Apple recently announced a red iPhone while I don’t consider this a major announcement by Apple I find that another announcement made a little over a year ago would be a shocking game changer a year later. On March 21, 2016, Apple unveiled the iPhone SE and began shipping them on March 31, 2016.
When the iPhone SE was first announced, I did not find this to be a big deal. I remember telling my friend and I quote “So now Apple making the iPhone as small as they used to I guess they ran out of ideas after making them bigger.” Little did I know that those words would be so untrue. The iPhone SE was a major game changer for Apple while I myself have an iPhone 6 Plus the iPhone SE started finding a home with a new crowd.
I started to notice the iPhone SE showing up at a business that used to run Android. When I asked around the consensus from businesses I was getting was why buy an Android when an iPhone is the same price. The iPhone SE is priced at $399 for the 32GB model and then jumps to $499 for the 128GB version. The iPhone SE meets almost all the same specs as the iPhone 6s except for a smaller screen with less resolution, 3D Touch, less resolution facetime camera and few other smaller items this is done I believe in keeping cost down.
The price point of the iPhone SE nipples away at the Moto X and Nexus price that was very attractive to businesses. Since Apple in generally held as let’s say the Cadillac of phones the attitude from business users which are general your iPhone users is “just get the iPhone for the same price”. The other appealing part to businesses is Apple has always been known for being the reliable always works phone. The business market which is very much fast paced and tolerates very little down time with sales drove profits to find this hugely appealing.
The iPhone SE has allowed Apple to get into the prepaid or straight talk business with applicable or better hardware to Motorola and Samsung at a very similar price point. The Same situation applies as with business where users who use prepaid or straight talk do the same thing “If I am spending the money I might as well get the iPhone for the same price.” Before Apple could only compete in this market by selling outdated hardware like the iPhone 5s or iPhone 5c.
There is a flip side to this Apple has been at times hurt by the success of the iPhone SE what they have found is users who would normally have bitten the bullet and purchased an iPhone 6 or 7 have gone with the iPhone SE due to the lower price point. Ultimately, in the end, Apple is making money just not as much as they would have if that consumer would have purchased a higher end iPhone. The other part of these users who generally buy the higher end iPhones tend to spend more money on accessories and buy other devices like iPads, iWatches, earbuds and more.
Apple did not have success with the iPhone C (color) but it turns out that Apple has gotten a huge hit with the iPhone SE. Apple tried with the iPhone C making the same size iPhone as there higher end phone with lesser hardware to lower price. What the iPhone SE has shown Apple is people would rather a smaller phone with better hardware at a lower price. I regret ever saying the words Apple has ran out of ideas because the iPhone SE was a great idea and Apple sales reflect it by helping their sales last year.
I have to say after messing with an iPhone SE I forgot home much I do like the original size iPhone definitely is and was a great size phone.