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I suspect its the price not that size that people are buying ... but whatever more choice is good.Thank god I dont have to use that puny 4" screen anymore :)

Oh and really, 16gb still as starting point? I have so many friends out of space on iPhone and can't even upgrade the software because they had no idea what size to buy so get the cheap one.
 
I thought it flopped? A 64GB RG is still showing 2-3 weeks to ship. Crazy.

I ordered two 64GB SG ones on Friday and was told 2-3 weeks, yet I got a shipping notice on Sunday and UPS says it will arrive on Wednesday. So I think supply is starting to catch up.
 
The iPhone (and the current smartphone market in general) is approaching 10 years old. I'm amazed Apple has sustained its growth as long as it has. But I agree with others that recently there have been no compelling reasons to upgrade (except -- for me -- the new SE). And I would bet that many people in the market for a new smartphone are now watching their wallet. They probably will settle for one that's good enough at the price point they can afford.
 
Music, most of it being lossless. Which is why Tidal also takes up a bit of space.

View attachment 629899

That is a ton of music. I guess nice to have it on you at all times. But isn't that several weeks worth of music? Seems a bit extreme.
Apple thought the iPhone 6s 3D Touch would have been a must have feature. I believe the company could have added it to the iPhone 6, but chose to defer it a later to have a selling point. If you think otherwise, you are likely fooling yourself. Apple didn't start working on a faster Touch ID or 3D touch a year ago. They likely had these things ready in the pipeline years ago, but were strategically keeping them back to stretch out upgrades each year.

The reality is, consumers are practical and fickle and in this saturated market, the iPhone is no longer the standard in smartphones. Its still one of the best to own, but for what most do, that 5s and 4s can still bring value. Worst with the iPhone 6 upgrade cycle that pretty much accelerated upgrades from 2014 to 2015, there was little left. Apple will need to make each year really worth it.

No. Apple never holds back technology that they have baked and ready to be manufactured just so they can encourage an upgrade. That would be crazy because Apple is still trying to win market share from Android for high end phones and intentionally making their flagship phones worse hurts Apple in the real battle, which is an OS battle. Now these pieces of technology might have been being worked on years and years ago. But they weren't ready and then mothballed for a year. That would be Apple just shooting itself in the foot.

Phones will shift to being two or three year devices for many people. Apple doesn't have to make each year "worth it" it needs to capture customers every two or three years. And it needs to just stay ahead or be competitive with Android. The majority of people buying an iPhone 6s this year are not users of the iPhone 6. That just isn't how it works.
 
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The SE is too good value, what will be interesting to see is if the it will mainly just canabilise 6s sales or whether it will pick up enough additional sales to compensate.
 



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In line with Apple CEO Tim Cook's recent comments about "very strong" iPhone SE demand exceeding supply, the company has reportedly increased orders for the low-priced 4-inch smartphone in the second quarter of 2016.

DigiTimes claims that the second-quarter outlook for iPhone SE-related chip orders has been revised to more than 5 million units, up from 3.5-4 million, and the upward trend is expected to continue through the third quarter.

In a related report, the Taiwanese website notes that Apple has conversely lowered orders for the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus due to declining sales of the flagship handsets. Last week, Apple announced its first-ever year-over-year decline in iPhone sales, which dropped to 51.2 million from 61.2 million in the year-ago quarter, and provided third quarter guidance that suggests the decline will continue.

While the lower-priced iPhone SE could help Apple combat its overall decline in smartphone sales, Apple analyst Neil Cybart of Above Avalon notes that the device has a lower average selling price (ASP) and smaller profit margins. Those pressures, alongside other warning signs, leads him to believe that Apple "has a significant iPhone growth problem on its hands" right now.One of Cybart's warning signs is that "India is not the next China," despite being positioned as one of the next big growth markets for iPhone. India has reportedly rejected Apple's request to import and sell refurbished iPhones in the country, following a similar proposal rejected in 2015, and its regular-priced iPhones are too expensive to attract significant market share in the region.

Nevertheless, the analyst ensures that the iPhone business is "not imploding," citing industry-leading customer satisfaction rates and loyalty trends. He believes that Apple can pull through this declining iPhone environment with a strategy that involves ditching the "S" model nomenclature, focusing on features that customers truly want, and recognizing the iPhone SE's effect on its broader smartphone lineup.

Article Link: Apple Increases iPhone SE Orders Amid Growing Sales Pressures
 
"How is it that a continuously growing user-base of the most valuable users of (if not the) the most lucrative industry on the planet is not enough?"

Spot on my thoughts exactly.

Clearly Apple can't grow continuously.

Not everyone on the planet will want or can afford an iPhone and maybe they've reached saturation point. And so what??

Even if they stayed selling at this point they are still the most successful company with the most incredibly useful and reliable products ever.

People keep saying they don't innovate anymore. That 3D Touch is a gymic. So then why do so many companies continue copycatting apple, including 3 d touch and every other supposedly uninnovative feature that apple comes out with.

Apple continuously push the envelope but get told it's not enough and yet no other company does anything close. These companies just wait for Apple to spend their money on r and d and then wait for product release so they can do tear downs and copy the innovation for free.

What exactly is it that these Apple haters want? who comes out with world changing products every year??? No one that's who. But when Apple don't each year come out with a new magic flying carpet they cry innovation is over. What a bunch of complete idiots. No clue whatsoever.
 
Spot on my thoughts exactly.

Clearly Apple can't grow continuously.

Not everyone on the planet will want or can afford an iPhone and maybe they've reached saturation point. And so what??

Even if they stayed selling at this point they are still the most successful company with the most incredibly useful and reliable products ever.

People keep saying they don't innovate anymore. That 3D Touch is a gymic. So then why do so many companies continue copycatting apple, including 3 d touch and every other supposedly uninnovative feature that apple comes out with.

Apple continuously push the envelope but get told it's not enough and yet no other company does anything close. These companies just wait for Apple to spend their money on r and d and then wait for product release so they can do tear downs and copy the innovation for free.

What exactly is it that these Apple haters want? who comes out with world changing products every year??? No one that's who. But when Apple don't each year come out with a new magic flying carpet they cry innovation is over. What a bunch of complete idiots. No clue whatsoever.
 
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Well if it is selling well enough maybe Apple can just go back to a 4" only offering for the iPhone 7. It would save them a lot of engineering costs. Ok I'm being a bit sarcastic, but if anyone pulled something like this Apple would.
 
Just out of curiosity, what all do you keep on your phone? I take a lot of photos and video and 64GB is more than enough for me. Could not do a 16GB without having to regularly delete things, but I could make it work.

Apps. Lots of it. Games specifically.

And I'm the opposite on media as I have about 30 gigs of photos and videos, but iCloud Photos is a godsend and I practically use just mere MBs of it on my device thanks to it.
 
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this is not difficult to figure out. iPhone sales slumped when carrier subsidies ended at the major carriers. no more $200 phones means fewer people upgrading every year or two. When the average price of a phone is $600, an entire population of buyers is excluded from the market. Create a phone that costs $200 less, and the barrier of entry is lower. Hence strong iPhone SE sales...I am skeptical that it is entirely because it's a 4' phone.
 
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This is no longer a surprise to anyone.
Betcha there's going to be more of such "rumors".
 
I am going to be purchasing a rose gold Verizon SE for my wife soon. But there isn't any available at the any Apple stores with in 80 miles.

She cracked her 5s screen, and wanted to stay with the smaller size phone.

She has trouble picking up and holding my 6s Plus, and she even has problems with my daughter's 6. Although my wife has tiny child like hands.
 
The SE is too good value, what will be interesting to see is if the it will mainly just canabilise 6s sales or whether it will pick up enough additional sales to compensate.
Every SE sold is one less potential 6S/6S+ sold, the margins on the SE are too low to compensate. Apple would have to sell twice as many SE phones to make up the difference, I think the ASP will take a big hit once they report next quarter.
 
Is there a genuine improvement between 320kbps and FLAC on the iPhone? I'm not convinced the audio hardware in the iPhone is capable of encapsulating the nuances between the two?
It's not a matter of sound quality, the difference is negligible. It's a matter of replacing CDs and it's nice to have the original files archived. I buy most of my music in FLAC and archive them on an external hard drive. If I run out of space on my phone, I'll convert them to MP3 and just keep the original files on the hard drive. And I only use Tidal because I have a student discount on it.
 
That is a ton of music. I guess nice to have it on you at all times. But isn't that several weeks worth of music? Seems a bit extreme.
It is a lot of music, but streaming uses a lot of battery so I figure why not just keep all of my music locally.
 
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