Paraphrasing fictional President Jed Bartlet (The West Wing of the White House), journalists who cover Apple are the Charlie Browns of Equipment cheap. Time and time again, Apple threatens to launch a smartphone really cheap and time and again back off at the last minute. Oh my God!
In recent weeks, some insiders in the world of rumors were convinced that the third generation of the iPhone SE, which was announced this Tuesday at the spring event Performance overviewwould be the smartphone really budget oriented that the iPhone 5c and the previous two versions of the iPhone SE promised.
Before it arrived, I thought the SE 3 could be a big hit if Apple kept the price below $500. A rumor from the end of the month claimed that the company might even sell it for under $400 and keep the SE 2 under $300. Without a doubt, terrifying numbers if you’re an entry-level Android maker.
But here we are with a new iPhone SE that actually costs quite a bit more than its predecessor at launch, with the price starting at $529 thanks to the addition of 5G.
Not that the SE is expensive. In fact, compared to the iPhone 13 Pro Max, the SE looks really affordable. But given its outdated design, it should and could have been considerably cheaper, opening up new markets and opportunities.
Has the iPhone SE stopped being good value for money?
Apple has always been clear about what it wants to achieve with the SE. It’s the way to get the latest Apple mobile chip at the lowest possible price. You just have to sacrifice other aspects.
Apple has been up to the task with the latest SE, delivering a mid-range phone with the incredibly powerful A15 Bionic that we’ve already seen in the much more expensive iPhone 13 series.
But the A15 is a bit of a misfit, forced to live in a chassis that debuted with the iPhone 8 in 2017 and was largely a copycat of the iPhone 6 from 2014. As my colleague Dom Preston puts it , the design of the iPhone was “embarrassing”. two years ago”, and it is “simply outrageous” to include it now.
It’s a cool design, but even Jon Hamm would overdo it after eight years.
And it’s not just a matter of aesthetics. The “new” SE has a small screen by today’s standards (4.7 inches), and it offers the same (relatively poor) brightness and sharpness as the previous generation.
The camera may offer new functions thanks to the influence of the A15, but the Equipment real has not changed. (And there’s no night mode either.) And it still has a Home button, which will be good news for some, but definitely old-fashioned.
It’s really surprising that Apple has managed to expand the use of the SE design as much as it has because we could describe it in one sentence: it’s the second-generation iPhone SE, plus the A15 Bionic and 5G.
These are welcome additions, but most people buying the SE would probably prefer to do without these luxuries for a price of $399 or $299.
The economic road not traveled
We’ve been saying this for a long time, but when did Apple decide it would only sell to the wealthy? Previously, the company wanted to bring the latest technology to as many users as possible, and now it’s launching $2,329 Macs that don’t even come with a screen or keyboard.
The point of view premium of Apple has its logic, since the perception of exclusivity, of a rarefied lifestyle, is part of the appeal, and users premium they are lucrative targets for the subsequent sale of applications and subscription services.
But it didn’t have to be that way. Apple could have (and could still be, if Tim Cook wants it to be) the company that truly democratized technology. Or, at least, the company that sold to rich and poor at the same time.
And it also makes business sense. There are millions of potential customers turning away from the Apple brand due to the company’s high prices. Why did Apple cede this market to Android? Don’t like money?
It’s very disappointing. But there are reasons for hope. They say the next version of the iPhone SE will be the first smartphone of the company really focused on the economic market, with a price within reach of the average consumer.
Original article published in igamesnews US.
