The iPhone SE looks a lot like an iPhone 5s, but it’s got upgraded internals that are similar to the iPhone 6s.
Advertisement
In a separate release, Apple claimed that it sold over 30 million 4-inch iPhones in the past one year, which would roughly contribute to 15 per cent of the company’s overall iPhone sales.
“At the heart is our chips, our Apple A9 chip”, Apple’s vice president of iPhone marketing Greg Joswiak said, referring to the same 64-bit chip found in the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. And the display is the biggest battery hog on phones. The only noticeable difference now is that the edges are matte instead of polished. It might also draw some additional users into the market for Apple’s online services, including Apple Music, Apple Pay and the highly profitable mobile App Store.
To be clear, the investment firm doesn’t think the SE is a bad phone, far from it. But, it says, the iPhone SE will not change the market trajectory for the iPhone.
The iPhone SE, it says, will help to do this for a part of the installed base, but Apple needs bigger bolder ideas to drive a significant uplift in iPhone shipments and accelerate the upgrade cycle.
The new iPad Pro has a 9.7-inch display while the the original business-geared tablet has a 12.9-inch display. Bigger is better, but in the case of Apple’s new devices, smaller is timeless. They’re there too. Want a device that’s twice as powerful as a 3-year-old phone?
Apple has also launched a smaller version of the iPad Pro tablet at its event at the company’s headquarters in Cupertino on March 21. The price for an iPad Air with 16 GB of storage is being cut by $100 to $399 in another attempt to spur sales.
While shoppers bought a record 74.8 million iPhones in the final three months of 2015, Apple has signaled demand in the current three-month period will fall short of the 61 million iPhones sold in the January-March quarter a year ago.
Despite its size, which may pose a challenge for the enthused Indian users moving towards a phablet-like device and the popularity of Android devices, it would be wrong to say that there is no prospect in the new Apple SE.
Apple has also released a new type of wristband made of woven nylon, along with more colours for existing types of bands.
Advertisement
Analysts generally expect Apple to release a more dramatically revamped iPhone 7 in the fall.
