The iPhone 5C could be killed next year, bringing an end to Apple’s brief experiment with cheap and colourful version of its phones.
The 5C was released last year, alongside the 5S, as a cheaper version of the iPhone. It came in a range of colours, filled with the guts of iphone 5 that was released the year before, but in a plastic box.
But Apple is tapering off production of the phone and is likely to discontinue it in the middle of 2015, reports Taiwan’s Industrial and Commercial Times. Apple usually phases out products as new ones launch — and the iPhone 5C, especially with its slightly older innards, would be expected to leave the line-up next year.
But the reported poor sales performance of the phones relative to other models, as well as Apple’s new strategy of selling a bigger and smaller version of its iPhone in the 6 and 6 Plus, could mean that the cheap and colourful version of the iPhone is on its way out forever.
Rumors ahead of launch that Apple would be releasing a cheaper phone led many to presume that it would be a budget model. But the phone was met by disappointment among some reviewers when Apple revealed that the 5C was only just over £100 cheaper than its smaller sibling and still more expensive than many other phones on the market.
The 5C is no longer given any prominence on Apple’s iPhone site.
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