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Apple breaks with tradition, keeps mum on iPhone 5C pre-orders

Does the C stand for catastrophic?

Apple breaks with tradition, keeps mum on iPhone 5C pre-orders
Initial reports may have hinted at a strong start for Apple's iPhone 5C, but speculation now suggests pre-orders for the range as a whole may be on the slow side.

Used to Apple publishing bullish pre-order figures within days of handsets going on sale – 24 hour figures the norm - the firm's silence when it comes to consumer take up of iPhone 5C has led much of the press to suggest that the news must not be good.

The numbers game

The last four years have seen Apple boast about early consumer interest in new iPhones: iPhone 4 amassed 600,000 pre-orders in 24 hours, topped one year later when its successor – iPhone 4S – hit 1 million during its first day.

More amazingly, iPhone 5 hit 2 million pre-orders in its first 24 hours last September.

The lack of information about iPhone 5C take up, then, has led many to speculate that it's far from a record breaker.



As such, many outlets are attributing the continued downward slide in Apple shares to a lack of any iPhone 5C pre-order figures.

It never rains, but it pours

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports that Chinese carrier China Mobile has cut back on iPhone subsidies, resulting in more expensive upfront charges for Chinese consumers interested in purchasing Apple's new smartphones.

The news is a particular kick in the teeth for Apple in the region, given many already believed the new iPhones – including the cheaper iPhone 5C – are still too expensive to make a mark in the country.

Apple's current smartphone share in China sits at below 5 percent.

More on iPhone 5C's performance to date may be revealed when its more expensive brother, the iPhone 5S, goes on sale on 20 September.
You can read the reaction of many of the mobile industry's leading lights to iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S here.

[source: The Verge]

With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font.