Apple Said to Plan iPhone 5C Production Shut Down

While it’s not as good as a confirmation from Apple itself, a new report claims that the company will soon stop making new iPhone 5C units by next year. The news comes by way of the Industrial and Commercial Times out of Taiwan (via MacRumors), and follows similar rumors we’ve heard for months since that handset’s debut back in 2013.

According to the report, the wind-down will begin by mid-2015 at Apple’s Foxconn and Wistron suppliers in China. If true, this isn’t much of a surprise, since the iPhone 5C has consistently seen lower adoption rates than that of the 5S, released at the same time last fall. The 5C has somewhat less powerful specs, and comes with a colorful plastic chassis as opposed to the metal chassis of the 5s.

Now that the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have hit, there’s even less incentive for users to buy the 5C than before. Apple users haven’t traditionally had a problem with paying top dollar for the company’s best offerings – as such, the 5C never really fit in too well with the rest of Apple’s premium products. News of Apple’s plans to cut iPhone 5C production started roughly a month after its debut last year, too, so today’s news has been a long time coming.

One good bit of news on it, though: if you were hoping for price cuts to hit the iPhone device line, keep your eyes trained on the 5C sometime next year. Carriers might start discounting them to move unsold units.

[Source: MacRumors]