Welcome (back) iPhone SE — but did Apple just cannibalize itself?
Don't judge an iPhone by its cover... Remember iPhone SE? It's that little rectangle which you could actually operate one-handedly without spraining a finger. Apple released it in 2016, then stopped selling it in 2018. Now, it's shockingly resurrecting iPhone SE for 2020, starting at the (relatively) lower price of $399.
- Looks: Pretty much the same as the iPhone 8 — a 4.7-inch screen with a frame around it and a home button with Touch ID. The real change lies on the inside...
- Specs: Better camera equipped with 4K video and portrait mode. Also boasts a more powerful processor with the new A13 Bionic chip (sounds legit). Apple says it put "the brains" of iPhone 11 Pro in the body of SE.
What interested us most was the timing of this launch... Given the COVID-19 crisis, this might not seem like the best time to ship a new product. Apple thinks it's a great time:
- With the economy in shambles, it makes sense to introduce a lower-cost phone. The new SE is $200 cheaper than the next "cheapest" iPhone (and many Android models). A low-cost, high-performance phone could thrive right now.
- With most Apple stores closed, people can't try before they buy. Buying iPhones online becomes more attractive with a lower price and newer product — Apple's trying to drive excitement for online orders with this launch (people get hyped on pre-orders).
Is Apple cannibalizing itself?... Cannibalization occurs when a new product is so irresistible it steals sales from your other (often higher-priced) products. Tesla's Model 3 stole sales from its Model S. But Apple probably did a lot of research on this risk and decided that:
- More Upgrades: iPhone users might be more likely to upgrade from their old phones after the launch of SE, with that volume covering lost sales from pricier models.
- More Market Share: With this lower-priced option, Apple might convert some Androiders — Google's Android still controls 70% of the world's cell phones.
- But if fancy new iPhone users change to the lower-priced SE instead, that's a problem for Apple.