iPhone 16e Has Apparently 'Failed' Just Like iPhone Air

[vantelimus]

No surprise there; these are corporate phones. Very few regular users are interested in these.

My company went from the SE 2022, which I still have, to the 16e. That's the only phone they offer.

If they are corporate phones and corporations have been replacing older models with them, then they haven't failed.

 

[DownUnderDan]

Price and that demographic isn't the slightest bit interested in updating their phone every year.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Price and that demographic isn't the slightest bit interested in updating their phone every year.

That’s not really a thing. The average update time for iPhone, in the US, is pushing three years. Yearly updaters are somewhere around 10%.

 

[dampfnudel]

“That being said, both models are expected to see successors.”

Must not be too bad of a “failure” then.

Edit to add in from my other comment and expand a little. We need to be cautious about giving legitimacy to a random commenter on Weibo/X/BlueSky or whatever platform as an authoritative source for determining "failure".

It's not clear what's the definition of failure being used. Is the 16e losing Apple money? Do we know what Apple's goals for the 16e and Air are? Do we know Apple's metrics used to gauge outcomes for a product? Do we know profitability of specific products. If not, labeling something as a failure is just guess based on vastly incomplete data.

Even if Apple stops making a product line doesn't mean it was necessarily a failure. Sometimes products are steps to a different one or opportunities for a company to test a particular market or product features. Again, we need to know the goals and outcome metrics Apple uses to determine success of products.

Just like the mini got a second generation (13 mini) before getting canned. Will the folding iPhone be the next iPhone to get canned after two generations?

 

[kiranmk2]

I think Apple is playing the long game here. The 16e remains the cheapest phone in the line up - at some point people on SE3s (or 12/13 minis) will need to upgrade and the 16e (or 17e) will be either the most affordable model or the driver for people to go for a higher model.

As has been pointed out, the based 17 is the best deal in the line up now. Following Apple's logic, the base 17 actually got a price cut: Apple pitched the iPhone 17 Pro as costing the same as last year, but with the 128 GB option removed. If the same logic applied to the base 17 it would have been $899, but it stuck to the $799 price point. My strong hunch is that the base 18 gets bumped to $899 next year, so get your base 17s whilst you can! When the entry iPhone is $899, suddenly $599 doesn't seem so bad. Gotta get those ASPs up to maintain increasing revenue trends!!!

 

[kiranmk2]

My wife had the past 2 generations of SE (she likes the smaller sized phone), and I would have considered the 16e, but the price wasn't even comparable. Once the 17 models came out I just got her a standard 17 since it has much better value for the price (and we had a carrier upgrade program incentive with a trade-in of a qualifying old unused phone which made it a no-brainer).

I'd consider an SE in the future again if the price were better, but it's currently in a strange position. My wife is getting used to the larger phone so that's probably not an issue, but I bet she wouldn't mind going back to a smaller size if it was ever available.

So...you thought the 16e was too expensive... so you bought an even more expensive phone? And people think the iPhone 16e isn't doing its job...

 

[shapesinaframe]

why would anyone buy this when they could get the discounted 15 or 14 from third party resellers?

This is exactly what I did. The previous generations are a way better deal.

 

[audiophilosophy]

I dunno man, I got the 16e this spring to use for video recording and daily use and it's been amazing. Priced a bit higher than I wanted, but I saved money compared to the 16 at the time. 🤷‍♂️

My wife needed a new phone this past spring, and she told me to pick a model for her. I wanted to recommend the 16e because it had nearly everything she could want, nothing she didn’t need, and it has better battery life than the 15 or 16 and is also slightly lighter. There was one deal breaker though. I learned after watching several YouTube reviews that the 16e struggles with portrait mode shots compared to phones with two lenses. My wife cares about portrait mode quite a bit, so that was the dealbreaker.

 

[zenmacx]

People are walking up the pricing ladder and buying the iPhone 17 instead. It is not a failure. It's playing it's role perfectly in the product line up.

While Apple creates excellent hardware, their true expertise is brilliant ultra effective marketing. Years of practice has paid off, making them the profit generating behemoth they are today.

 

[grammatica]

I could've told you this.

 

[ThomasJL]

So budget phones selling for expensive prices didn't sell well? That should only come as a surprise to Tim Cook and his defenders who think he can do no wrong.

 

[Jeeve Stubbs]

The iPhone 16e is more than enough for most people. The majority of 17's and 17 Pro's advanced features aren't used or even understood by many of their owners. Some say "Hey, it's just $100, $200, or $300 more". Well, that's $100 too much if you don't need the extra features. Same for TVs, cars, what have you… An extra $200 here, an extra $500 there, and then people complain about inflation, debt, etc.

 

[delsoul]

The iPhone 16e is more than enough for most people. The majority of 17's and 17 Pro's advanced features aren't used or even understood by many of their owners. Some say "Hey, it's just $100, $200, or $300 more". Well, that's $100 too much if you don't need the extra features. Same for TVs, cars, what have you… An extra $200 here, an extra $500 there, and then people complain about inflation, debt, etc.

This is very true. Same as the MacBook Pro. Vast majority of owners don’t even come
Close to maxing it out and the MacBook Air is plenty enough horsepower for them. The screen and speakers are niceties, not necessities.

 

[arcite]

Both 16e and the Air exist in vacuum not taking into account their own lineup. Both are priced high but don't offer any advantage other than design. 16e is too weak to compete with base 15, and the Air is too overpriced for its features to win over the Pro users who are willing to spend more to get much better experience overall.

I wonder what 2nd gen of these devices will us, hopefully something more competetive.

The 16e has one of the best ever iphone battery life. Thats a big feature. My mom bought one, she likes it. The only reason why she bought it was to replace her iphone 12. Plus, it was several hundred dollars cheaper.

 

[Avidos1]

Maybe if it was a budget phone it would have succeeded.

 

[apocalyarts]

It's too expensive and the base 17 too much of a good deal. It's just so funny, seeing the base 17 take down the 16e AND the 17 Air because it is such a good value for that pricepoint.

The 16e is 699 in Germany with Apple. No wonder nobody is buying it. For 399 it would sell like hotcakes. I am also baffled why the device didn't receive at least a 100 price cut as soon as the 17 dropped.

 

[svish]

Don't think this is true. Would like the next version to match the design language of rest of the iPhones with dynamic island. Maybe there will be new color options too.

 

[zenmacx]

Maybe if it was a budget phone it would have succeeded.

Apple rarely offers their products at reasonable prices.

Instead they successfully cling to the practice of premium pricing while manipulating the buyers through extremely clever marketing.

Master wordsmiths it’s amazing to witness.

 

[danielfgom]

A budget phone priced too high failed?!

This. The iPhone SE is EXPENSIVE.

Of course it will fail. I bought an iPhone 13 new last October for €549 and that was a reach for me financially.

The 16e costs €200 MORE than that and only has 1 camera.

Who the heck is going to buy this? People will buy a used iPhone 13, 14 or 15 for the same or less.

iPhone is priced too high outside the US, plain and simple. That’s why Android eats Apples lunch outside the US. Millions of people want an iPhone but can’t afford it so are stuck with Android.

Don’t believe me? Search for iOS homescreen themes on the Play Store - millions of downloads. And that’s only people who know how to change their homescreen theme. Many hundreds of millions more would do the same if they knew.

Apple could EASILY sell 100 million more iPhones per year worldwide if iPhone cost €450 and equivalent and if they offered that with financing worldwide.

 

[jfeathe]

People keep their phones for 3, 4, 5+ years now. Spending an extra $300-$500 for a much better phone every few years is manageable for most people considering the cost is spread across 24 or 36 monthly payments.

 

[chmania]

When a company fails with one or a few products, it writes them off as a loss, which ultimately gets passed on to the income tax, affecting all of us.

 

[geta]

Although feature wise the 17 is the best deal at the moment, price wise it cost around €300 more (depends on storage size) which I don’t think it worth it over the 16e.

However, if the 16e had cost €500 max, they would have sold more.

 

[lenger]

I have to say, I have never seen one in the wild.
I saw the iPhone Air in the wild for the first time just last week.
17's and 17 Pros I've seen quite often already.
I travel a lot on the train and metro so I see lot's of people with their phones out.

 

[carrrrrlos]

Is there any engineering reason why these ‘phones’ cannot be designed as a thin wedge - where the bottom is thin and gets thicker towards the top where the cameras are? Apple had this design w/ the older MB Air. seems like it would be so much nicer.

 

[mondaiguy]

There is no reason to buy these underpowered phones when they are the same size as the only slightly more expensive more powerful ones. Make. A. Smaller. Phone. Smaller than the 13 Mini. 4.75" MAX from bottom of device to top of screen. THEN many people will be intrigued by the major size difference and may adopt the smaller phone.