5c in white or blue, iPad Air in silver or space gray, and iPad mini in silver or space gray. If multiple Apple products are shown, display them in the correct relative sizes.

You’ll notice that it’s also not allowing certain colors of the iPhone 5c (only blue and white are listed), so gold specifically doesn’t seem to be the issue. As it did previously, Apple provides downloads of iPhone images for developers to place their screenshots on and use for marketing purposes. Those downloads are limited to the iPad Air, iPad mini, and iPhone 5s in Silver/white and Space Gray, and the iPhone 5c and iPod touch in black and blue models.

It’s unclear Apple’s reasoning for not allowing the gold model of the iPhone 5s and certain colors of the iPhone 5c. It could possibly be due to Apple’s desire to keep the popular colors unique to its own marketing material, or perhaps Apple thinks screenshots do not show as well on certain colors as they do on black and silver models.

Over half analysts surveyed expect AAPL to beat its own high-end guidance today

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Update: The analysts were right to be optimistic, but not optimistic enough

As we wait for Apple to announce its Q4 results in this afternoon’s earnings call, more than half of the analysts included in Fortune’s survey expect the company to beat its high-end guidance of $37B. The average is driven up by the amateurs, who come in at $37.38B, while the professionals expect just a touch under the top end at $36.95B.

Predictions on both revenues and earnings do vary markedly, however. While the consensus view is that year-on-year revenues will be up 3 percent and earnings down 6 percent, even among the professionals the earnings estimates span a 15 percent range.

Top: FBN’s Shelby Seyrafi: $39.18 billion (up 9% year over year)
Bottom: Cantor Fitzgerald’s Brian White: $34.57 billion (down 4%)

Apple beating its own guidance wouldn’t have been remarkable in the days when Apple gave absurdly pessimistic guidance and then blew it away, but would be impressive since Cook started offering realistic ranges … 
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Boost Mobile to Offer iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c on November 8

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Along with US Cellular who announced on Friday, Boost Mobile will now also offer the iPhone 5s and 5c on November 8th according to short press release this morning (below).

Boost is a Sprint Co. pre-paid sister site of Virgin, which also announced iPhone 5s and 5c availability last month with $100 off retail pricing and $30/month plans. Boost Mobile iPhone media (above) was leaked last month.

Nine other regional carriers have announced iPhone 5s/5c availability on November 1st. 
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Why iPhone longevity means iOS carrier activation share doesn’t resemble sales

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There was a lot of confusion yesterday when Verizon’s results were discussed, with more than one commentator confusing activations and sales. For the record, what Verizon announced was that 51 percent of its activations were iPhone, not 51 percent of its phone sales.

If you doubt the importance of this distinction, I have one word for you: T-Mobile. As of 11th April, the carrier had two million iPhone activations. Its iPhone sales as of the same date? Zero: T-Mobile didn’t start selling iPhones until the following day.

The difference between the two numbers is particularly dramatic with high-end handsets like the iPhone … 
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Cricket Wireless will begin carrying iPhone 5s & 5c on October 25

A number of regional carriers in the U.S. previously announced October 1st availability of Apple’s new iPhone 5s and 5c, and today AT&T-owned prepaid carrier Cricket Wireless becomes the latest.

The carrier announced today that it will begin carrying both the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c later this month on October 25:

Cricket Communications, Inc. today announced Cricket Wireless will offer iPhone 5s, the most forward thinking smartphone in the world, and iPhone 5c, the most colorful iPhone yet, to customers beginning on October 25, 2013. Customers may pre-register interest today at www.mycricket.com/register. For more information please visit: www.mycricket.com. For more information on iPhone, please visit: www.apple.com/iphone.

Twice as many people buying iPhone 5s as iPhone 5c (latest claim)

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With no word from Apple on the breakdown of its record-breaking iPhone sales between 5s and 5c (and no word expected during the company’s earnings call either), everyone is posting their estimates.

First to the punch was Localytics, who used iPhone connections to mobile and web apps to come up with an estimate of three to one in favor of the 5s. KGI’s Mingchi Kuo disagreed, using supply chain analysis to put the figures closer to 50/50, and suggesting that, if anything, sales of the 5c might be slightly higher. Now we have Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (via AllThingsD) using consumer surveys to suggest that the 5s is outselling the 5c two-to-one … 
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iPhone app turns your iPhone 5c (and case) into ‘Connect Four’ board

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Ever since the iPhone 5c launched along with a specially-designed case, people have compared the case’s design to a the game Connect Four. Now a new app has arrived on the App Store that takes that observation and turns it into a real game. The app is called Flipcase, and the idea is pretty simple: you put your iPhone 5c case on backwards, so that the holes on the back are on top of the screen, and then take turns tapping the columns to try to connect four colored dots.

The app’s description says it’s compatible with other iPhone models, including the iPhone 5 and 5s, though it’s designed specifically with the 5c in mind. Flipcase is available for free on the App Store.

… And another cool use for the 5c case:


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Are iPhone 5c sales low or supplies high?

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Image: abcnews.com

KGI’s Mingchi Kuo, an analyst with a solid track-record, and the man who came closest (almost) to calling opening weekend sales of the iPhone, now believes Apple shipped ‘just’ 11.4M iPhone 5c handsets in September, rather than the 17M he had earlier forecast, reports Business Insider.

Kuo is now estimating Apple shipped 11.4 million 5Cs in the September quarter, a 33% drop from his original estimate. He also says he expects 5C sales to be just 10.4 million units for the December quarter, a 10% sequential drop.

This makes some sense of the rampant discounting seen on the 5C (which actually started at Walmart before launch), but doesn’t necessarily mean that iPhone sales as a whole are down … 
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Apps crashing twice as often on iPhone 5s as on other models

Apps running on the iPhone 5s crash twice as often as the same apps on other models, according to data released by app performance monitoring company Crittercism (via AtD).

The usual rate for app crashes on iPhones is a little under 1 percent, while the rate on the iPhone 5s is closer to 2 percent.

Levy said that perhaps the reason that the iPhone 5s is seeing more crashes than the equally new iPhone 5c is that, while developers were able to check their apps for compatibility with iOS 7 during several months of beta testing, the new hardware wasn’t available ahead of time. The iPhone 5s packs a new 64-bit A7 chip and an M7 coprocessor, while the 5c is nearly identical internally to the iPhone 5 […]

“The good news is that Apple is certainly aware of issues. they’ve pushed out two iOS updates for iOS 7… Apple is doing a really old job of addressing these issues as they come up.”

Reports of bluescreen issues are still making the news (video below), despite the iWork bug having been fixed in 7.0.1. The current version is 7.0.2, and 7.0.3 is expected soon.
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Apple TD-LTE job listing serves as additional confirmation for China Mobile iPhone

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While a possible deal with China Mobile, one of the world’s largest telecoms, was rumored for quite sometime leading up to launch of the new iPhones, the company said in August that it was still working out “commercial and technical issues” with Apple. Today, Bloomberg points us to an Apple job listing in China that provides some evidence that the company is indeed preparing to launch the iPhone on the carrier’s network:

The manager, who will be based in Beijing, will “support and drive the carrier approval of mobile phones,” Apple said in an advertisement on its China website. The position seeks experience with TD-SCDMA, China Mobile’s own third-generation standard that isn’t used by other carriers.

On top of TD-SCDMA, the job listing is also seeking an engineer with experience in TD-LTE, which is the LTE standard that China Mobile has quickly been rolling out. Back in August the often reliable KGI analyst Mingchi Kuo claimed that Apple was ramping up TD-LTE supported iPhone 5c production and estimated that the iPhone 5s and 5c on China Mobile could account for penetration of 25% and 35% of total shipments for the two devices. Currently the carrier has approximately 756 million subscribers, around 63% of the 1.2 billion wireless subscribers in China.
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Literal camera shootout tests iPhone 5s slo-mo by shooting iPhone 5c

Whenever a new phone comes out, there are always a bunch of drop-test videos, keen to see how the handset fares when dropped onto various surfaces. Rated RR‘s tests are a little more … extreme. Generally involving a 50-cal rifle.

So when they wanted to see how the iPhone 5s 120fps slo-mo performs, what else would they do to find out but shoot a defenceless iPhone 5c? It may not be quite as pretty as some demos, but it’s certainly impressive.

iPhone 5s takes top slot from Samsung Galaxy S4 at U.S. carriers; good showing by 5c too

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The iPhone has long been the best-selling phone on AT&T, but the Samsung Galaxy S4 has for some time held that slot at Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile, with the iPhone 5 in second place. No more. September sales figures from Canaccord (reported in Fortune) show that the iPhone 5s now has top billing on all four major U.S. carriers, with the iPhone 5c also beating Samsung on AT&T and Sprint. While the news isn’t unexpected, the numbers do seem to put the lie to one rumor … 
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9to5Toys Last Call: iPhone 5c unlocked $535, Time Capsule from $170, deals on monitors up to 27″, more

From 9to5Toys.com:

Be sure to follow 9to5Toys to keep up with the best gear and deals on the web: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+.

Today’s featured deals:

Discounted Displays: 20″ LED $75, 27″ LED $185, 27″ IPS $205


Other great deals from today:

The best deals that are still alive:

Mac software bundles:

New product announcements & reviews:

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9to5Toys Last Call: OtterBox Defender $20, Call of Duty Mac bundle $40, $100 off Virgin Mobile iPhone 5s/5c, more

From 9to5Toys.com:

Be sure to follow 9to5Toys to keep up with the best gear and deals on the web: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+.

Today’s featured deals:

  • Call of Duty Bundle: $40 (Reg. $130) – incl. Black Ops, Modern Warfare and COD 2

  • Rayman Legends: $40, Splinter Cell Blacklist: $40, iOS freebiesmore

iPhone 5s for $549, 5c for $449 (both $100 off) unsubsidized at Virgin Mobile

Worldwide Giveaway: Just-Mobile HeadStand precision-engineered aluminum headphone hanger ($50 value)

Other great deals from today:

The best deals that are still alive:

Mac software bundles:

New product announcements & reviews:

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Verizon confirms software glitch allowed upgraders to keep unlimited plan, but deal will be honored

AllThingsD has confirmed our suspicion that it was a software glitch that allowed iPhone upgraders to keep their unlimited data plans.

There is, however, good news for those lucky enough to have upgraded their phones before the glitch was caught:

[Verizon] said it would honor the unlimited plans of those customers who managed to upgrade while Verizon was working to fix its software.

Production analysis disputes claims of 5s outselling 5c; forecasts combined sales of 50-55M in Q4

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KGI’s Mingchi Kuo, an analyst with an excellent track record, has disputed an earlier suggestion by web analytics company Localytics that the iPhone 5s is outselling the 5c three-to-one, suggesting that actual sales are closer to 50/50 – with 5c sales actually likely to be somewhat higher.

KGI estimates that the 9M initial sales comprised 3.5-4.5M iPhone 5s, and 4.5-5.5M iPhone 5c.

The confidential briefing document points out that analytics data is based on activation (or, more specifically, use of the phone to browse the web and run certain apps), which is not the same as sales. KGI’s estimates are based on production numbers … 
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iPhone as standalone business would be bigger than Microsoft, Coca-Cola, McDonalds & more

Businessweek has a fun chart showing that Apple’s iPhone business alone would make it the 9th largest stock in the Dow Jones top 30 companies, ahead of such giants as Microsoft, Coca-Cola and McDonalds.

It’s not a terribly surprising fact – the iPhone represents the bulk of Apple’s business, with its $88.4B sales greater than all of Apple’s other products and services combined ($81B), but it is quite a graphic illustration of the strength of that one product line. Apple, of course, just announced that it sold 9M iPhones in the first three days of the 5s and 5c.

Perhaps more surprising is the company that just scrapes ahead of that nominal iPhone business: IBM. While giving every impression of an out-of-date business model, the company is still making billions from large-scale IT infrastructure products, services and software. Including, I kid you not, mainframes.

China Mobile posters for the iPhone 5s and 5c leak, 4G certification imminent

Supposed posters from China Mobile promoting the iPhone 5s and 5c have leaked out, touting “the strongest iPhone in China” (via UnwiredView). The ‘100’ visible on the poster indicates the network’s 100Mb/s maximum speed will be supported by the iPhone. Naturally, the iPhone will be China Mobile’s flagship 4G phone.

Apple has already received the necessary certification to put the iPhone on all Chinese spectrum, including the TD-LTE strand used by China Mobile, earlier this month. Now, the only holdup is getting permission from the MITT governing body to let China Mobile use the spectrum on a commercial basis.


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