Apple 'Masters Metal' in New iPhone 5s TV Ad

If only you could melt down your iPhone and score a fairly sizeable cash payment for all that gold.

At least that's kind of what Apple's latest – and first – television advertisement for the iPhone 5s makes us think. We also wish that Apple could have somehow acquired the rights to, or somehow incorporated, the Goldfinger theme from the James Bond films into its ad. It's only fitting for a device that one pokes with one's digits, right?

Unfortunately, Apple is instead taking the easier way out in its"Metal Mastered" advertisement, which officially debuted today. In the ad, the company makes considerable use of Goldfrapp's "Ooh La La" – a pretty little tune, but we bet Apple could have done even better with its precious metal-themed song selection.

That said, we do give Apple's animators (or whoever's constructing these ads) some major credit, especially since we're big fans of the classic '90s action flick, Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The ad's introduction reminds us of the process by which the good ol' T-1000 forms up – that liquid metal (or whatever fancy future technology it happens to be) forming up into a tangible, cool-looking product.

And, no, that's not us being Apple fanboys; we're just commenting on the construction-themed focus of the ad, featuring plenty of imagery of close-up gold slowly pouring, combining, and refining itself into the very shape of an iPhone 5s.

Of course, Apple can't help but show off just a few features of the iPhone 5s within the ad. Among these includes the device's Touch ID fingerprint sensor – assuming the finger in the picture is just gently pressing itself against the Home button, instead of poking it – as well as a quick shot of the standard iOS 7 home screen. That's it, however; a ton of gold and a little bit of software.

So, why is Apple taking the airwaves now? The Verge speculated that since the iPhone 5c isn't selling as well as Apple (or analysts) might expect, the company wanted to put a little bit more advertising oomph into its flagship phone. For more on that, check out The Apple iPhone 5c Is No Failure.

Of course, it's also possible that Apple is simply continuing the standard marketing plan it had in mind for the device, so don't jump to conclusions too quickly about the strength of Apple's iPhone sales. As Carl Howe, Yankee Group analyst, said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, "the real answer is that nobody outside of Apple really knows" – in reference to Apple's iPhone 5c sales, at least.

That said, a number of analysts have put total sales of the iPhone 5s at anywhere from double to nearly quadruple the sales of the iPhone 5c. Take that, as always, with however many grains of salt you'd like.

The iPhone 5s, meanwhile, is not actually made of gold. Leave that up to HTC, which produced a gold version of its HTC One. Only a limited number of the gadgets were made - as prizes for a U.K. music competition - but PCMag recently got a first-hand look at the shiny gadget. Check out our Hands On With the Gold HTC One.

Also see PCMag's reviews of the iPhone 5s (slideshow above) and iPhone 5c.