Despite many critics and analysts saying that the iPhone 5C is a flop, a recent report actually confirms that the iPhone 5C outsold every BlackBerry, Windows Phone, and flagship Android device in the United States over the winter quarter.
Multiple sources confirm that the iPhone 5C accounted for around 12.8 million units during the quarter and that beat many of the flagship devices from Windows Phone and Blackberry, and also beating most Android devices.
That means iPhone 5c sold twice as many units as all Blackberry smartphone sales combined (6 million), more than all of Nokia’s Windows Phone smartphone sales in the winter quarter (8.2 million), and in fact, all of Microsoft’s Windows Phones sold globally in the winter quarter (slightly more than 8.2 million, as Nokia makes 90 percent of the world’s Windows Phones). Even Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S4 reportedly sold just 9 million units in the winter quarter. If you do the math, that’s less than 12.8 million.
Why is the iPhone 5C a flop?
So despite the iPhone 5C clearly grabbing the limelight, second only to the iPhone 5S, why is Apple seeing it as a flop, so much so that they released a cheaper 8GB iPhone 5S?
The reason being exactly that. The iPhone 5C was second to the iPhone 5S and consequently was over-shadowed. Despite it being a successful device when compared to the rest of the market, it wasn’t compared to its bigger brother. Perhaps it was that the iPhone 5C was just too closely priced to the iPhone 5S that people opted for the more premium device simply because the price difference wasn’t that steep.
But it doesn’t seem Apple was trying to get current Apple customers to pick a cheaper device; instead, the iPhone 5C was trying to tempt those on Android over to an iOS device, at a price point they desired – and it worked.
So the question ultimately isn’t why did the iPhone 5C fail, it should be more like how come it did so well against the opposition and their ‘so-called’ premium flagship devices?