Apple’s latest, cheapest iPhone, iPhone 16e, has AI features and a $600 price tag (Apple)

AI Phone

Why Apple needs this cheap phone, in 2 charts

Sales are down and it needs to compete with everyone else.

2/19/25 11:53AM

Apple just introduced a new, cheaper iPhone: the iPhone 16e. Starting at $599, it’s not as cheap as the iPhone SE, which had a $429 price point and has now been discontinued. But it’s cheaper than the iPhone 16 (which starts at $799) and, like that version, can run Apple’s AI features.

The new phone uses the more advanced A18 chip, but it’s also possible Trump’s potential trade wars factored into the higher price relative to the most recent edition of the SE, which was released in March 2022. A Bank of America analyst said today that the iPhone maker would likely have to raise prices to offset tariffs. For users of older iPhones who have held on to them for longer, this phone offers an upgrade with better photos and battery life — for less.

Regardless, a relatively inexpensive phone is sorely needed for Apple, which saw its iPhone sales decline in its all-important holiday quarter as the iPhone 16 failed to drive meaningful upgrades — at least at that price point.

Apple has been losing global market share to lower-cost competitors. Last quarter, Apple’s global market share declined 1.5 percentage points to 23.2%, according to shipments data from IDC:

Last week, CEO Tim Cook teased this rare winter product debut for Apple, which despite his spin is struggling to really move iPhones.

Rani Molla

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Meta posts an earnings and revenue beat — and a huge capex bill

The social media giant reported earnings after the bell Wednesday.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg visits U.S. Capitol for Senate meetings

Rani Molla, Nate Becker

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Alphabet Q1 earnings and revenue blow past expectations

The search giant reported earnings after the bell Wednesday.

Rani Molla5h

SpaceX filings reportedly show no one can fire Elon Musk except Elon Musk

The only thing stopping Elon Musk from being chairman and CEO of SpaceX is Elon Musk, according to Reuters, which viewed an excerpt of the company’s IPO filing.

The document outlines a dual-class share structure giving Musk control via super-voting stock. The filing says he “can only be removed from our board or these positions by the vote of Class B holders” — shares he’ll control after the listing. It adds that if he keeps those shares, he could “continue to control the election and removal of a majority of our board.”

At a typical public company — even founder-led ones with dual-class structures — a CEO can be fired by the board of directors, which represents shareholders and can vote to remove them over issues such as corporate performance, strategy, or misconduct.

The unusual SpaceX setup means Musk is unlikely to face the kind of CEO succession pressure he’s dealt with at Tesla. Musk, of course, is not a typical CEO, and the value of his companies has long been closely tied to his presence.

To be sure, SpaceX’s confidential IPO filing isn’t in its final form yet — while the filing is still in the confidential phase, the company will be going back and forth with the SEC, which will review it and suggest or require changes.

Exclusive: Only Elon Musk can fire Elon Musk from SpaceX, filing shows

Rani Molla4/28/26

OpenAI’s models are officially coming to Amazon

Amazon is finally getting in on the hottest ticket in tech.

After Microsoft announced yesterday that it has agreed to give up its exclusive rights to sell OpenAI’s models, Amazon, as expected, will start offering them to customers — something Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman says users have been asking for “for a really long time.” Some models are available now in preview, and the most powerful GPT versions will show up “in the coming weeks.”

This is a big shift in the AI cloud wars. Microsoft’s early bet on OpenAI gave Azure an edge by locking up the most in-demand models. Now that exclusivity is gone, Amazon and other competitors can finally offer them too, closing a key gap and competing more directly for AI customers.

Amazon Set to Sell OpenAI Tech After Microsoft Cedes Exclusivity

Claire Yubin Oh4/28/26

Ship-tracking app surges as Iran war continues

As Middle East peace talks stretch on, with Tehran reportedly offering to reopen the Strait of Hormuz if the US lifts its blockade and the war ends, the owner of shipping intelligence platform MarineTraffic revealed that the app has gained millions of new users since the conflict began.

MarineTraffic’s user count jumped to 8.5 million this April, up from 3.5 million a year ago, the cofounder of its parent company, Kpler, said in an interview with the Financial Times. Paid subscribers, often workers within companies and governments looking for more data on supply chains and commodities trading, rose 11,000 in the same period.

Kpler, which also owns shipping intelligence platform FleetMon, draws its data from a range of sources, including the Automatic Identification System, satellites, and more than 500 people on-site, like port terminal operators.

Per Appfigures data, MarineTraffic is estimated to have raked in almost $1 million across March and April in app revenue (through April 27), more than double the ~$346,500 from the same months last year. Across the full year, Kpler expects to earn between $300 million and $400 million in annual recurring revenues.