Apple launched the iPhone 16e back in February, seemingly in place of the previously much rumoured SE 4. If reports are to be believed, it has done much better in terms of sales compared to the previous SE model, which begs the question – will the “e” models become a yearly thing the way Samsung does its FE phones, or Google with the “a” variants?
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman and the weekly Power On, and specifically the subscriber-exclusive Post Game Q&A section, Apple has yet to make a decision. And indeed, judging from the gap between the release of the iPhone 16 series and its “e” model, it won’t have to for awhile.
But Gurman claims that the 16e has outperforms the SE 3 for a couple of reasons. One was that the jump between the SE 3 and 16e was a lot more meaningful than between the SE 2 and SE 3. The other was that “marketing it as an iPhone 16 variant rather than a new iPhone SE” made it more appealing to “consumers in places like China”.
With the second reason in mind, Apple may well go down the route of a yearly release for a more budget friendly line of smartphones. That being the case, with the iPhone 16e starting from RM2,999 locally, there’s stiff competition even in the upper mid-range market, to say nothing of the lower end of the price bracket.
(Source: Bloomberg)
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