Localytics Stats suggest preference for Silver and Gold Apple iPhone 5S over poly-carbonate Apple iPhone 5C - Plastic vs Metallic battle of Telecom Customer Preferences

Ever since the results came out that showed that Apple had sold 9 million Apple iPhones 5S and 5C after their debut on Friday September 20^th 2013 and over the weekend of Saturday September 21^st 2013 to Sunday September 22^nd 2013, I’ve been pining for more detailed statistics as stated in my blog article entitled “Apple iPhone 5S and Apple iPhone 5C sold 9 million units over the Weekend - Apple beats Wall Street's Great Expectations for Christmas 2013”.

Knowing Apple fans, I suspected the popularity of the poly-carbonate (read “plastic”) Apple iPhone 5C as it relates to the more metallic Apple iPhone 5S was not very high. American Customers, used to plastic smartphones from Samsung and HTC, anticipate value for their money from Apple’s high-end brand.

Thus some apprehension in the purchasing habits as it relates to the Apple iPhone 5C, as analyst Localytics on Monday September 23^rd 2013 pointed out there were more than three (3) times the Apple iPhone 5S activations than Apple iPhone 5S activations despite its multi-coloured splendor, as stated in “iPhone 5S activations more than triple those of 5C, says report”, published September 23, 2013 5:09 AM PDT by Lance Whitney, CNET News. Apple seem to expect it to, spending more advertising dollars on the Apple iPhone 5C with 2 splash ads so far and hardly any for the Apple iPhone 5S.

Also, there is the matter of the lines this year. Albeit another year of long lines, this may be artificially so because Apple didn’t make the Apple iPhone 5S available for pre-order online as it had done for the Apple iPhone 5C as stated in my blog article entitled “Apple has launched the Apple iPhone 5S and 5C on Tuesday September 10th 2013 - Apple iPhone Strategy is to Go Global to beat Samsung”.

Early statistics based on online Activations of some 20 million Apple iPhones from Friday, September 20^th to Thursday, September 26^th 2013 based on analysis by Analytics firm Localytics, in the article “The 2 percent: iPhone 5S, 5C find a fast foothold”, published September 27, 2013 5:45 AM PDT by Lance Whitney , CNET News suggests that the dislike for the Apple iPhone 5C and its plastic stylings may be on point.

That 20 million or so Apple iPhones is roughly about 2% of the total number of Apple iPhones activates within the United States and as sales continue to pickup, that number continues to grow. The Graph below illustrates the divide between the Apple iPhone 5S and the Apple iPhone 5C in terms of percentage activations against the total number of Apple iPhones on each Network.

In terms of preference based on Networks, Localytics stats reveal a strange Network Centric bias for each smartphone:

1.      More than 80% of AT&T and Verizon subscribers preferred the Apple iPhone 5S.

2.      46% of Sprint subscribers preferred the Apple iPhone 5C

3.      40% of T-Mobile subscribers preferred the Apple iPhone 5C

I’m not an American, so I’ve no idea what’s causing this. My best guess is that Apple, realizing that they might have a crush of demand on their hands for the Gold and Silver Apple iPhone 5S, decided to push the majority of their stock towards the 2 biggest Telecom Providers in the Country, that being AT&T and Verizon. They then gave the bulk of the Apple iPhone 5C’s to Sprint and T-Mobile, resulting in customer having no choice but to purchase the Apple iPhone 5C in lieu of the more coveted Golden and Silver Apple iPhone 5S.

I’m awaiting more detailed analytics on the sales figures from Apple. Until then, Stay tuned to my blog for more details as the Apple iPhone Sales number and analytics start tumbling out!