Alleged Plastic Budget iPhone Packaging Leak Confirms iPhone 5C

Apple's more affordable plastic iPhone is being mass produced at this very moment, and it seems it cannot be kept a closely guarded secrete as it nears its official debut. This time a photo taken during a factory inspection by a member of a Chinese labor rights group shows empty plastic packaging shells of the plastic iPhone marked with an iPhone 5C branding, which is believed to stand for "Color" as it will be offered in 5 vibrant colors. This would be the first time Apple has moved from its iconic, minimalist cardboard box packaging to hard plastic pod-shaped packaging reminiscent of HTC's smartphone packaging.

Nir Schneider

Editor-in-Chief

Budget iPhone Colors Leaked, 16GB To Retail For $349 Off Contract?

Now that we know what Apple's upcoming low-cost iPhone will look like, a new leak of the purported 4-inch polycarbonate-made iPhone shows the device in a variety of colorfully vibrant colors which are said to look fluorescent in person - including red, yellow, lime green, blue and white. It is rumored that all five colors will only be available with a black glass display as opposed to iPhone 5 models. The Taiwanese site AppleDaily which has acquired the leaked images claims that a 16GB model will retail for $349 with no contract compared to the $649 an iPhone 5 costs without a contract. 

Nir Schneider

Editor-in-Chief

Here's What Apple's Low-Cost iPhone 5C Looks Like

We're no blog to jump into conclusions, but we're very confident that this is what Apple's purported next low-cost, budget iPhone looks like. Or however you'd like to call it. In fact, this is the actual leaked and unfinished rear shell part with an iPhone 5 display fitted in to get a real feel for what we should be expecting the final thing to be like. Sporting a rounded rear shell design that looks like a bulkier 5th generation iPod touch if it were made out of plastic, the budget iPhone will be made out of strong polycarbonate plastic and will be made available in multiple vibrant colors, all of which will come with a black 4-inch display, a rear facing camera with LED flash and physical buttons.

As for storage capacities, we think Apple will only make 8GB and 16GB models to keep the cost down in addition to lower speced hardware of course. The rear polycarbonate shells will have an iPhone 3G-like glossy finish only that more colors would be made available other than the standard white and black.

Apple's Tim Cook promised to deliver a quality product no matter how much it'll cost when asked about the possibility of a cheaper iPhone, and Techdy, the site that got hold of the leaked parts and put out a generous amount of detailed photos of the assembly, has confirmed that the polycarbonate shell does not feel cheap and that it feels better made than Samsung's Galaxy smartphones. Check out the in-depth video after the break!

Update: The plastic iPhone goes by the name - iPhone 5C.

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Phil Schiller Puts Rumors Of A Cheaper iPhone To Rest

Despite both Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal claiming that Apple plans to sell a cheaper version of the iPhone this year, Apple has put these rumors to rest today. When asked to comment about the rumors of a possible lower-cost iPhone release, Apple's Senior VP Phil Schiller officially stated that Apple's sole focus is in creating the best quality products, and that it does not intend to sacrifice the build quality and hardware in order to produce a more competitively priced smartphone for the mass market.

Interviewer Huang Yinlong spoke to Schiller about Apple’s products in China who said that “every product that Apple creates, we consider using only the best technology available. This includes the production pipeline, the Retina display, the unibody design, to provide the best product to the market.”

“At first, non-smartphones were popular in the Chinese market, now cheap smartphones are more popular and non-smartphones are out,” Schiller added later. “Despite the popularity of cheap smartphones, this will never be the future of Apple’s products. In fact, although Apple’s market share of smartphones is just about 20%, we own the 75% of the profit.”

Nir Schneider

Editor-in-Chief