Skip to main content

Brace for color: The iPhone 5C is going to break open a can of rainbow on tech

Sexy. There are many contexts in which that word can be used, and few of them feel more inappropriate than consumer electronics. Try as we might, tech journalists haven’t managed to make a solid connection between hardware and sex appeal, and Apple’s mocking portrayal of computer users as dull shut-ins still feels like a humorous reflection of reality five years after the last ad ran.

That’s ironic, consideringApple is in large part responsible for the current state of affairs. The company’s decision to abandon playful, colorful products in favor of sleek metallic design has inspired a generation of devices that show more silver than a bingo hall. Consumer electronics design now seems to follow Cupertino’s lead – and that’s why the colorful new iPhone 5C is a very good thing.

Recommended Videos

Once, there was color

In 2003, I used an iBook for the first time. Loaned to me from a college friend, I was somewhat taken aback by the funny little clamshell’s colorful exterior. The PC notebooks I’d used up till then were big, angular and serious, which is a complicated way of saying they were drab.

iMac color
Apple original iMacs were some of the most colorful tech of the day when they arrived in 1998, but Apple wasn’t a trendsetter at the time. Image used with permission by copyright holder

Today, it’s easy to forget that color was the one common theme bridging the old iMac, iBook, and iPods. The bright accents of Apple’s products implied a playfulness and youth that the company’s competitors didn’t possess. This was embodied in the classic “I’m a Mac” ads which, coincidentally, ended as the company’s few remaining colorful products (like the iPod) lost ground to newer, more reserved replacements.

Apple’s former energy has, over the last five or six years, been replaced by a more serious and reserved demeanor, one that would rather advertise with product pictures on a blank white background than with crazed teenagers dancing across neon backgrounds.

Now a trendsetter

The difference between today and 2003, however, is that back then no one cared about Apple. There were always faithful fans, of course, but analysts were just starting to realize the iPod was not a flash in the pan but, in fact, the king of the emerging MP3 player market. The attitude of serious technology companies like Microsoft, Intel and HP didn’t change until the iPhone emerged in 2007, when it promptly destroyed notion that high-end smartphones were meant for tech geeks and titans of industry.

zen book mac book air
Dozens of Ultrabooks that cop the MacBook Air’s signature style prove how much sway Apple’s industrial designers have in 2013. Image used with permission by copyright holder

Apple’s influence is now obvious, and it extends far beyond headline-grabbing design disputes like the squabble with Samsung over whether TouchWiz was an iOS rip-off. Intel’s Ultrabook standard is clearly based of the MacBook Air, which boasted the category’s features as early as its 2008 revision. Microsoft is working tirelessly to reform itself in Apple’s image, hoping that vertical integration will prove to be a cure-all. And even televisions, which now feature app stores and a faux-touch interface (controlled by remote or gestures) pay some small tribute to the influence of Apple design.

Enter the iPhone 5C?

Ten years is a long time. The iBook I used back in 2003, though novel, had no chance of making a mark because the consumer electronics industry as a whole didn’t care what Apple products looked like. The debut of the iPhone 5C, however, offers a chance to move the dial. Apple sold more than 9 million of its new iPhones in the first weekend, and while it seems likely the iPhone 5S made up the lion’s share (perhaps no great surprise, as it is the latest-and-greatest) the more affordable iPhone 5C has likely sold between 1 and 2 million units. For perspective, the Motorola X sells about 100,000 units every week.

More importantly, the decision to release a colorful iPhone, along with the new, more colorful look of iOS, indicates a shift in design at the top of Apple. Sleek silver, black and white may be on its way out or, at the very least, complimented by more colorful products sold at affordable prices. If those products sell (as they most likely will), others companies will follow suit. The tyranny of silver will finally be broken.

iPhone 5C color
With the iPhone 5C, Apple is reintroducing color into its signature product line. Image used with permission by copyright holder

Some readers will no doubt argue that Apple is in this case the copier, as Nokia has already made color a major part of its Windows Phone devices. That’s true, but no one cares about Nokia smartphones, just as no one cared about iBooks in 2003. A Lumia would never change the industry, but an iPhone might.

Please, make silver go away

Perhaps I’m wrong about the importance of the iPhone 5C’s colorful exterior. Maybe few people will buy it, and Apple will quietly forget that it ever happened. Maybe it’s a one-off, and color won’t leak back into the company’s other products. Or maybe the competition will simply say “that’s nice, but we’ll stick with silver.”

But damn, I hope not. The silver and black which dominates technology is dreadfully tedious and long overdue for a change. With luck, the iPhone 5C’s color will shock everyone into thinking differently.

Matthew S. Smith
Matthew S. Smith is the former Lead Editor, Reviews at Digital Trends. He previously guided the Products Team, which dives…
My last hope for Mac gaming is the iPhone 15 Pro
Craig Ferguson introducing Mac Gaming at WWDC.

I’ve been impatiently waiting for the Mac to finally become a great gaming computer for years, and every time I get my hopes up, they seem to be dashed with disappointment. Yet for the first time, it feels like we could be on the brink of genuinely meaningful change -- and it’s all thanks to the iPhone.

I watched Apple’s September event and saw the company claim its new A17 Pro chip would turn the iPhone 15 Pro into a miniature console, with big-name titles like Assassin’s Creed Mirage and Death Stranding making the leap to the device. That’s all well and good, I thought, but what about the Mac?

Read more
Have an iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch? You need to update it right now
iPhone 14 Pro Max against a red background.

If you own an Apple product — be in the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, or a Mac — you should update it immediately. Why? Apple has begun rolling out updates to all of its devices with fixes for a serious security vulnerability.

The security vulnerability is known as CVE-2023-32434, and it has to do with the kernel privileges of Apple devices. Per Apple's website, the vulnerability allows third-party apps to "execute arbitrary code." In other words, if a bad actor knows how to exploit this vulnerability, they could potentially gain access to your Apple device and wreck havoc.

Read more
Apple may soon eliminate the notch from your Mac and iPhone
An Apple MacBook laptop with the macOS Ventura background wallpaper and the notch seen at the top of the display.

So many Apple devices have the divisive notch cutout these days that the feature has almost become its own brand, yet it continues to stir disapproving glances and attempts to hide it wherever it's seen. Apple could now be on the brink of eliminating it for good.

That’s because the company recently filed a patent in Europe outlining how future Apple devices, from Macs to iPhones, could do away with the notch once and for all, giving you a borderless experience that’s unbroken around the screen. It’s a grand idea, and Apple thinks it knows how to make it work.

Read more