My Thoughts on Technology and Jamaica: 8GB Apple iPhone 5C on US$0 Contract - Why the iOS 8 upgradable US449 Apple iPhone 5C is a Jamaican Google Android Whisperer

Monday, September 22, 2014

8GB Apple iPhone 5C on US$0 Contract - Why the iOS 8 upgradable US449 Apple iPhone 5C is a Jamaican Google Android Whisperer

The Apple iPhone 6 and the Apple iPhone6 Plus are currently being sold in the US of A at starting prices of US$649 and US$749 unlocked as noted in my blog article entitled “Apple iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus - No Sapphire Screen but 128GB Storage and NFC-powered Apple Pay in Apple's Biggest iPhone Launch”.

While this happens, the Apple iPhone 5C is celebrating its one year anniversary by going on sale with a UAS$0 contract for the 8GB version only as stated in the article “Apple Rolls Out A Free iPhone 5C As The 'Budget' iPhone Has Its First Birthday”, published 9/09/2014 @ 9:17PM by Ewan Spence, Forbes.


This little mentioned fact by Apple CEO Tim Cook during the Apple iPhone 6 Launch on Tuesday September 9th 2014 is going to be big deal come Christmas 2014 and benefit Apple in a huge way. That’s because the Apple iPhone 5C is a Google Android Whisperer, a call no Android user can resist!

Apple iPhone 5C on US$0 contract – Google Android Whisperer will attract Jamaicans

As a little brother to the Apple iPhone 5S, ac perception existed that its polycarbonate (read “plastic) coating put it at a disadvantage to its metallic gold brother. Among tech bloggers, it’s thought to be less than it’s brother, the Apple iPhone 5C due to the fact that it’s internals are basically that of the Apple iPhone 5 launched in 2012.

Stats from analyst Localytics seemed to bear this out on Monday September 23rd 2013, suggesting that the Apple iPhone 5S is thrice as popular as the Apple iPhone 5C as stated in my blog article entitled “Localytics Stats suggest preference for Silver and Gold Apple iPhone 5S over polycarbonate Apple iPhone 5C - Plastic vs Metallic battle of Telecom Customer Preferences”.

Good to note that both units had sold a combined 9 million units combined over the weekend of Saturday September 21st 2013 to Sunday September 22nd 2013 and going on to sell some 25 million globally, beating Google android powered smartphones by outsold every smartphone sold by Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo, Sony, LG, or HTC on its own as stated in The iPhone 5C Is Not A Failure, But This Myth Holds An Ominous Warning For The iWatch”, published 6/16/2014 @ 6:45PM by Ewan Spence, Forbes.

Despite its skin-deep handicap, it’s had a great run, as 25 million units both in the US of A and globally is a large number by any standard. Its lower price point on contract and unlocked  still managed to create enough buzz to cause a sizeable chunk of the android faithful to switch based on the statistics of Kantar WorldpanelComTech as argued in my blog article entitled Kantar WorldpanelComTech Stats suggests that the Apple iPhone 5C is a Google Android smartphone whisperer – US$100 cheaper is still a Deal for the 38 year old Crowd”.

Apple iPhone 5C unlocked Price – iOS 8 upgrade makes it as good as Apple iPhone 6

Currently the prices for the Apple iPhone 6 unlocked starts at US$649 at the lower end for the 16GB model. In the case of the Apple iPhone 5C, the lowest unlocked price is US$549 at the lower end for the 16GB model. Given that the 8GB model is a new variant, it’s price unlocked might be even lower, say US$449.

Unlocking of smartphones is now a thing in the US of A ever since President Barack Obama signed the “Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act” (S.517) on Friday August 1st 2014 as stated in my blog article entitled “Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act makes Cellphone Unlocking Legal again - President Barack Obama upholds DMCA”.

This may not seem like a good deal, considering that 8GB isn’t much. But with the recent price drops in Apple iCloud, which already offers you 5GB free as explained in my blog article entitled “US$19.99 1TB Cloud thanks to Apple iCloud Price Drop – Apple iCloud for Windows out to counter Bad Press from Celebrity Hacking”, this is a super deal.

You can now become an Apple iPhone user and best of all, the Apple iPhone 5C not only comes in a variety of colours, but can also take the new iOS 8.0 upgrade which came out on Wednesday September 17th 2014 as stated in “How to use iOS 8, the complete guide”, published September 17, 2014 9:59 AM PDT by Jason Cipriani, CNET News and “Ready To Upgrade To iOS 8? Keep An Eye On These Key Features”, published 9/17/2014 @ 10:28AM by Seth Porges, Forbes.

With such a low price just to get into the Apple iPhone crowd with hardware that’s just a year old on a US$0 2-year subsidized contract, I’m predicting that sales of these remaining units of the 8G Apple iPhone 5C will strip away even more Google Android smartphone users as many Americans slowly get fed up with issues related to Android’s Fragmentation.

Albeit that’s not much lower, if you care about Apple iPhone even a little bit, it’ll be enough to get you into the Apple Fanboy crowd with hardware that’s still the latest and can take the latest iOS upgrade. Still, I can’t wait to hear when the Apple iPhone 6, Apple iPhone6 Plus and possibly the Apple Watch will be coming to Jamaica on Telecom Provider Network LIME.

So I’ll be down by the LIME Store on Carlton Crescent as well as ATL, the official repair partner for the Apple iPhone as stated in my blog article entitled “ATL is now the Official Distributor of Apple Product in Jamaica as of July 2013 - Jamaica can now share in the innovation with Apple’s Future Products Despicable Me 2” asking Questions.

Stay tuned to this blog for more details as well as my articles on Apple Pay, Apple Watch and Apple iOS 8!


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