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$249 iPhone SE Temporarily Back in Stock on Apple's Clearance Site

MrBat said:
That's right. My thoughts exactly. That's why years ago I ditched the iPhone 6 Plus, for the SE. Not coming back.

I'd like to see a new iPhone on same form factor as the SE though. My wallet is ready, but Apple refuses to sell what I want to buy. Sad.
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My ideal phone would actually be the size of the iPod Touch. I want a very thin and small smartphone.

But if they do bring back the SE, odds are it will have Face ID with no fingerprint reader and no headphone jack. That’s pretty much a deal breaker to me.
 
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Take my 1500$ and give me the SE 2.

Please.

iphone-se-x-concept-06
 
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Cat-toy said:
I got my Rose Gold SE when they came out. In December I took it in to take advantage of the discounted battery replacement, It came back to me as a brick (boot loop). They took a brand new one out of the back of the store, same color same storage (64gb) to replace it. 100% health manufactured in 2018 with a TSMC chip. My original SE was a Samsung chip.

EDIT: No Apple Care, phone was out of warranty. But they broke it, so Apple has stock of these. Possible they held some back for replacements. If they keep selling them they will need replacements on hand for two years minimum from last date sold.
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They don’t necessarily keep new replacements on hand, they could also be refurbished.

primarycolors said:
I feel like this theory can be proved or disproved... Programs like CoconutBattery can deduce the production date by the serial number. I'd be curious what the production date is on these magically-appearing SEs.

If your theory is true, hopefully Apple learns something from it.
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The one I bought two weeks ago was manufactured in August 2018, a month before Apple stopped selling them directly.

That feeds my theory that it was a last minute decision to pull them from the stores, which is why new retail models are sitting around in warehouses 6 months later.

Le Big Mac said:
Yeah, I'm guessing these were held back as replacements under warranty/Apple Care and Apple is now liquidating them.
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No. These are retail packaging, Apple has specially packaged new replacement stock for warranty purposes.
 
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Joniz said:
Both of my folks are 84 and they each have an SE.

Are you saying they’re wrong?

Or are you saying that all old people are too stupid to use glasses and have 20/20 vision like everyone else?

Or that only younger folks are smart enough to buy a smaller phone. Oh! Wait! That doesn’t sound right!
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I just got rid of my iPhone XS max 256 and bought a iPhone SE 128 at Costco. I love the smaller form factor, the tech isn’t up to par but the form factor makes it work for me.
 
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redfirebird08 said:
My ideal phone would actually be the size of the iPod Touch. I want a very thin and small smartphone.

But if they do bring back the SE, odds are it will have Face ID with no fingerprint reader and no headphone jack. That’s pretty much a deal breaker to me.
Click to expand...

Goes without saying. I want that 3.5mm jack. Don't give a damn on Face ID. I'd like to see in display Touch ID.
 
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cdarlington1 said:
I just got rid of my iPhone XS max 256 and bought a iPhone SE 128 at Costco. I love the smaller form factor, the tech isn’t up to par but the form factor makes it work for me.
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Yeah, I previously had iPhone 6. Never liked the bigger phones. SE is much faster than a regular 6. My only knocks on the SE are the weak screen brightness in sunlight, plus the phone is thicker than a 6.

I would like a 6S in 3.5 inch form. Same speed as the SE with brighter screen and thinner body.
 
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redfirebird08 said:
Yeah, I previously had iPhone 6. Never liked the bigger phones. SE is much faster than a regular 6. My only knocks on the SE are the weak screen brightness in sunlight, plus the phone is thicker than a 6.

I would like a 6S in 3.5 inch form. Same speed as the SE with brighter screen and thinner body.
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Never had a problem with screen brightness of the SE. And granted the 6 is 6.9mm (7.5 w/camera) compared to 7.6mm (6s/7 are 7.1, 8 is 7.3), but honestly, .7mm is not really a major size reduction.

The problem is that the SE-sized phone is going to be especially hard to make any thinner given it needs all the space it can get to squeeze everything inside it. The current phones with edge-to-edge screens are 7.7 to 8.3mm thick, and more than likely any new SE will likewise need to be that thick as well. Some of that could be mitigated by making the SE slightly wider, which I would prefer (the 5 design always seemed a bit too slender and top heavy), and would be necessary to keep the same aspect ratio as the Xs -- but even then they're still going to need as much room as possible; which is another reason the headphone jack would almost certainly go away.
 
KPandian1 said:
Apple will come down from this X-series ride soon enough, the heavy, outsized iPhones, and soon (2019) have the SFF XI.

Where is the 9-series - did I miss that news? Maybe that will be the SFF's name.
[doublepost=1550172515][/doublepost]Now, all gone.
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Yep. All colors, both storage sizes... all gone.

The fact that they all sell out in a heartbeat SHOULD imply Apple should maybe keep making them. Clearly there’s a demand. All the people simpering about it being obsolete or too small obviously wouldn’t buy one with one of their massive brickphones available instead, so it’s not like they’re any threat to or detracting from sales of bigger ones. So why NOT bring them back?

Apple’s decisions are inconsistent with common sense and not being richards to their customers. Either they’re stupid, or they’re evil.

Apple is the new Microsoft.
 
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RogerWilco said:
Odd that they keep “finding” SE inventory to sell as clearance lots. I wonder if Apple is secretly running a small production line for the SE and using this model to gauge demand.
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It is almost certainly not this.

I'm starting to see a pattern here, assuming the shipping locations for this new batch is coming from yet another part of the US. It would seem that the inventory was pulled from store shelves in a last minute decision and stuck in a warehouse through the holidays, maybe even to push the write-off to the 2nd quarter. Once they decided what to do with them, they likely instructed the various warehouse locations to prepare them for direct shipping. So each warehouse organizes the SEs according to workload, and then coordinates with Apple to offer them for sale via the website. This prevents the warehouse operations from having to coordinate a mass synchronization of product throughout the US to offer them all at once -- something I don't expect these warehouses do on a regular basis. There might even be an Apple team that goes from region to region to coordinate the drop shipment of the SEs, which would also explain the intermittent nature of this sale.
 
halluxsinister said:
Yep. All colors, both storage sizes... all gone.

The fact that they all sell out in a heartbeat SHOULD imply Apple should maybe keep making them. Clearly there’s a demand. All the people simpering about it being obsolete or too small obviously wouldn’t buy one with one of their massive brickphones available instead, so it’s not like they’re any threat to or detracting from sales of bigger ones. So why NOT bring them back?

Apple’s decisions are inconsistent with common sense and not being richards to their customers. Either they’re stupid, or they’re evil.

Apple is the new Microsoft.
Click to expand...

There's demand, but there's probably not enough to match the required profit margins and sales volume that apple demand of their products in order to appease the bottom line. Remember, Apple is currently being run by sales people and accountants. I guarantee you the only reason we don't have a modern X in the size of the SE is because on paper, it wasn't doesn't sell enough volume at a price point that would produce enough margins. Even if profitable.
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RogerWilco said:
Odd that they keep “finding” SE inventory to sell as clearance lots. I wonder if Apple is secretly running a small production line for the SE and using this model to gauge demand.
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in more liklihood these are existing inventories from different markets that didn't sell. They were returned to Apple. Apple can either find a way of selling them themselves or be forced to perform and inventory write off. These are extremely costly and have massive impacts on the accounting books.

I think this should be a lesson however to Apple about pricing elasticity. Something they seem to have forgotten. at the original price, the SE just didn'ts eem to offer enough value. at $249 they are flying off the shelves.

So the PROPER market price should have been somewhere in the middle. Apple over-estimated the ceiling for the SE's price.
 
cinealta said:
Mine came from Carlisle, PA.
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redfirebird08 said:
Mine apparently shipped this morning from Nashville.
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Interesting. Mine came from Nashville too.

Since the SE is continuing to be sold by authorized third party retailers (still listed on their website https://www.apple.com/iphone/compare/ ), it's not likely Apple is rounding up their unsold inventory. Also, I don't believe these unlocked retail handsets were ever sold by anyone other than Apple. So it's quite likely this is Apple's own inventory pulled in a last minute decision given the August 2018 manufacture dates -- by the time they arrived in the US from China, they would have gone straight into a warehouse which Apple never does.
 
Apple's stock for replacing service units is with sealed thin white packet units specially stocked for AC, with no accessories or stickers/paperwork.

The clearance units sold here come in regular retail original packaging with FCC clearance for USA use.
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Mac 128 said:
They don’t necessarily keep new replacements on hand, they could also be refurbished.



The one I bought two weeks ago was manufactured in August 2018, a month before Apple stopped selling them directly.

That feeds my theory that it was a last minute decision to pull them from the stores, which is why new retail models are sitting around in warehouses 6 months later.



No. These are retail packaging, Apple has specially packaged new replacement stock for warranty purposes.
Click to expand...
 
B4U said:
"Trolling. Do not post in order to anger other members or intentionally cause negative reactions. For a given post, this can be a subjective call, but a pattern of such posting or an especially egregious case will get you banned."
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The original post by Crabby Craig is the very definition of trolling - post in order to anger other members or intentionally cause negative reactions.

Mission accomplished - negative "reactions" caused! See the reactions.

AngerDanger said:
Beginning to think you're compensating for overly large hands…

View attachment 821867
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This reply post, clearly details the pattern of trolling by the OP.
 
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No one can guesstimate the numbers sold/achieved by Apple in these cycles of iPhone SE clearance - only they know. To the consumers, it was getting a brand new SE if they timed the sale - even luck.

The trick question is - what will happen if Apple releases a SFF SE-2 with nearly all the specs of the next current iPhone? It should not have an OLED screen, bulging lens or wireless charging - just to keep the cost real. There is a smartphone with a 5+" OLED screen sold at $300 by one of those Chinese phone companies!

Apple might come to its senses and release a 4.3", 5.4" and 6" iPhone in the fall cycle. And, even an iPhone SE 2 in March with most of the iPhone X.

Dreaming.
 
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