The iPhone 5S Is Big In China
The iPhone 5S is selling like hotcakes, as was expected by analysts and consumers alike. Considering the latest numbers released by Apple, the high end successor to the iPhone 5 has had a very impressive start in the United States but also in China, an emerging market that Apple is trying to penetrate.
According to Counterpoint Research, a market research firm from Hong Kong, the Cupertino based company is at the moment the third smartphone manufacturer in China, mostly due to how well the iPhone 5S has sold (the high end iPhone 5S was released on September 20 2013 in eleven markets). Since October, the iPhone 5S accounts for 12% of all smartphone sales in China; as a result, Apple’s market in China quadrupled. Mixpanel, an analytics firm from San Francisco, claims the iPhone 5S accounts for 10% of all iPhones that are currently in use. Tom Kang, from Counterpoint Research told The Guardian that “[The iPhone 5s] definitely was more successful compared to what [the] iPhone 5 registered in terms of overall sales in a month[…]”.
While the recently released iPhone 5S single handedly increased Apple’s smartphone sales in China, the two iPhone models that Apple released this year (the high end iPhone 5S and the mid range iPhone 5C) are not available on China Mobile at the moment; China Mobile is the largest service provider in the world counting over 740 million subscribers, more subscribers than AT&T, Verizon and Sprint have combined. Both the new iPhones, the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C are available in China through China Unicom and China Telecom, two of China’s biggest service providers. However none of them are close to China Mobile – with its 740 million subscribers, China Mobile has more subscribers than AT&T, Verizon and Sprint have combined.
In the United States, since its release in September the iPhone 5S has managed to be the best selling smartphone at all the major carriers, including Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile. After the iPhone 5S, the second best selling smartphone in the United States is the Samsung Galaxy S4 which was released in April this year. The third best selling smartphone after the iPhone 5S and the Samsung Galaxy S4 is the mid range iPhone 5C, which replaces Apple’s flagship from last year, the iPhone 5.
Even though the iPhone 5S is extremely popular (especially the gold color version), its initial availability problems have been fixed by Apple. When it was released back in September, the iPhone 5S was “grotesquely unavailable”. Now the iPhone 5S ships “within 24 hours” as it is getting close to 100% availability for all colors and storage capacities through Apple’s online store and physical retail stores.
Apple will most likely manage to extend its advantage over rival smartphone manufacturers when the iPhone 5S and the iPhone 5C will be available on China Mobile. However, lots of iPhone 5S units sold on the Chinese market could mean low global availability during the holiday season. Tom Kang said that “[Having] Apple iPhone 5s at all three carriers will for sure ignite a price war, boosting the overall iPhone 5s sales in China […] This might allow Apple to even reach the No. 1 smartphone player in December or January in China”.
About The iPhone 5S
The iPhone 5S features a similar design to its predecessor, the iPhone 5, but there are a few differences between it and the iPhone 5. One difference is represented by the fact that the single, circular flash of last year’s iPhone was replaced by a dual LED flash that is built with amber and white LEDs for increased color accuracy, especially for skin tones. The other difference between the two iPhone models is represented by the fact that the iPhone 5S comes in three color variants: the first is the same silver on white color of the iPhone 5, and the other two new color variants are a space grey on black (which replaces the slate on black iPhone 5, that many customers complaint about being easily scratch-able) and a new white on gold color that sells like hotcakes ; unfortunately supply of the gold iPhone 5S is low.
The A7 System on Chip that powers the iPhone 5S, is twice as fast as the iPhone 5S’ A6 System on Chip in both graphics performance and computational performance. And while the fact that the A7 SoC is built on “billions of transistors” is pretty impressive, even more impressive is the fact that the iPhone 5S is the first smartphone in the world to be powered by a 64 bit SoC. While at the moment there aren’t many 64 bit optimized apps on the App Store, in the near future more 64 bit apps will start to be released and they will be able to take advantage of A7 SoC’s 64 bit architecture.
The iPhone 5S also comes equipped with a new iSight camera sensor, that is just as amazing as the fingerprint sensor. The new camera sensor is improved from the iPhone 5’s camera due to a larger aperture (f/2.2) that receives more light from the environment and also because of larger sized pixels in the image sensor. While featuring the same 8 MP resolution as iPhone 5?s camera, thanks to its dual LEDs iPhone 5S’ camera can adjust its flash intensity based on the color temperature of the picture, thus improving color balance; it can choose from nearly 1000 combinations for an almost perfect lighting in every picture you take with your iPhone 5S. As a result, images taken with the iPhone 5S’ camera will look more accurate than pictures taken with iPhone 5S’ camera.
iPhone 5S’ new iSight camera also includes a pretty cool feature: burst mode. This feature allows you to capture 10 pictures per second by holding the shutter button down. The feature can choose the best picture based on lighting and pose, but you can also make the choice yourself, from all the captured images. The new iSight camera also performs admirably when recording videos, thanks its auto image stabilization and live video zoom (up to 3x); it also comes with a feature that allows you to record videos in slow motion at 120 frames per second and a resolution of 720p.
The most popular of iPhone 5S’ specs is surely the fingerprint sensor. It is very thin (170 microns), it senses 550 pixels per inch and it can scan your sub epidermal skin layers using a 360 degree design that allows it to read the print at any angle. Touch ID, the security system using the integrated fingerprint sensor, can detect and remember multiple fingerprints, up to five individual fingerprints. This will allow you to share your iPhone 5S with a few family members.
What do you think about the iPhone 5S? Will you buy one for its high end specs or would you rather save a hundred bucks and buy the iPhone 5C despite its lower specs? Leave a comment in the dedicated section below.
