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This Week in Mobile: The Crickets Chirp For The iPhone 5c

Bobby Gill | October 15, 2013

While the iPhone 5s has sold well since its launch last month, the reception for Apple’s quasi budget iPhone 5c has been far more tepid. A survey conducted by the Consumer Intelligence Research Partners estimates the new iPhone 5s out selling the plastic shelled 5c by more than a 2 to 1 ratio. Before it’s launch, we assumed that Apple was positioning the 5c to be a more budget friendly alternative to the normally premium priced iPhone offerings. We were wrong. The new iPhone 5c (essentially a repackaged iPhone 5 with a plastic shell) rings up at a bourgeoisie $549 without a contract, only $100 cheaper than the iPhone 5s model! The Windows 8 like reception for the 5c has seen Walmart slash the price on the 5c by $45 and even more worringly, caused Apple to slash supplier orders of the new iPhone 5c by 50%, from 300,000 units to 150,000 units per day!

All Aboard the Irony Train: The “Blue Screen of Death” Reportedly Being Seen on the iPhone 5s

When Apple announced its redesigned iOS 7, it was hard to deny that it bore a striking resemblance to the most unlikely of sires: Windows Phone!  The flat icons, the lock screen, the app switcher all carry strong hints of the interface formerly known as ‘Metro’, Microsoft’s touch-first UI philosophy that’s been found on Windows Phones since 2011. Well might the resemblance be more than skin deep? iPhone 5s users are reporting their phones experiencing the bane of every Windows user: the blue screen of death. Affected users report their handsets crashing and displaying a Windows like blue screen of death when using apps like FaceTime, Safari and even their camera.

How long have I been asleep?

Where am I?

So I took the red pill?

I feel like Marty McFly stumbling my way through a dystopian Hill Valley: what is this weird place?! Biff’s mayor, iPhones are selling at discounts,  and every iPad is a Surface in disguise?  What next? Weekly reboots and corrupted registries on the new line of MacBooks?

The Rumble In Redmond: Windows Phone versus Windows 8

 

The main event of the Rumble in Redmond might not be the Elop vs Muallay steel cage match for CEO, but rather an operating system showdown between Windows Phone and Windows 8. This week brought the release of the 3rd Windows Phone update, which added support for quad core processors, 1080p resolution and 7 inch tablet screens. While Microsoft has always claimed that Windows Phone was meant to be strictly a phone operating system, leaving the tablet/phablet/PC markets to its much maligned Windows 8/RT offering, this latest release of Windows Phone has it encroaching on the turf of Windows 8/RT.

Microsoft’s post-PC operating system strategy has always been a bit of a conundrum, where as Google and Apple offer a single operating system across all mobile devices, Microsoft chose to start with 2 different operating systems, with separate app stores and development environments for phones and tablets. All signs point to Windows Phone and Windows 8/RT merging in the not too distant future: they already both run on the same NT kernel, share the same ‘Metro’ like UI, and support Microsoft’s new WinRT touch-first app platform.  Back in the dark days of Sinofsky, it was assumed that Windows 8/RT would ultimately consume Windows Phone and become the all-in-one touch platform for Microsoft’s future. However, with the recent re-org that has seen Windows Phone chief Terry Myerson become the head of all operating systems development at Microsoft, might this mean that the underdog Windows Phone will become everything Windows 8/RT was meant to be?

Bobby Gill
Co-Founder & Chief Architect at BlueLabel | + posts

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