If the iPhone 5c is so new, why isn't it selling better than the 4S last year?

From the 'article': "it’s not selling that much better than the 4S did when it was demoted to legacy iPhone by the flagship iPhone 5."

Which means that it is selling better than the 4S last year. Either your article is factually incorrect or your thread title is. Either way, is there a point to this post?

I never did buy the "what's looks new is new" line of reasoning. Consumers simply aren't that vapid (on the whole) that they'll swallow such a shallow pitch: "Look, fun colors!"

The two most common questions I get about the 5S/5C are:

1) What's the difference in terms of features?

2) What's the difference in terms of cost?

I've received a tremendously positive response to the finger print reader. From the people I've explained it to, I get a real sense that they feel like this feature represents something futuristic. Yes, I know that finger print readers have been around for a long time, but this is a pretty typical Apple formula; wait for the technology to reach a mature, usable state, then roll a tightly integrated solution that "just works".

The price delta between comparable (storage) models is $99. It seems that this isn't enough incentive for consumers to discard the additional features.

Too expensive, but pitched like a bargain product, except the actual bargain products are cheaper, look nicer and work just fine.

If they had made iOS7 a 5x exclusive and just supplied patches to legacy iOS6 devices, they might have had more uptake.

The 5s is the next generation and the 4s is seriously discounted. My Dad had his phone stolen and he intended to buy a 5c to replace it, but the 4s was discounted so much he picked it up.

At least part of the problem is that I've noticed Apple store employees think of the 5c as old hardware too and, as a result, their pitches steer customers towards the 5s.

Yeah, this is funny and kinda strange. It definitely doesn't seem to be going according to Apple's master plan. After the announcement, I saw a lot of people saying "Wow, this 5C is gonna be huge." I guess that could happen in time, but right now this seems like not quite where Apple wants to be in terms of their supply chain. You could argue that this is a good problem to have, though.