Apple has cut the prices of plastic-backed iPhone 5c in a tacit admission that the phone, marketed as a cheaper option, hasn’t succeeded in luring budget conscious shoppers.

The lower capacity, 8 GB (gigabyte) version iPhone 5c will set customers back $679 outright and $739 for the 16 GB model.

The move is an unusual one for Apple, and could be an attempt to move a backlog of the unpopular phones ahead of the release of a new iPhone, possibly as soon as June.

As the cheapest entry point ever for the iPhone, it seems like a bargain – but tech website CNET says it may actually be a dud deal.

“8GB isn’t really enough storage anymore. When Apple first introduced the iPhone, the device essentially was an iPod with extra communication features.”

Before  2007, apps and photos didn’t chew up huge amounts of memory. In 2014, users clog their phones with whiz-bang graphics, Retina Display screens and lengthy movie files. “All of that equates to larger files, and there’s no way this trend will reverse,” says CNET.

Apple launched the 5c iPhone last year in tandem with a high-end 5s model, in an effort to lure a new market with the lower cost, plastic-backed look. The 5s has been the more successful unit, with more memory, a better camera and a flashy fingerprint scanner.

The 5c is thought to have under-performed compared to previous new iPhones. Despite the company posting record sales figures for the final quarter of last year, it’s believed the bulk of these were made up with the iPhone 5S, according to the Daily Mail, with at least a million of the cheaper models sitting in warehouses waiting to be sold.

Apple also announced it was replacing the old iPad 2 with a single 16GB version of the fourth-generation tablet – the Wi-Fi model costs $449, the mobile versions costs $598.