The iPod has been an excellent device for those who’d rather not use an iPhone as their daily work driver, but its slowing sales in comparison to the iPhone has brought nothing other than “the iPod is dead” claims among Apple fans. And then, some weeks ago, Apple released a refreshed iPod – the sixth-generation iPod Touch with an 8MP iSight camera, among other features, as well as some new bold and daring colors that certainly give the iPod Touch an extra “thumbs up” from its predecessor.
So, Apple has made a reputation out of reviving nostalgic products. Could the company do the same thing with the iPhone 6c?
The iPhone 5c was Apple’s first experiment into producing a smartphone with cost-reducing materials while maintaining some form of an acceptable design for Apple fans who didn’t care for the iPhone 5s price tag and aren’t really tempted to pay so much for an iPhone 6 when they can get a cheaper iPhone yet have the best of the Apple experience regardless (fingerprint scanner excepted). The iPhone 5c went on to sale at least 30 million according to the last count made some months ago, although Apple hasn’t continued disclosing sales numbers for the less-than-premium-material iPhone that offered a semi-affordable option for Apple customers.
Now, the latest report from DigiTimes says that Apple will launch an iPhone 6c in 2016, bringing with it the best processing power by utilizing its own A9 chip in the handset alongside of Samsung and TSMC-manufactured 14-nanometer and 16-nanometer (nm) chips. The site responsible for the rumor doesn’t have a consistent track record with rumors, so we advise readers to take this with a grain of salt.
At the same time, however, it wouldn’t be unreasonable of Apple. We’ve already heard that Apple would wait until Q2 2016 to launch the iPhone 6c, due to the fact that all of Apple’s smartphone and tablet launches are now in the Fall of the year, with no Spring launches like the third-generation iPad or fourth-generation iPad in years past. Perhaps Apple’s looking to separate its products into at least three launches (Spring launch of iPod lineup, iPhone 6c in Spring, iPhone 6s and 6s Plus in September, iPad lineup in October), with the Apple Watch also having a launch in years to come (although Apple just unveiled the first-generation smartwatch earlier this Spring).
It is also true that Apple would outsource its production work to Samsung and TSMC, as both of these companies have had a hand in iPhone and iPad production for the last few years, consistently. Sources have said that Apple will utilize Samsung’s latest LPDDR4 RAM chips in the new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, and it makes sense when you consider that Samsung’s own Galaxy S6 and S6 edge are the fastest and best-performing smartphones on the market right now (upload and download speeds, app opening times, and multitasking are areas where the Korean manufacturer’s phones dominate).
There are no specs available for the iPhone 6c, but the report claims that Apple will utilize its A9 processor chip with its motion co-processor, creating, in effect, a tri-core processor for the more budget-friendly iPhone. The iPhone 5c was announced with relatively little fanfare, considering all the hype surrounding the device that claimed Apple would sell it for around $350-$450. When announced nearly two years ago, the retail price for the iPhone 5c was $549, the same price as the then year-old iPhone 5. The iPhone 5c’s 30 million sales were still spectacular, no doubt, but nowhere near the hundreds of millions of high-end iPhones Apple sells each year.
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