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Just How Epic a Failure Is Apple's iPhone 5c?

By Andrew Tonner – Mar 15, 2014 at 5:00AM

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Running the numbers to examine just how unpopular Apple's lower-cost iPhone is proving to be with consumers.

Like it or not, even the best companies are guilty of the occasional blunder.

Microsoft had the Zune. Netflix had Qwikster. From time to time, it just happens.

Tech giant Apple (AAPL -1.23%) certainly isn't immune to the periodic dud either: Newton, anyone? And from the look of things, Apple appears to have created another less-than-memorable product when it released its lower-cost iPhone 5c last fall.

The high end of the low end
In the run up to Apple's iPhone refresh last September, the analyst community was abuzz with speculation that Apple was indeed planning to finally introduce a device that would help it compete in the highest-growth area of the global smartphone market: the low end.

What consumers got instead was the iPhone 5c, a phone aimed at just that, but with a price tag that suggested otherwise. Starting at just $100 less than the higher-end iPhone 5s, Apple placed the device in an awkward no man's land of being a cheap luxury device.

And as you might expect, the iPhone 5c hasn't exactly been flying off the shelves. In the video below, tech and telecom analyst Andrew Tonner examines some recent data that suggests Apple's iPhone 5c is as unpopular as many thought.

Andrew Tonner owns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool recommends Apple and Netflix. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple, Microsoft, and Netflix. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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