The iPhone 5 – the smartphone which had the most successful first year of any iPhone ever – is to be discontinued and replaced with two new models.
In the past when Apple brought out a new device it cut the price of the device it replaced, but CEO Tim Cook said this would not happen this time round.
Instead the existing iPhone 5 will be replaced with not one but with two new designs.
The first will be the iPhone 5C described as “more fun, more colorful” and they will come in green, white, blue, pink, and yellow.
Apple said the entire back and sides were made from a single part and it was designed such that “you won’t see seams, or part lines, or joins.”
Apple has also created custom cases with a “soft-feel silicon rubber” made from a hard-coated polycarbonate material.
Apple said the new phone will have:
- an A6 processor, the same as the iPhone 5
- 4-inch Retina display, integrated touch layer.
- The battery is slightly larger than it was on the iPhone 5
- It has the same 8-megapixel rear camera.
- new FaceTime HD camera on the front, larger pixels, and backside illumination
- It supports more LTE bands than any other smartphone in the world. Dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0.
- Priced from $99 for 16GB and $199 for 32GB.
- The cases are $29 each.
Apple said the phones were made from a single piece of polycarbonate, with a steel frame on the inside which doubles up as an antenna.