The iPhone 5C (marketed with a stylized lowercase 'c' as iPhone 5c) is a smartphone designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The device was part of the iPhone series and was unveiled on September 10, 2013, and released on September 20, 2013, along with its higher-end counterpart, the iPhone 5S. The iPhone 5C is a variant of the iPhone 5, with similar hardware specifications but a hard-coated polycarbonate shell instead of the aluminium of the original iPhone 5. The iPhone 5C was available in several color options, and shipped with iOS 7. The iPhone 5C was sold at a discounted price point in comparison to the 5S: unlike Apple's prior practice of lowering the price of the previous model upon release of a new version, the iPhone 5 was explicitly discontinued and replaced by the 5C. On September 9, 2014, the 16 and 32 GB iPhone 5C models were replaced by the 8 GB model with the announcement of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. On September 9, 2015, the 8 GB version was discontinued upon the announcement of the iPhone 6S.