Though there is a general trend worldwide in terms of falling sales of smartphones, especially the top-end models, Apple has been experiencing a challenging situation with its iPhones. Will the company go back to one of its popular models the iPhone SE 2 to regain some of the lost ground? You can make your own inference out of the situation, but here are some pointers to justify this argument.
Apple Put up the Old iPhone SE for Sale and Got Sold
If you have been following the news reports in the past one week, Apple’s US site put up different models of the old iPhone SE on sale giving discounts of $100 to $200. If the reports are to be believed, the units got sold out and the phones were taken off the display on the site. This could prove a point to the Cupertino headquartered company and set it thinking seriously on launching a successor.
iPhone XR Has Not Measured Up
Another factor that Apple should take into consideration is that its attempt at moving out of the 4 inch model and launch larger screen at lower price points has not been very successful either. The sales of the iPhone XR particularly in markets like China and India which are the largest in terms of the number of units sold, has not been much to write home about. This again proves that merely offering a larger size screen does not result in better sales. An iPhone at the $300 to $350 range has a captive market and the iPhone SE was occupying it. Apple has to do something to regain this space.
Apple’s Predicament the Reverse of What the Chinese Makers Faced
Some of the Chinese brands like Xiaomi and Huawei had faced a peculiar situation. They felt they had the capability to make the best smartphones with the top-end components but could not push their models where only Apple and Samsung were ruling the market. The perception in the minds of the buyers was that these companies can only build cheaper phones. They then had to find sub-brands like Honor and Redmi to differentiate and fight the perception battle. What Apple is facing is the reverse of this situation. It may perceive that if it goes all out to sell the iPhone SE 2 at say $400, then its market for the $1000 and above models may be totally lost or at least eaten into by the lower-priced model.
But this may not hold true. Apple must revisit its strategy and launch the iPhone SE 2 as soon as it can.