iPhone 5c
September 20, 2013
The iPhone 5c is a smartphone that was developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is part of the sixth generation of the iPhone. The device was unveiled on September 10, 2013, and released on September 20, 2013, along with its higher-end counterpart, the iPhone 5s. The "c" in the iPhone 5c's name stands for "color".
The iPhone 5c is a variant of the iPhone 5, with similar hardware specifications but a hard-coated polycarbonate shell instead of the aluminum of the original iPhone 5. The iPhone 5c was available in several color options and shipped with iOS 7. The device was released at a lower price point than the new flagship 5s; unlike Apple's usual practice of lowering the price of the previous model upon release of a new version, the iPhone 5 was explicitly discontinued and replaced by the 5c. On September 9, 2014, the 16 and 32 GB iPhone 5c models were replaced by the 8 GB model upon the announcement of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. On September 9, 2015, the 8 GB version was discontinued in all markets except for India, where it continued to be available until February 17, 2016.
The iPhone 5c was the last new iPhone to be sold at a lower price than the flagship iPhone until the release of the first-generation iPhone SE in 2016. The iPhone XR released in 2018 was considered a spiritual successor to the 5c by some observers, but the XR shared similar internal hardware with its more expensive counterparts.
