Apple has announced two new features on their store, an 8GB version of the iPhone 5C and the re-introduction of the iPad 4, removing the ageing iPad 2 from the store.
The iPhone 5C with 8GB of internal storage is available across Europe for €1 or £0 down and Apple has added the variant onto their store-front worldwide for £40 less than the 16GB version, at £429.
Oddly enough, the 8GB iPhone 5C has not appeared on US store and no American carrier has announced they will be selling the small storage option, possibly implying Apple does not want to add the version in the US.
This could simply be due to people buying more storage in the United States, compared to European and Asian markets where the lowest storage option may be all they can afford or they aren’t bothered about the lack of storage.
Adding an 8GB variant allows Apple to sell the iPhone 5C at a cheaper price and we are seeing a lot of carrier in Europe take advantage of the price drop, by offering the 8GB model at a very low-price.
What this does mean is Apple has failed to gain lots of interest with the 16GB model and the 32GB model appears to have less interest. Having a cheaper 8GB model may spruce up the market, but we doubt the iPhone 5C is going to become any more popular than it is already.
In other news, Apple also announced it will be bringing back the iPad 4, removing the age-old iPad 2. Apple gained a lot of criticism when they dropped the iPad 4 and iPhone 5 for lower end products, but did not drop the price of the older models.
This is the first announcement from Apple on a hardware front for 2014, it may not be much, but it shows Apple is interested in the lower-end mobile market and making more ground with their iPads.
