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Any reason why?

I'm sure there are many who would love this lower price, especially for their kids.
Always add 100$ to what you think the reasonable price would be. Apple never made products just because there is a market for it. There is a market for a 10,000$ car, that doesn't mean that Porsche is going to make one. I do think they will keep it, but at 299$.

Also, Apple always plays the long game. Apple tends to always do what is generally presumed that they should do, but much later and at a higher price point that most would guess, but with a great product that sometimes fails because that particular market doesn't want a good, medium-to-high-priced product. See Homepod. It's clear that Apple would rather fail with a good product, than succeed with a poor product (although some may disagree what constitutes a "good" product...). It was clear years ago that Apple would need a cheaper phone to reach markets such as India, but rather than rushing out a cheap no-good phone, they are edging their way to cheaper phones over time, in a way that allows a product that is a solid option in the lower-cost market, while being irrelevant to the high-end market so they don't cannibalize. Which is why the new iPhone SE will have zero "first time in an iPhone" features.

There may be an argument that Apple is quickly increasing their services revenue, which makes them less dependent on the direct hardware margins, since they will make it up in services. However, if they do eventually change their strategy and focus on higher number of services users rather than hardware margins, it will happen late, because Apple is conservative. Also, I suspect the highest value in services comes from users of high-cost phones, not users of low-cost phones. Apple has a very strong demographic advantage, and they don't need to attract low-value customers.
 
Agree with you guys. Gurman’s $199 prediction was a little moronic IMO. The next logical step is $299. They have probably gotten the BOM down to about $149 by now. For those worried about the $299 price point hurting their image or cannibalizing sales of the new SE, they could choose to just offer this previous gen SKU in emerging markets, like India. Cut the storage in half to allow for an even lower price, but I don’t think it goes as low as $199.
I wouldn't give too much credence to third party BOM estimates. I obviously don't know what Apple's actual cost prices are, but to me those estimates always seemed high. Just calculating backwards, accounting for VAT and dealer/distributor margins (although they are low on iPhone), Apple's profit margins should tell you that the BOM estimates are too high. A surprising amount of people seem to believe that a BOM of 199 and a retail price of 399 gives Apple a 50% margin... EDIT: A quick google shows that those "people" include Forbes and Reuters...

I do agree that the old version would probably be emerging markets only. They have certainly done this in the past. But, it might be available "undercover" with certain carriers, similar to how the iPhone Xr is still available.
 
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In emerging markets, maybe. They do keep older models around longer in emerging markets. In the US and Europe, no chance. None. If they kept it around, which they won’t, it would be at $299, not $199. They’re not pricing it at half the 2022 SE. but i also just think $399 is as low a price point/profit margin as they’re interested in playing at.
 
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Don't think a $199 iPhone SE can make any impact, especially with that dated form factor. At that price you can find dozens of bezel-less Android phones which the price conscious customers are more likely to prefer.

I don’t think it matters all that much whether the iphone looks dated or not. Rather, people want to be seen with an iphone that is either the best, or was once the best. Carrying an iPhone 8 around can mean that you either bought one off the 2nd-hand market, or bought the best iPhone available at some point in time, and am simply holding on to it till now. An SE is basically indistinguishable from the 8 (or whatever phone it replaces).

To them, the look is ironic and that’s all that matters.

It’s why the iPhone 5c failed, because people didn’t want to be seen with an iphone which was clearly the budget option. I think this is a key part of human psychology which Apple gets and is able to pull off in a manner that other android OEMs can’t, because they don’t have the same brand cachet.

I don’t think Apple will sell a $200 SE, more because they probably can’t really profit from one.
 
so I seem to recall multiple articles here on MR stating that the iPhone SE is not a big seller (correct me if I'm wrong), but, if that is indeed true, why would Apple offer 2 SE models?
Besides that, at $199 it would be the same price as an Apple Watch 3 GPS only ...

well Gurman sure knows how to keep his name on the front-page ...
The SE was never the TOP seller, but it was still solid, with several reports that it was performing better than expected:


The SE seems to be a much bigger success than, say, the 5C, which in itself proves that the SE is not created on a whim (I will argue that this was their first attempt at an "SE" phone). It is clear that this is a market that Apple wants to be in, but they have been struggling a bit to figure out how. Since it has an A13, the existing SE is very much a usable phone, with years of use for the customer. This is the clever bit about putting a brand new SoC in otherwise old/cheap hardware, they can keep it around for longer. 5C was obviously not cheap enough, the original SE was too small to compete, but this version is a very capable phone in this segment.

The SE is very smart product management, and I think it will grow into a seperate lineup of it's own. They can use a given SoC for up to 4-5 years, while keeping their higher-end hardware using SoC's that are a maximum of 2 or even just 1 generations old.

Apple currently has 5 iPhone versions on sale (plus size variants): 13 Pro, 13, 12, 11, SE. I predict that when iPhone 14 comes out, they will kill 11 AND 12 (and 13 Pro, since "Pro" will always ever only be available in the latest version). Then the lineup will be: 14 Pro, 14, 13, SE3, SE2. That keeps the expensive hardware away from the discount phones.
 
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Don't think a $199 iPhone SE can make any impact, especially with that dated form factor. At that price you can find dozens of bezel-less Android phones which the price conscious customers are more likely to prefer.
Honestly, I don't think the price conscious customers give a rat's behind about the bezels. They care about price, which is why we call them price conscious... The main reasons they buy an Android phone, is 1: They can't get an iPhone cheap enough, and/or 2: They don't care what it actually is, they just buy whatever someone happens to shove in their face at the right time. This, by the way, is also a major contributor at higher price points. The group that buys an Android phone based on an informed decision that it provides something that an iPhone doesn't, is quite small in my opinion. The reality, which most geeks like us don't like to think about, is that what the average customer actually buys is quite arbitrary.

I think a 199$ iPhone would take up to half of the 199$ market, and probably less. The rest aren't making a conscious enough decision to steer around the marketing.
 
For Apple "swallowing" the SE pill was already enough, considering they positioned themselves as a high-end brand since the mid 2000s.
Having a super cheap iPhone at 200$ would strip the brand of even more prestige.
To date this point is 100% correct... *however* as Apple's need to justify and grow it's market cap increases they've also committed to a services model which needs to grow by orders of magnitude (and provides far higher margins than hardware)... for this to happen they very well could be better off having a < $200 phone to increase market share (though that would also suggest they should try to get a $199 iPad in as well... similar prices between the "basic" and Pro lines there).
 
A $199 iPhone would be truly a fantastic product.

It was! They added 3G, GPS, the App Store and a more ergonomic backing to the device.

At the current prices if you flat out pay $399 for an SE you are still always better off saving up an extra $100 and buying the iPhone 11. Unless you find the bigger screen off-putting it is more secure, has a MUCH better battery life, better cameras and a better display.

A $199 SE however would be a no-brainer and they would sell a LOT.
 
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That would make the purported naming scheme more sense,

But at that price would take away sales for the new device.

Overall I don't see it happening but who knows
 
i'm i the only one that thinks the se 2020 is just fine for the things i do with my phone. I use it for messaging, browsing and taking pictures. Dont need all the latest stuff. And its nice that it fits in my pocket. Also its nice that when one of the kids throws it around it will not cost me 600E to fix the screen and back ;).
 
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IMO, 2022 iPhone SE 5G will be $399. Not sure what Apple will do with 2020 iPhone SE price ? May be $299. Apple can not drop it to $199 because overall cost dictates not worth making it unless Apple wants to bring in lower end android users to switch over to expand Apple echo system. Remember, those who buy $199 phone typically don't spend money on Apps, services. So, there is no incentive for Apple to lower iPhone SE to $199.
 
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I don't think they will keep the 2020 SE around, if they do it will only be a a slight discount - so maybe $349.
 
Bill-of-material estimates from two years ago pegged the hardware cost of the iPhone SE at around $200, meaning a $199 price tag would be a money-loser. But time and economies of scale have probably made that cost much lower by now.

Really?
 
Umm, no. That's just wishful thinking. Two separate platforms. There are some who don't want anything to do with Android and there are some who don't want anything to do with iOS. I personally would like to try an iPhone but can't because it doesn't have a Call Screener with Google Assistant. Most the Apps I use, I prefer Google's, they just do a much better job.
I like google’s services, too. Still like my iPhone.
 
It was! They added 3G, GPS, the App Store and a more ergonomic backing to the device.

At the current prices if you flat out pay $399 for an SE you are still always better off saving up an extra $100 and buying the iPhone 11. Unless you find the bigger screen off-putting it is more secure, has a MUCH better battery life, better cameras and a better display.

A $199 SE however would be a no-brainer and they would sell a LOT.
The iPhone 3G was only $199 if you purchased it with a two-year contract with AT&T.
Off contract it was $399 and $499, $521.02 and $651.61 in todays money, the exact same price as the original iPhone on contract post fall 07 price drop.
Once Apple started selling phones just straight unlocked with the iPhone 4S, it was $199 on contract… and $629 (or $786.18 today) off contract.
If you look at prepaid carriers or special deals you can get by signing with a carrier for a certain amount of time, you can already get the 2020 SE for $199, sometimes well under it
 
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Once apple transitions to being a software/subscription company you'll see some iPhone prices start to drop. It'll be like the old days, where hardware was free and you paid for the software...at least for the non-flagship phones.
 
Bill-of-material estimates from two years ago pegged the hardware cost of the iPhone SE at around $200, meaning a $199 price tag would be a money-loser. But time and economies of scale have probably made that cost much lower by now.

The biggest economy of scale is that they're still using iPhone 8 tooling, which must have paid for itself many times over by now.
 
The rumored SE sounds too similar to the 2020 version to have both. Plus that's the iPod touch's price point.
All iPhone's with A13 are getting the boot from Apple's 2022 line-up this year: First SE 2020 will go and then iPhone 11 will follow once iPhone 14 launches.

If 2020 SE gets to stay post SE 2022 launch then SE 2020 will get booted post iPhone 14.

Apple has never had more than three CPU generations in the official line-up and consistently boots iPhones when they past the three year mark, sometimes before.

Apple won't offer a $199 iPhone in it's official 2022 line-up. I don't get where people are getting this idea from.
 
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