News.com.au's Claire Porter has a hard time finding anyone who wants to buy Apple's budget model Phone, the 5c.

IT WAS the iPhone nobody wanted to buy.

And now it appears the end is near for the low-cost version of the iPhone, the 5C. The colourful device has been such a flop that Apple is reportedly set to halt production within a matter of months.

According to Taiwan’s Industrial and Commercial Times, production of the device will be wound down as soon as January next year.

By mid-2015, it will stop altogether.

The handset, which was released last year, was criticised for it gaudy neon colours. The company’s former advertising executive Ken Segall spoke about the failure of the phone earlier in the year, saying Apple “doesn’t do cheap”.

On his blog, Segall wrote:

“[Apple] makes products for people who care about design, simplicity, quality and a great experience — and are willing to pay more for these things. For Apple to compromise in any of these areas would be a violation of the Prime Directive.

“... Unfortunately for Apple, creativity can be a double-edged sword. The ‘unapologetically plastic’ line in the product video was so interesting and memorable, it got played back over and over in articles about the lacklustre demand for iPhone 5c. Not exactly what Apple intended.”

Isn’t that what Steve Jobs always said?

MORE: Why nobody wanted the iPhone 5C.