Today Apple announced two new phones: iPhone 5S, which is the continuation of its main iPhone series and the new iPhone 5C concept which was supposed to be a cheaper more affordable model that competes with the more affordable Android phones. I was looking forward to the iPhone 5C, Apple’s first attempt at offering a moderately priced product. Unfortunately in Canada the unlocked Apple iPhone 5C will cost $599 and $699, not really a great deal. The unlocked Apple iPhone 5S prices in Canada are much higher at $719, $819 and $919. Of course you can always order a locked version on a 2 or 3 year contract from your cell phone provider for a much lower price; but in reality you do still end up paying the same price as part of your plan fees.
In summary:
- Unlocked Apple iPhone 5C Cost in Canada: $599, $699
- Unlocked Apple iPhone 5S Cost in Canada: $719, $819 and $919
I’m not sure the 5C was meant to be a great deal, but rather a feeble attempt to refresh a stale product lineup (ie. ditch the 5, replace with a less expensive to build handset with essentially the same technology in all the standard fruit flavors). FWIW, you could still go with an unlocked iPhone 4S (a perfectly good phone), which is comparable in price to tier 2 Samsung handsets you are referring to. At the end of the day, none of this will matter much in Cda due to the revamped 2 yr contracts being offered by the big 3. Many people I talked to are just sticking with the old plans on a month to month basis now and will not sign up for a new agreement at a considerably higher monthly cost. The downside to this for the likes of Apple, BB and so forth is that people will not be upgrading their hardware anytime soon (or at least until the phone co’s budge and start offering plans at reasonable prices again). Hmm, it will be interesting to see how this game of chicken ends….
People do realize LG Nexus 4 phones are $200 now, right? This isn’t even close to “competing” with Android. This is all about convincing folks iPhones are some sort of luxury item that deserves the price when they don’t.
the $200 Nexus 4 phone (8gb) is sold out and Goog is not restocking it. The 16gb version is still available though for $249. Battery is not removeable and no SD-card slot but that’s only a dealbreaker to a few people. Nonetheless still a great phone for the price.
On what planet is $599 “affordable”. I bought my Android a couple years ago, no contract for $200. If I were to get a new phone right now my first choice would be a Nexus.
@ jessica & Robin
I am in complete agreement with you. $599 is a lot of money (to us anyway). Judging by past sales of iPhones, iPads and the like, many buyers either have the extra cash to fork out or they don’t care about price as these devices are deemed to be must have items. An Asian associate of mine just said to me yesterday that he’s getting the “gold” iPhones 5S for himself and his wife ASAP and when available, the Louis Vuitton branded cases to go along with them. I am not speaking about uber wealthy individuals here, but rather a typical middle class Asian family that thinks these toys are indeed status symbols and that getting each child their own iPad mini at a few hundred $ a pop is perfectly appropriate. Obviously, people like this (among millions of others) don’t need any convincing and that is clearly who Apple is targeting big time with this pointless update.
I got my Nexus 4 a few weeks ago from best buy. On a 2 year plan the phone was free, AND I got a $50 gift card. And my boyfriend says he likes my phone better than his iPhone 4S.