One of last few iPhone 5Ss STOLEN from within MASSIVE POLICE CORDON at Apple Store A man's new iPhone 5S was stolen in Apple's flagship London store just seconds after he bought it this morning. Despite more than a dozen cops turning up at the packed Regent Street shop - where the latest mobe went on sale today at 0800 BST - an enterprising pickpocket managed to swipe the gear. The Register understands the …
You'd think there would be a way to lock the serial numbers.
After all, the phone S/N is on the bill (hence proof of payment), so the buyer should have been able to log the phone as stolen and get Apple to flag that it has tried to authenticate and maybe identify the associated iTunes account. Such a measure will render phone thefts useless, and I know the Apple store has a record that ties the credit card to the specific phone.
FFS, if the US has such deficient privacy laws, could we at least have some *positive* use of that?
Which makes me think its deliberate so they can create free headlines about shops selling out.
When the raspberry pi sold out they massively underestimated and it destroyed websites. You can tell by what happened - its genuine.
But like you say to pre-print signs smacks of marketing hype and artificial low stock. Apple are one of the richest companies in the world in pretty sure that after 5 years of doing this and probably the some of the best analytics of their customers they know exactly much how many they need for customers (and how many they needed to MAKE SURE they sell out everywhere :-) )
"Which makes me think its deliberate so they can create free headlines about shops selling out."
1) You'd think they would have done that for the 5C if that were the case ("ooh, look how popular this one is too").
2) Stock control and supply chain management says that you shouldn't operate to try and fulfil demand on day 1. To do so would be to start stockpiling models for ages, and tying up capital in your warehouses. Say they can sell 100,000 on day 1, and can make 1,000 per day (all made up figures). They would have had to start producing them over 3 months ago and stockpile them all as the levels get gradually larger. Stock in a warehouse is an utter waste of capital. Using those figures along and averaging the value to be around £600, they'd have £60m tied up in a warehouse, doing nothing but waiting for launch day.
In reality the figures will be much higher.
As opposed to billions lying in off shore accounts doing nothing but waiting for a tax amnesty.
You really need to know the basic fact that that money is not "lying there". It's being used. Maybe to finance your job. It's just that someone has a claim on it.
And as long as the tax part hasn't been hoovered away, it's probably being used to produce stuff people want as opposed to stuff bureaucrats imagine people want (less the skim-off for bureaucrats' paycheck, of course)
"1) You'd think they would have done that for the 5C if that were the case ("ooh, look how popular this one is too")."
Not really. I should imagine they have teams of people reading the tech reviews/ previews/ popular blogs and, realizing world + dog (even hardened fanbios) think a poorer quality but only slightly cheaper iShiny is a shit idea, instead focused all their attention on the expensive iShiny.
"Starving the market" is an old trick, and is one Apple has successfully employed every year since 2008. How many more years they can get away with it remains to be seen, however.
'1) You'd think they would have done that for the 5C if that were the case ("ooh, look how popular this one is too").
Not really. This gives them absolute 'excuse' on the next wave to declare 'our customers have shown us that they really prefer quality and high value products' and then they'll jack up the price on the next 'premium' phone and accessories by £100.
<quote>Indeed, plus the way they say they're sold out "today" when their next shipment will be in October (according to the article anyway).</quote>
No, the article says that orders placed online will be shipped in October. About 2am the online store was saying 7-10 days, and it's now slipped to "October", so there is (at least one) earlier batch that is already fully claimed for online sales, but presumably the physical stores will operate on a first come, first serve basis and they'll get some allocation from the earlier batch(es).
" thieves are on the lookout for the distinctive new mobes"
They'll need good eyesight, as these look like any other smartphone of the day.
I suppose the most worried will be Lumia owners, whose garish plastic babies were previously theft proof, but may now be swiped in a tragic case of mistaken identity that all concerned will rue.
Or alternatively in Apple pitched the 5C in such way as to make the fruity fanbois think: "Oh my gawd, I don't wanna be stuck with a 5C, I GOTTA have a 5S to be a successful & stylish thinkfluencing barista!" Not that Apple would really do anything to ramp hysteria among the (not so) poor fashion victim community. No no. Not never. As if!
</tinfoil-conspiracy-fandroid-wanker>
Apple "sell out" of their new phone. Wow, that's never happened before.
If only they send a few more of the thousands of them, sat in warehouses somewhere in China, to the stores, they could avoid inconveniencing their customers, just for the sake of pointless publicity claims of how well they're selling.
Interesting ...
In classical product marketing, you create a high end, high priced product (pardon the pun .. Gold Model) and also offer a more affordable version (Silver Model) of the same product which typically offers 70-90% of the Gold Model. Normally you expect the Gold Model sets the aspirational bar, with the expectation that the Silver Model will actually account for 70-80% of sales as it seems to offer really good value for the money whilst the Gold Model sells in much lower volumes. In car sales this has worked well for many years. In old Ford money ... L, XL, GXL... Most of the volume was XL..
Apple seem to have changed this, in that the 5S may sell more than the 5C. So why might this be?
Either ...
1) They have changed the product perception model for Apple products
or
2) There is no need for a Gold Model as the Gold model is perceived to be the Apple Brand in general ... which means that ... The 5S is the Silver Model and the 5C is perceived as the Bronze Model (low rent version). Nobody wants a Bronze Model... especially when the product is a personal fashion status symbol as opposed to just being a utilitarian piece of equipment.
If 2 is true, then the 5C is therefore expected to sell in low numbers because it is deliberately low rented to persuade the purchaser to buy the 5S (spend more money) so as not to appear as a cheapskate. The Gold Model is perceived to be the Apple Brand and it's future expected product ... the iPhone 6 and that is currently unattainable by anyone, because it is not available/developed/marketed yet.
Having said the above, I think this may NOT have been what they intended. The 5C was probably just a reaction to loosing market percentage points, and pressure from the city and analysts to make sure they compete in the this sector rather than holding onto their principles (expecting to command a 20% type market share with much higher ARPU than the competition in the 80% of the market).
Perception is the reality ...
Back in the day of real cameras the makers would charge a premium for the black version over the silver.
People thought the black one looked more professional - and people would rather look like a paparazzi than just some rich idiot that bought the latest fashionable shiny toy
Or it could be that the 5c is selling well, but the fact that it is made in a lot more volume that the 5s due to it being based on the mature (year old) iPhone 5 platform with readily available components (not new and still ramping up A7 processor or shiny new and reportedly hard to make sapphire glass fingerprint sensor). Even if the 5c wildly outsells the 5s, it just means that there is not a lot to talk about as it is not really new...
Well......if people are daft enough to fall for all the over-blown hype from Apple and pay through the nose for a grossly over-priced product from such a ruthless company, then I have no sympathy. They almost deserve to be relieved of their gold-plated product.....Er.....What's that? It's NOT gold plated? Always thought that ALL Apple products were, judging by the bloated and insane prices that their products are sold for. Still, gotta keep the management in the style they're accustomed to.
Fuckwit.
How do you know this guy hasn't saved his pennies for some period of time, and is not purchasing his first iPhone?
You don't, you are just another moron who probably cannot afford one and doesn't have the will to save the money to pay for one. People who think that Apple products are expensive are deluded. Apple's products represent an excellent value proposition, which seems to be evidenced by the number sold.
I'm willing to put cold hard cash and bet that 99.99% of the people posting on this thread don't even have an IPhone you sad sad twats lol Why do you care its not your money or your phone LOL
#You do realize you come over as sad gits gutted that the pretty girl won't go out with you yet again , don't you ??
"You do realize you come over as sad gits gutted that the pretty girl won't go out with you yet again , don't you ??"
I suppose you think Jeremy Clarkson disses the Vauxhall Vectra because he can't afford one, rather than because he is relatively knowledgable about cars, passionately interested in them, and is opinionated enough to express a view that he has developed as a result?
Most of the people here dissing the iPhone could have bought one for cash on launch day, for goodness sake. who do you think the commentarderate are if not mostly relatively well-paid IT professionals? It is perfectly valid for you to believe the anti-Apple and anti-iPhone sentiments you see are wrong, just as people may feel about JC's opinion about the VV; but to suggest they can only originate from envy arising from inability to afford one (or the lack of foresight that they might sell out) appears to indicate a very severe lack of understanding on your part.
and as IT proffessionals they have absolutely no clue why the NON proffesional keeps buying Apple.
Walk into (Apple) shop.
Buy iDevice
it just works
compare that with the pain of windows/*nix
and the struggles my son appears to have periodically with his android phone (now on the 3rd free replacement inside a year ..)
NON IT people don't give a dam about all the good geek reasons for disliking iDevices; when the customer experience is 99% reliability compared with a (percieved) 60% reliability from the opposition
Most people here dissing iPhones seem to have never done a use case of the AVERAGE block/ette in the street (or even on the Clapham Omnibus)
"Most people here dissing iPhones seem to have never done a use case of the AVERAGE block/ette in the street (or even on the Clapham Omnibus)"
My wife uses an iPhone, and is a total fangirl. Here's a couple of recent use cases for you
(1) How do I ring this number of someone who has messaged me?
Press and hold the message. No? Oh.
(2) *looking at missed call* How come I have managed to block some caller?
Ah, let me see. *fiddles for several minute looking for list of Blocked Callers, then Googles*. Ah, you can't actually block callers on iOS6 (without an app), it's Apple-ese for Withheld Number.
Jeremy Clarkson is as "relatively knowledgable about cars" as Android users are about Iphones.
Yup, sounds about right. He can't drive for toffee, as most of the work you see is with standin drivers.
If it doesn't go around a track sideways nicely, then it's a poor car according to Clarkson.
Top Gear stopped being a motoring show many many moons ago, because they are boring. It's an entertainment show. Koenisegg Hundra anyone? Right now get 6 scouts and 6 sets of backpacks in it, not such a great car for those requirements is it?
Trouble is, most normal cars meet most peoples requirements nowadays. There is very little, aside from badge snobbery between an Audi, BMW, Merceded and Jaguar 4 door saloon now. They are all more than capable of motorway speeds. Most are limited to 155mph. Most are very comfortable, and will take 4 people in that comfort many miles.
Most will never ever been driven on a track, by someone as capable as the Stigg, so how fast it goes round duxford airfield is irrelevent to most people.
Same as your opinion on why other people shouldn't buy a phone that you didn't.
Do you go to BMW forums and tell them they should have bought Audis? We can all pontificate why one is better than the other, whilst others buy one and get on driving it. Buy a phone that meets your requirements, get on with life.
And then you quote a lot of expensive badges. But in fact, the trouble is that on normal roads, almost 100% of the time, much cheaper cars than German and Chinese makes will cruise all day on motorways carrying 4 or 5 people plus dog and luggage. In fact, some of them appear to be, embarrassingly, more reliable than the expensive badges (though I believe Mercedes is about as reliable as Toyota). And some of them will go places that those expensive rear wheel drive cars won't - remember the people who got stuck on ice because their traction controls wouldn't apply power to the rear wheels?
I think I agree with your basic point, which is that just about all of the more expensive modern phones do things about equally well, with the odd special quirk. But the biggest phone maker, Samsung, is a Hyundai rather than a Jaguar, in market terms. And Windows Phone is definitely Ford.
... how much I don't know. I went in today as my son wanted one. The O2 I went to didn't receive a single 5S and told me the 5C were selling like hotcake, and they had sold 70 of them but they still have some in stock.. no thank you. I popped over the aisle to the Three store. They received 10 5S phones and still had two of them left of which I took one. They had plenty of 5C's and couldn't get them budged out the door. I told her the O2 store had sold 70 which she didn't believe. She said their demand for either phone hadn't been that great, which I would tend to believe, considering they had only sold eight since yesterday's release and they had a large "2 iPhone 5S signs left" outside the shop, which is in one of Belfast most popular and busy shopping centres.
They know that a good proportion of their customers will not switch to anything else so:
1. The customer's new iPhone gets nicked, they (or possibly their insurance) buys a new one so that's possibly over a grand in revenue from one customer.
2. In the UK at least networks are supposed to block IMEI numbers of stolen handsets to prevent them authenticating against UK networks and so being used but this may not apply to all parts of the globe so if the phone gets sent overseas it can be used and this also means Apple can still sell apps for the device.
It's a win-win for them.
I wouldn't go for an iPhone because it doesn't really invite me to take it apart and see how it works, play with it, and use it for something completely different. Of course, I'd never steal anything (1), but I don't have the inclination to start with iPhones.
Do you think the thief took the 5S just to spite the fanbois? That would be another emotion for which I have no sympathy: I wish Apple users all the best, hopefully as they enjoy shiny new technology which largely works as expected.
Sorry: I sympathise with the poor chap who had his phone stolen. We have to live with finite risk in all areas, and it's not pleasant when we take a hit.
(1) What, *never* ?! Well, hardly ever..
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