[simonh]

I think the "C stands for China" is fair, but I don't expect Apple to break with their multi-decade tradition of maintaining the highest margins that are compatible with a viable market presence. Yes margins will be lower in aching than elsewhere, but they are not going to even attempt to compete with Android for market share because it would be utterly pointless.

The Chinese mass market is dominated by extremely poor bargain bucket Android devices with invisibly thin margins that can barely scroll a web page. It is true that Samsung has a strong presence over there and Apple needs to deal with that, but the premium end of the market is big enough for both to do well. The kind of people who are likely to prefer an iPhone over there aren't as price sensitive as the average and charging them less just to also sell a few more units down market would just be leaving money on the table. That's not something Apple has a habit of doing.

[Tyrannosaurs]

There's enough money in China that Apple can make some in roads but a bulk of the phones selling there are sub $200 (off contract) non-Google Androids. The 5C isn't going to take anything out of that market.

Rather boringly I suspect the C stands for colour (or color if you must).