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iPhone 16e Sales Lag Behind SE Models Despite Bestseller Status
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I might comment on something I rarely see, like a Nothing phone or a Pixel Fold. But typically, phones now are so homogeneous I just note they're on a phone.
Additional year of support, and most carriers aren't offering deals on the 15...which is where the vast majority buy their phones...but I get your point.
Ah he just bought it off Amazon.
The additional year of support really doesn't bother anyone these days. I mean I just sold my 6s and that got an update for it in March (!). That's 9 years old.
A 15??? I mean, if you can get an iPhone 16 for almost the same price thanks to a deal or sale, great, it’s well worth it. But a 15? Let’s remember that an iPhone 15 has just an A16 with just 6GB of RAM, it’s way inferior vs the A18 with 8GB of RAM.
The amount of people who buy a phone based on ram/processor specs is a rounding error. The 15 would feel absolutely identical to a 16 in day-to-day usage. All other things equal, though..pick the 16.
Yeah but it has a much better camera stack, much brighter display, can't run Apple Intelligence and comes in green! (this is where the discussion ended up)
I think it’s not just about how “powerful” or cheap it is. The iPhone SE was sported a well known, compact and robust form factor. I’ve dropped it many times and hasn’t broken or suffered. I guess a 16e would show lines in their OLED screen.
There is people that got the SE as a work smartphone. Safe, private, efficient, but at the same time a rugged smartphone to carry with you to the field, under a car for a repair, etc… I mean you can do that with a modern iPhone 16e but it is a bit bigger and more expensive so…
The SE had the home button. Believe it or not many people still find it useful to have a button to press and get them back to the home menu. And there’s people who still prefer LCD displays over cheap, but still more expensive OLED displays.
If Apple had made an iPhone 16e just with one change, an LCD display and with a 150€ cheaper price tag, it would have sold almost as many as the SE 3 (in my opinion). I would definitely have grabbed one.
There is people that got the SE as a work smartphone. Safe, private, efficient, but at the same time a rugged smartphone to carry with you to the field, under a car for a repair, etc… I mean you can do that with a modern iPhone 16e but it is a bit bigger and more expensive so…
The SE had the home button. Believe it or not many people still find it useful to have a button to press and get them back to the home menu. And there’s people who still prefer LCD displays over cheap, but still more expensive OLED displays.
If Apple had made an iPhone 16e just with one change, an LCD display and with a 150€ cheaper price tag, it would have sold almost as many as the SE 3 (in my opinion). I would definitely have grabbed one.
Well, to be fair, the green iPhone 15 is gorgeous… almost as pretty as the teal 16.
They sold 20% fewer 16e's than SE's in the same initial period, but the 16e is 40% more expensive per unit. So from Apple's perspective one could argue that they've succeeded.
It is a fine phone, but does have some issues...
- Starting at $599 instead of $499.
- No MagSafe and slow wireless charging. Yes the SEs didn't have it either but still turns off people who had 12/13/14s who may want to upgrade and did use it.
- No longer a smaller form factor. Yes some people liked the SE and/or minis because they were smaller and lighter.
- Starting at $599 instead of $499.
- No MagSafe and slow wireless charging. Yes the SEs didn't have it either but still turns off people who had 12/13/14s who may want to upgrade and did use it.
- No longer a smaller form factor. Yes some people liked the SE and/or minis because they were smaller and lighter.
It’s just a sheer shame for apple to ship a phone in 2025 without 120hz and without MagSafe. I really hope they get what they deserve
I like your thinking. Assuming Apple makes its usual 35% profit margin from both SE and 16e, then it would make $150 profit per SE and $210 profit per 16e. Selling 1 million SEs would net £150m profit and selling 800,000 (20% less) 16es would net $168m profit.
Most of this is because a lot of folks are keeping phones for an extra year or two. Why buy a new phone if your old one still performs well? It's cheaper to replace the battery and keep it.
Look at it a different way around. You can get the 16e for $599. How many people would spend an extra $200 to get the regular 16 for an additional ultrawide camera, dynamic island (rather than the notch), U1 chip, Magsafe, 200 extra nits and an extra GPU core (but worse battery life).
Are all those features nice? Of course. Would you put your hand in your pocket to the tune of $200?
Maybe they should try making a normal-sized phone instead of a phablet.
Very shortsighted. Apple makes the real money on recurring subscriptions, not hardware. You can definitely argue that a shrinking device market share directly equates to a shrinking subscription services base which will upend their entire business model if it continues.
Additionally, you need to include the lost revenue from potential follow on peripheral purchases like watches, AirPods, etc. that will never happed with those 200,000 lost customers in your theoretical. The iPhone is the gateway into apple’s ecosystem - lose a phone customer, the whole business model takes a hit.
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Not by the numbers they have published. In 2024, their (entire) hardware revenue was $294.9 billion, and at 35% profit that's $103 billion.
Services, which includes subs was $96 billion. Subtract $20 billion from that for the Google Payola, and you're at $76 billion revenue with an unknown profit number.
By mini haters’ logic, 16e should get discontinued
Because it’s huge. My mother’s old SE needs to be replaced but she doesnt want a massive heavy phone. They should have made this based on the 13 mini chassis, that would have tempted a lot more SE folks (slightly smaller device with a much bigger screen)
Not really, the AVP is very much targeted at early adopters and developers, and that’s who’s buying it
The 16e was targeted at the folks on the SE track, and they dont seem to want it
No, but with the 17 due in a few months I would just wait. Then if there is still a $200 difference between the 16e and the 17 (and the new features it brings) it is more likely to be worth the extra $200.
Wouldn’t that be nice. The only thing missing that I want is MagSafe.