Significant discounts on brand new Apple iPhone handsets are absolutely unheard of, but US big box store Best Buy has become the latest major retailer across the pond to slash the price of the iPhone 5C.
Best Buy is offering the iPhone 5C for $50 (about £30) on a two-year contract, which is half of the $100 (around £60) Apple has instructed retailers to ask punters for the colourful handset.
Best Buy's move, as reported by ABC news, furnishes users with a $50 gift card towards the cost of the iPhone 5C, hence circumnavigating Apple's recommended retail price. It's the largest cut yet after rival retailers Target and Wal-Mart knocked twenty bucks off the asking price.
This comes just two weeks after the handset, which represented a serious change of tact for Apple, became available to buy in the US and around the world and is a sure-fire sign that consumers haven't been turned on by the offering.
Effectively an iPhone 5 in a plastic shell, the 5C replaced its predecessor to become Apple's second tier handset behind the iPhone 5S. However, while the iPhone 5S is still listed for an 'October' dispatch after selling out on day one around the world, there have been no such issues for the readily available iPhone 5S.
Apple acknowledged that the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C combined sold 9 million units in the first weekend on sale, but didn't segregate each handset's performance.
Even through the iPhone 5C was billed as a more affordable handset, most observers felt Apple's pricing remained excessive at £469, just £80 cheaper than the flagship model, which packs the new A7 and M7 processors, the TouchID fingerprint sensor and multiple improvements to the device's camera.
Perhaps the price drops, which have yet to make their way to the UK, will allow the iPhone 5C the opportunity to halt the march of the mid-range Android brigade?
Via ABC News
