Apple's iPhone 5c uses unique design, precision manufacturing to avoid 'plastic' stigma

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  • Reply 41 of 179
    cnocbuicnocbui Posts: 3,613member

    My Nokia 720 looks better, has a solid feel and is very well made. The plastic is matte and the whole thing looks much classier.  It could almost have been designed by Ive.

  • Reply 42 of 179
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    andrzejls wrote: »
    All those years!!!. Apple manufacturing process of injection molding and finishing in 40 years old and done but just anyone in this business.. No innovation there. Using "edge" gate method of delivering molten plastic to the cavity is the cheapest  and lowest end of part gating. No innovation there either. So my question is: what is the big deal???. It is still cheap plastic manufactured by cheap methods. BFD

    Albeit it maybe technically true what you say (I wouldn't know as manufacturing isn't in my area of expertise), but I'd bet that when holding an iPhone 5C in your hand and examining it along side a mass produced plastic product using processes you mention, there will be a world of difference. Apple are justifiably proud of the quality of build and finish of all their products and sensibly use that in their marketing pieces.

    You can rant all you wish about the methodology being ... 'cheap', and 'in [sic] 40 years old' ... ''and done but [sic] just anyone in this business' ... however, the proof of the pudding lies in the eating, so can you explain why these others' products feel cheap and shoddy for the most part and Apple's always feel so damned gorgeous. I refuse to ever put a case on my iPhones as I love the feel of them and the look as they were born. By the way, I have not a scratch on my iPhone after two years of being in my pockets, car seat bin, beach bag and so on ... Now that's quality!
  • Reply 43 of 179
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    dasanman69 wrote: »
    How is it better? The iPhone 5 would've been the same exact price regardless.
    Product differentiation. If they kept the 5 but just priced it $100 cheaper than potential 5S owners might have opted for the 5 instead. Also it is possible that the 5 is still quite expensive to manufacture so this was a way to cut manufacturing costs and offer people something that looks different than last years model.
  • Reply 44 of 179
    AI, I think I've said it was a "bi-spoke assembly," not a "bespoke assembly." The words go by quickly, but if you look at the accompanying picture it's pretty clear that it has two spokes, thus bi-spoke.
  • Reply 45 of 179
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by blackbook View Post





    With all the effort they put into it and the price they decided on, I'm surprised they didn't simply use iPod Touch grade anodized aluminum for the shell.



    I see no benefit to the use of plastic considering Apple likely intended all along to price the device at $550.

     

    You're assuming the grade of aluminum makes a big difference to costs. Furthermore, do we know that iPod Touch indeed is made with a different grade of aluminum. Regardless of the grade of aluminum, it is quite apparent that the 5C is easier to assemble than the 5 (or 5S). 

     

    More importantly, I think Apple's goal here is not to make a *cheap* iPhone. Instead, it is to make an alternate one that doesn't have the latest, greatest technology. They want it to stand out from the 5S in look and feel. Yes, it is cheaper but not cheap. That was never the goal.

  • Reply 46 of 179
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Rogifan View Post

     
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by dasanman69 View Post



    How is it better? The iPhone 5 would've been the same exact price regardless.


     


    Product differentiation. If they kept the 5 but just priced it $100 cheaper than potential 5S owners might have opted for the 5 instead. 

    Indeed. It is no coincidence that they are throwing much more into the 5S than they did into the 4S. The upgrades in processor and camera are something one would have expected for the iPhone 6.

     

    Make no mistake - the 5C is what they expect to sell the most. They want it to stand out in every way. They want consumers to see, feel two different iPhones.

  • Reply 47 of 179
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    cnocbui wrote: »
    My Nokia 720 looks better, has a solid feel and is very well made. The plastic is matte and the whole thing looks much classier.  It could almost have been designed by Ive.
    What I find really interesting is those who were at the event and have had hands on time with the 5C seem to have a better impression of it than others. I'm not exaggerating when I say I didn't come across one hands on review that said the 5C looked or felt cheap. And lets face it, most tech sites are aren't Apple fanboys so they're not saying it because they have fanboy blinders on.
  • Reply 48 of 179
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Rogifan View Post





    It's pre market, will probably come back a bit before the market opens. It's obviously down because the Gene Munster's of the world got it wrong when they thought Apple would do a super cheap phone.

     

    And Apple told them where they could go with the cheap phone. Jony Ive and Phil Schiller called the iPhone 5C "unapologetically plastic". What they meant was this: Apple unapologetically refuses to do what analysts dictate.

     

    I love it!

  • Reply 49 of 179
    Apple can say anything it wants about using some special plastic, but the bottom line is everyone in the entire smartphone industry believes plastic is just plastic and they've already determined Apple to have jumped the shark with the iPhone 5C. Apple is sitting on close to $150 billion in reserve cash which no other tech company on the planet comes close to and this is what Apple's solution is. I don't think it makes much of a difference as long as the guts inside are of high-quality, but this whole plastic thing makes Apple look like a fraud and Apple loyalists look like fools for laughing at Samsung and the rest of the plastic Android smartphone makers.

    I'm beginning to understand why Wall Street hates Apple with a passion. The company is just cutting far too many corners for its vast amount of wealth and is allowing companies with far less wealth to build products that are just as good in quality and probably better in specs. Apple should be building the finest smartphones on the planet without question. Apple is rapidly becoming the laughingstock of Wall Street and the smartphone industry. That's why the stock is so poorly valued and shareholders are being totally screwed.
    Just go away.
  • Reply 50 of 179
    nelsonx wrote: »
    Lol, it's just plastic! :lol: By the way look at AAPL price! $445!!! I guess the markets doesn't like too much this "extraordinaire plastic"!
    If you hate Apple so much, why are you on this website?
  • Reply 51 of 179
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    rogifan wrote: »
    It's pre market, will probably come back a bit before the market opens. It's obviously down because the Gene Munster's of the world got it wrong when they thought Apple would do a super cheap phone.

    I was thinking [yet again] about this much discussed phenomenon last night. It occurs to me the tech media and Wall Street pundits are like children that peak at the hidden Christmas presents before they are wrapped by their parents only to be disappointed and sad on Christmas Day because there are no surprises.

    Had nothing whatsoever been leaked in advance and dissected ad nauseam already, yesterday would have been full of squealing delight. Instead everyone hoped for 'One more thing' to be unwrapped to delight them. When it didn't appear they go their rooms and sulk and AAPL flails due to lack of excitement about 'a new and ground breaking technology that will disrupt a whole field of technology, cause a tectonic paradigm shift or allow granny to levitate.'

    In fact yesterday was full of amazing stuff. The innovative advances Apple continue to make in the camera technology would have been staggering alone to a sane audience. I keep looking at my shelf full of thousands of dollars worth of Canon bodies, lenses (any one of which costs as much as a MacBook) and tons of accessories ... I sigh looking at what Apple can do in an iPhone and I keep trying to justify my Canon gear (this is for a hobby only). It is starting to feel a little like my experience with an equally expensive HiFi system that long since got donated in favor of iTunes match and earbuds for the most part.

    As others here have said, Apple will have to come out with matter transfer and time travel to impress Wall Street and even then I'm sure they'd find something to bitch about.
  • Reply 52 of 179
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    And Apple told them where they could go with the cheap phone. I love it!
    I suppose Apple could have tempered expectations here, maybe leaked a few things to WSJ or Bloomberg. Basically Apple kept the same pricing structure they they've used before, it's just instead of keeping last years model they redesigned it. Unfortunatly the expectation got out there that "C" stood for a cheap price, when it really stood for color. Time will tell if this was a mistake on Apple's part. But we all know had Apple gone the cheap route it would have impacted margins and profits and Wall Street would have dumped the stock for that reason. What Wall Street wants with Apple - cheaper prices but still maintaining high margins and profits - is totally unrealistic.
  • Reply 53 of 179
    mazda 3smazda 3s Posts: 1,613member
    I just want to know what idiot signed off on this:

    [IMG ALT=""]http://forums.appleinsider.com/content/type/61/id/31233/width/500/height/1000[/IMG]
  • Reply 54 of 179
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Flaneur View Post



    I see that Constabe Odo is still confusing Apple's architectural statement in plastic and metal with Samsung's lazy use of plastic that reaembles an insect's carapace. Couldn't be more different.

     

    I think he's simply baiting people to respond. Why fall for it again and again?

  • Reply 55 of 179
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Rogifan View Post





    I suppose Apple could have tempered expectations here, maybe leaked a few things to WSJ or Bloomberg. Basically Apple kept the same pricing structure they they've used before, it's just instead of keeping last years model they redesigned it. Unfortunatly the expectation got out there that "C" stood for a cheap price, when it really stood for color. Time will tell if this was a mistake on Apple's part. But we all know had Apple gone the cheap route it would have impacted margins and profits and Wall Street would have dumped the stock for that reason. What Wall Street wants with Apple - cheaper prices but still maintaining high margins and profits - is totally unrealistic.

     

    It will not be a mistake. Sure, the stock is being punished a bit. But who cares! 

     

    It's fun watching analysts eat crow. This is almost the same as when analysts were insisting that Apple needed to come up with a sub-$1000 netbook. And Apple refused. The iPhone 5C, more than anything else in the last two years, shows that the old "unapologetic" spirit is alive and well in Cupertino.

  • Reply 56 of 179
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    Jony Ive and Phil Schiller called the iPhone 5C "unapologetically plastic". What they meant was this: Apple unapologetically refuses to do what analysts dictate.

    I love it!
    i took that to mean Apple isn't ashamed to do plastic because they think they know how to do it right.
  • Reply 57 of 179
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    I think he's simply baiting people to respond. Why fall for it again and again?

    As others have said ... 'The ignore list is our friend' ... :)
  • Reply 58 of 179
    shogun wrote: »
    AI, I think I've said it was a "bi-spoke assembly," not a "bespoke assembly." The words go by quickly, but if you look at the accompanying picture it's pretty clear that it has two spokes, thus bi-spoke.

    Spokes have nothing to do with it. Bespoke means tailor made.
  • Reply 59 of 179

    It's not just plastic, it's fine Corinthian plastic.

     

  • Reply 60 of 179
    rcfarcfa Posts: 1,124member
    Plastic is just a material, it's a matter of how it's used. If a metal phone came along with the feel of an altoids box, it would also feel "cheap" and not premium, metal notwithstanding.

    The issue with plastics for the most part is scratch resistance, which coatings like used on polycarbonate eye glass lenses can improve considerably, and recyclability with polycarbonate unlike many other plastics offers.
    Besides that, plastic offer weight savings, color, radio transparency, shatter resistance, etc. all of which are good things.
    As long as it's not plasticky in the sense of flimsy, it doesn't matter if it's plastic or not.
    People don't get Apple and latch on to the wrong things.
    "Better real plastic than fake wood" is a phrase I coined when explaining to interior construction people my preference for true materials: real wood, real glass, real metal, real plastic, real stone. No "metal look", "wood decor" or whatever other fake stuff people try to use in construction; Apple seems to follow a similar path.
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