Finally, after years of speculation, we now know the iPhone 5C actually exists.

During a special press conference at their headquarters in Cupertino, California, Apple revealed its new $99 (on a two-year contract) budget iPhone.

Apple describes the phone’s build as polycarbonate and it comes in blue, green, white, yellow and red. It adopts a one piece build and iOS 7 will match your iPhone 5C’s colour right out of the box.

During the press conference Apple’s Jony Ive said the “iPhone 5C is beautifully, unapologetically plastic.” Strange looking plastic cheese grater looking cases for the 5C will come in six colours and will sell for $30 each.

In terms of hardware, the iPhone 5C is basically an iPhone 5, but in a cheaper, lower quality plastic case. It’s set to feature the iPhone 5′s A6 processor and 8MP camera.

The 16GB iPhone 5C will sell for $99 on a two-year contract and the 32GB will be priced at $199. Pre-orders open this Friday and the phone will be released on September 20th. The iPhone 5C will also replace the iPhone 5. Basically, the iPhone 5C is a coloured, plastic version of the iPhone 5.

The iPhone 5C’s battery life is also supposedly slightly better than the iPhone 5′s. The phone will also come pre-loaded with Apple’s new iOS 7 software.

Since this is a budget smartphone, will the 5C’s price be low enough to compete with Google’s $199 Nexus.