Apple appears to have a winning strategy on its hands. After launching the new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c Friday, Septmber 20th, the company says 9 million units were purchased over the weekend.
What the company isn’t saying is how many people spent their money on an iPhone 5c and how many spent a bit more for an iPhone 5s.
This is the first time Apple has launched two new iPhones at once. Typically the company rolls out a new model with new high-end features and knocks $100 off the price of last year’s model.
But this September Apple killed off the iPhone 5 and replaced it with the iPhone 5c. That model has hardware that’s nearly identical to the original iPhone 5, but it has a plastic case which is available in a variety of colors and a slightly larger battery.
It’s probably cheaper to manufacture, which helps Apple save a few bucks, but the company makes a healthy profit on all the hardware it sells, so it’s likely that the move to a new model is more about launching a new type of colorful iPhone than saving a few bucks in the manufacturing process.
Meanwhile the new iPhone 5s introduces the new Apple A7 processor which is a 64-bit chip based on ARMv8 architecture. Early reports indicate it’s much faster than the Apple A6… or any other ARM-based smartphone processor to date.
The iPhone 5s also has a fingerprint scanner for unlocking your device or authenticating app purchases or other supported actions.
The Apple iPhone 5s sells for $199 with a contract, or $649 without. Apple’s iPhone 5c sells for $99 on-contract and $549 contract-free.
While it isn’t clear which model people are buying more of, Apple says this weekend’s sale of 9 million devices sets a new record for first weekend iPhone sales.
Wow, what a number.. what about the touch ID security? Any patch coming?