Report: iPhone 5s to soon account for 1 in 5 iPhones, 5c growth stagnant

Posted:
in iPhone edited March 2014
According to the latest statistics from analytics firm Mixpanel, Apple's iPhone 5s is about to breach the 20 percent mark in overall iPhone marketshare and will soon overtake the venerable iPhone 4S, while the counterpart 5c model languishes at about 6 percent.

Mixpanel

Source: Mixpanel


As seen above, Apple's flagship iPhone 5s accounted for 19.31 percent of all active iPhones during the week of Mar. 3, and is on an upward trend to overtake the iPhone 4S. In fact, the crossover may have already occurred as Mixpanel updates its trends page for the full week every Monday.

The most current statistics place the iPhone 5 at the top spot with users accounting for 32.65 percent of the whole, followed by the iPhone 4S, which takes up 23.94 percent. The three-year-old iPhone 4 is on the decline at 16.43 percent, while the new iPhone 5c rounds out the top five with 6.34 percent.

Unlike past product cycles, Apple did not keep the last-generation iPhone 5 as a carry-over model when it introduced the iPhone 5s and 5c in 2013. Instead, the company opted to discontinue production altogether, shoehorning in the plastic-chassis 5c. The iPhone 4S, however, remains on sale as an entry-level model and starter phone for developing markets.

Looking at the graph, it appears the iPhone 5s is exhibiting the most growth, rising an average 0.5 percent each week since Dec. 30. The cheaper iPhone 5c is tracking upwards, but at a far slower pace of .14 percent per week. Echoing the Mixpanel results, a recent poll conducted by Piper Jaffray found the iPhone 5s to be the ">smartphone of choice for consumers planning to make a buy within the next few months.

As can be expected, the usage share of older models, like the iPhone 5, iPhone 4S and iPhone 4, are all trending down at a nearly identical rate as Apple's newer handsets take over.

Mixpanel is a web and mobile analytics firm that handles 17 billion user actions per month. The above statistics were compiled from over 194.3 billion events recorded from Sep. 9, 2013 to Mar. 3, 2014.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 79
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,926member
    Cue the inane 5C flop posts.
  • Reply 2 of 79
    bdkennedy1bdkennedy1 Posts: 1,459member
    Not only do I not know anyone that has one, I have never seen anyone with one.
  • Reply 3 of 79
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,926member
    I've seen the 5C in public and some Olympians have them as well.
  • Reply 4 of 79
    maccherrymaccherry Posts: 924member
    First up we are well aware that the iPhone 5c is just the regular iPhone 5 but with colors.
    Ok, so you buy an iPhone 5s instead of a 5c.
    Um, how is Apple losing?
    They ain't!
  • Reply 5 of 79
    mpantonempantone Posts: 2,033member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jungmark View Post



    I've seen the 5C in public and some Olympians have them as well.


     

    What's your point?

     

    We have all seen the 5c in public, whether it be teenagers at the mall or Olympians.

     

    Bartenders, SI swimsuit models, truck drivers and Fortune 500 CEOs carry around the 5s. 

  • Reply 6 of 79
    buckalecbuckalec Posts: 203member
    the overall path of the 5c is upward from a quick visual glance, somewhat subtle by apple standards, but many competitors would kill for that kinda of subtle growth.
  • Reply 7 of 79
    mwhitecomwhiteco Posts: 112member

    I just bought my ex a new 5c yesterday from Walmart for $29 she was using a 4 before that, I think that was a great price this is a much better phone that what she had.

  • Reply 8 of 79
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member

    Since the iPhone 5C is a rough stand-in for the iPhone 5 this year (yes it has improvements, but it's in the same slot) then separating it on the graph shows a potentially misleading picture.  The graph appears to show the 5C languishing, but if you combine it with the 5 numbers, then the combination of the two is right up at the top, and holding relatively steady at around 40%.

     

    Also, without comparison to how the proportions moved in previous years, these values aren't very telling.  If the 5+5C gradient is flatter than that of the 4S at this time last year then it could be called a flop.  If it's (positive) steeper, then it's doing just fine.

  • Reply 9 of 79
    jd mbajd mba Posts: 38member
    Iphone 5c failed. Apple is clearly doomed.
  • Reply 10 of 79
    512ke512ke Posts: 782member
    Oh poor Apple. People only want to buy ther most expensive products in huge numbers. Lol
  • Reply 11 of 79
    cintoscintos Posts: 113member
    As Crowley noted, the 5Cos hardly languishing, it is simply having a hard time gaining % marketshare while the 5S is blowing it out. A similar metrics service is offered by Fiksu http://www.fiksu.com/iOS-7-iPhone-5s-5c-Usage-Tracker . One of their charts shows that the combination of 5S and 5C are already at 24.3% of all iPhone devices actively in use. Should break 25% within a week. Another chart shows how their adoption rate is tracking vs the 5 on a day-by-day basis since their respective introductions. Although the 5 tracks faster up the ramp, the 5S and the 5C have a significantly larger installed base to compete with as a %. Even so, the combination of 5C and 5S are holding their own vs the original iPhone 5's adoption rate.
  • Reply 12 of 79
    Weird, because I see the 5c all over the place! Shows how worthless anecdotal data is, I guess.
  • Reply 13 of 79
    dasanman69dasanman69 Posts: 13,002member
    manicakes wrote: »
    Weird, because I see the 5c all over the place! Shows how worthless anecdotal data is, I guess.

    Yet you added some of your own. :lol:
  • Reply 14 of 79
    ksecksec Posts: 1,569member

    Wow, this is much better then what i expected. Although It isn't what Apple was hoping which was to aim at a completely different market.

     

    So basically the 5c is selling at the similar rate ( % wise ) as all previous 1 year older gen iPhone. Except with better margin. However I have seen apple is relaxing the price on 5c in order to boost sales i guess the 5c is still running at the same margin as if it was the iPhone 5.

     

    So in terms of Financial and profits. Nothing has changed.

  • Reply 15 of 79
    I think Tim Cook needs to shut the doors for good%u2026Apple is clearly doomed and this is further proof of their impending demise. I'll be sure to sell my positions on Monday.
  • Reply 16 of 79
    arlorarlor Posts: 532member

    Anecdote that's not really evidence of anything: my wife, who pays less than zero attention to new phones until she needs one, saw an ad for the 5c on the back of a magazine (the one with 4 different phone/case combos that's been running a lot lately), muttered "God, that's an ugly case," then did a double-take and sputtered, "APPLE made that?" (She thinks the phone's fine, but she can't believe the case.)

  • Reply 17 of 79
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,801member
    All I see for new iPhones in my area are 5c's. I have yet to see a 5S in the wild around me.
  • Reply 18 of 79

    Apple simply needs to drop the price on the iPhone 5c.  If Apple were to drop the price to about $450 for an unlocked 32GB 5c, I'd get one to use as an alternative to the aging iPod Touch.  I'm sure the price will drop quite a bit when Apple introduces its next new model iPhone.  I guess most people don't see the purpose of the 5c.  It's based on an older model, still somewhat expensive and doesn't have an A7 processor or Touch ID.  Consumers might as well just spend a little extra cash and buy the 5s if they're going to be stuck with a two-year carrier contract.  So what if the iPhone 5c didn't live up to Apple's expectations of sales?  It's not like it's going to do the company any significant harm since many consumers likely ponied up the extra loot to buy a 5s which has higher profit margins for Apple.  At least, Apple may have learned a valuable marketing lesson.

  • Reply 19 of 79
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    arlor wrote: »
    Anecdote that's not really evidence of anything: my wife, who pays less than zero attention to new phones until she needs one, saw an ad for the 5c on the back of a magazine (the one with 4 different phone/case combos that's been running a lot lately), muttered "God, that's an ugly case," then did a double-take and sputtered, "APPLE made that?" (She thinks the phone's fine, but she can't believe the case.)

    Honestly, I'm not very happy with the hole-filled case either.
  • Reply 20 of 79
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    jungmark wrote: »
    Cue the inane 5C flop posts.

    What I see is that over 6% of all iPhones being used today are the iPhone 5C, which is pretty damn impressive considering it's not something early adopters would have and it's using (for the most part) 2012 tech. I wonder what percentage of iPhone 4S's were sold in 2012 after the iPhone 5 launched, or the iPhone 4 in 2011 after the iPhone 4S launched. I can't image the difference in percentages were so great that people now have to disparage the 5C for not being on par with the 5S.
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