VentureBeat attracted attention last week with this post documenting how sales of the iPhone 5S were far outpacing those of the cheaper 5C. The piece cited channel checks from NPD that indicated Apple has cut back 5C production by 35 percent while boosting production of the 5S by 75 percent. NPD concluded that the price of the 5C was holding back sales, as was the perception that the 5C should be cheaper than it actually is. Which led VentureBeat to conclude that Apple should lower the price of the 5C, accepting lower margins in exchange for boosting its share of the market — particularly in emerging regions.

Of course, it shouldn’t have been a surprise in the first place that the high-end model dramatically outsold the mid-range iPhone in its first few weeks, as I told MacNewsWorld in this piece. (As an aside, Ben Thompson makes some great points here about why Apple is surely quite happy with the sales mix of its new iPhones.) Gadget hounds are always far more likely to buy flashy new handsets right after they come to market, while buyers of mid-range smartphones are happy to wait a few weeks as the dust settles. Sure enough, Localytics reported today that the sales gap between the two devices appears to be narrowing substantially, with the iPhone 5S now outselling the 5C by less than two-to-one. And I won’t be surprised if that gap continues to narrow in the coming weeks and months.