Having reviewed both of Apple’s latest smartphones here on Forbes the dividing line between the two handsets is far more than the $100 difference in price. Both the 5s and the 5c are competent today, but over the life of a two-year contract the iPhone 5s is going to be the reference device for developers while the limitations of the 5c will rapidly become clear.
Barring three notable changes (LTE banding, battery capacity, and the forward facing camera), the iPhone 5c matches the specifications of last year’s iPhone 5 model. For many years Apple has simply moved the models down the line after twelve months. Someone purchasing ‘the $99 iPhone’ would be aware that it is the older model, and have their expectations set accordingly in terms of the expected support levels from third-party apps. That is not the case with the iPhone 5c. One of its biggest strengths is the perception that it is a new design. It is being marketed as new, and because of that consumers will have higher expectations of the 5c than they would if they were buying a year-old iPhone 5
Unfortunately the new iPhone 5c is going to struggle to retain competitive compatibility over a two-year contract.
The A6 CPU chip from the iPhone 5 remains in the iPhone 5c, but the faster A7 chip (along with the improved PowerVR GPU for graphics) which is in the iPhone 5s will have an appreciable impact on third-party apps, especially in the gaming vertical. The intensive workload that some of the iLife and iWork apps will require will also mean a degraded experience on the 5c compared to the 5S. The loss of performance is not the biggest loss in the chip architecture. Apple is moving towards a 64-bit architecture in iOS. Today the vast majority of apps are 32-bit apps, and these run in compatibility mode on the iPhone 5s. As more developers move to 64-bit coding, the iPhone 5c could lose compatibility with many leading applications.
The other loss is in the M7 co-processor. I feel this chip will be key to a huge number of applications focused on the quantified self. Step counters, motion trackers, GPS recorders, and many other functions that will make an M7 equipped smartphone the equal of many items of wearable technology.
Right now, the capabilities of the M7 chip can be duplicated by the A6 CPU, although at the cost of battery life and efficiency. Developers are still to make serious use of the 64-bit nature of iOS 7 and the A7 CPU, but with the iPad Air and the iPad mini with Retina Display also carrying the A7/M7 architecture, I’m sure that in the next two years the focus is going to be on the higher specification handsets and tablets, which will leave the iPhone 5c in the pile with the older iPad mini and iPhone 5.
There’s a school of thought that the 5c is not going to be a handset for the power-user, they are going to tend towards the 5s, but as the 5c is bought by more ‘second tier’ users who are likely to stay on their contract for the full two years, Apple runs the risk of leaving them with a handset that can no longer play the latest games, cannot take advantage of the more advanced fitness tracking apps, and does not have the power to run detailed 3D views inside that month’s top game. Someone’s iPhone 5c will not stop working, it will simply be unable to keep up to date with the rapidly changing world of smartphone apps and features.
When you buy a smartphone, you expect certain things. App support is one of them and while the iPhone 5c meets today’s expectations of application support, by the time December 2015 comes around I don’t feel that the 5c will retain the cutting edge needed to run the latest third-party titles.
The iPhone 5c has many advantages for Apple. It has a lower build cost, it presumably has more margin than the year old iPhone 5 would have at the $99 subsidised price point, and the fashionable colors have reinvigorated the marketing of the iPhone. But for consumers, the advantages are far less clear-cut. Unless price is a major consideration, the $100 difference between the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5c should not be a deciding factor in the purchase choice. It is, after all, equal to $4.17 per month over a two-year contract.
There’s every argument to bypass Apple’s polycarbonate handset and go for the more expensive metal cased iPhone 5s. That’s not because of any lack of functionality today (right now there’s not a huge difference between the 5c and the 5s in day-to-day use), but because Apple have signalled the future direction of the iOS platform, and the iPhone 5c is going to be left behind rather quickly.
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