The last iPhone SE came out in 2022, two years after the 2020 iPhone SE model. This means that iPhone users were overdue for a successor to the mid-range lineup. The iPhone 16e came out this year and replaced the iPhone SE as a budget-friendly counterpart to the main iPhone 16 series.
This means that the iPhone 16e shares some similarities with Apple’s newest flagship phones: namely the fact that it supports Apple Intelligence. Apple Intelligence is incomplete but it’s still the biggest selling point and most marketed feature of the iPhone 16 lineup. The iPhone 16e has 8 GB of RAM to support AI and an edge to edge modern display unlike the iPhone SE.
But despite all this the iPhone 16e was ridiculed at launch. Consumers said that the phone was overpriced and that they would have much rather had another iPhone SE model. Even accounting for inflation the iPhone 16e costs more than it should have and I’d go so far as to say that Apple killed the iPhone SE to protect its profit margins.
Apple should have kept the iPhone SE around as an even cheaper option. | Video credit — Apple
But despite the ridicule and the heavily increased starting price the first three days of the iPhone 16e saw a 60 percent increase in sales over the previous iPhone SE. In simpler terms: despite the higher cost the iPhone 16e is selling like hot cakes.
There are a multitude of reasons why this might be the case. For starters the iPhone 16e probably makes for a pretty decent enterprise phone for companies to provide their employees with. Another reason could be that the average consumer doesn’t consider the price hike unreasonable enough to be put off from purchasing the phone.
Lastly, now that the iPhone SE has been discontinued the iPhone 16e is the cheapest entry point into the iOS ecosystem. Even if a user may consider the price to be too high they won’t have any other options besides switching to Android.
The iPhone 16 series is kind of an underwhelming upgrade over the iPhone 15 and many users may be upgrading to the iPhone 16e instead.
