New iPhones likely in Costa Rica in November

September 11th, 2013 (VOA & InsideCostaRica.com) U.S. technology giant Apple has unveiled two new iPhones, its latest effort to win a bigger share of the highly competitive worldwide market for smartphones.

The company said Tuesday one of the models – the iPhone 5C – would be offered in a choice of five colors – green, blue, yellow, pink and white. It would sell for as little as $99 for users agreeing to a two-year wireless contract.

Apple is hoping the phone will boost sales in China and other countries where customers do not have as much disposable income as in the U.S. and Europe.

The company called the other new model – the upscale iPhone 5S – “the most forward-looking phone we have ever created,” with increased computing power that is about 40 times faster than when the first iPhone was introduced in 2007. The company said the 5S would have increased battery life that permits about 10 hours of talk time, and would cost between $199 and $399, depending on the amount of memory in the phone.

Google’s Android devices now dominate the smartphone marketplace, with about three-quarters of all handsets. Some analysts are predicting that Apple could marginally increase its share to about 18 percent this year.

Costa Rican cellular phone carriers said that the new iPhones would likely take 60 days to appear on store shelves here, meaning the new phones would likely arrive in November.  Local carriers have yet to announce prices for the phones.