Thursday, September 12, 2013

Apple suffering from trade off between 5S and 5C

A new iPhone is coming.

TechRadar: Apple iPhone 5S officially launched as Cupertino's new flagship

Apple will release iPhone5S, a new flagship model of iPhone at Sep. 20, 2013. 5S has a faster CPU and more powerful battery than previous one. In addition, it equips fingerprint sensor to identify the owner quickly.

Furthermore, Apple introduces iPhone5C as an entry model. 5C includes five colored variations, as its name.

Unfortunately, this news resulted in a severe decline of reputation of Apple. Its stock price fell by 5% after the announcement of iPhone5C.

Los Angels Times: Apple's stock tumbles after company fails to deliver cheaper iPhone

Investors seem to be disappointed with Apple. There are 2 reasons for this.
First, a new iPhone did not make an innovation. Most of Apple lovers expects that Apple will offer some new dramatic change of our lives. Although iPhone5S is a good tool, it is not so different from previous ones, nor from Galaxy series by Samsung.
Second, iPhone5C was not so cheap enough to be spread in developing countries. It is possible that iPhone5C will damage the brand of iPhone without any compensation.

A few years ago, I read a book titled "Trade Off". It describes a dilemma between fidelity and convenience. A lot of episodes of companies which had failed to get both of them are written. According to the author, expensive goods and cheap commodities are ambivalent each other. The author recommends to aim at either gorgeous items or cheap tools.

Apple has been a company of fidelity. Mr. Steve Jobs and his colleagues offered unique products which other competitors could not follow. The image of products by Apple was expensive and extraordinary. In my memory, however, the price was gradually decreasing. Apple accomplished fidelity and convenience at the same time for a while. But it would not last long.

In contrast, NTT Docomo, the biggest provider of telecommunication will start to sell iPhone for the first time in Japan. The battle of providers will be ignited. It is an interesting situation.

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