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because of this
 
Not everyone. I was looking forward to a new SE to replace my SE3. While the 16e is fine on features, the price is not. Had it been $100 less it would have been acceptable. Given it is only $200 less than the real iphone 16 it is no longer a budget phone, and while I don't need the features missing in the 16e, it doesn't seem like a good value. It reminds me of the iphone 5c which was universally maligned. Might as well just buy the real 16 instead.
I’m not gonna defend apple on pricing too much. All of their products are priced way more than they should be. Apple sees itself is premium and they reflect that in their pricing.

I do think that the 16e is designed to be sold as a carrier monthly payment deal. It starts to seem reasonable then. Even better if you have an old device to exchange/recycle towards that cost.

Secondly, you could see the SE models as an anomaly. Apple doesn’t really do low end. It’s mid to high end consumer. tech and they charge a premium for that.

Thirdly, apple would be very happy if it pushed a certain percentage of buyers to pay more and get the regular 16 instead!

Finally, I hear all of the complaints about the 16e not having MagSafe. I’m price sensitive enough not to want to pay £40 (I’m English) for a charging solution that solves a ‘first world problem’.

So I hear you. We all pay way too much for apple products but as long as enough of us do, apple isn’t going to change.
 
Yeah, it's not really budget. That said, carrier deals can make it a lot more palatable.
Hmm. I just looked at an O2 deal in uk. 36 months at £17.50 is £630 rather than £599 for cash. The data deal is £24 a month for 25 GB whereas Giff Gaff (O2 MVNO) would be £10 pm. Carriers here really dont offer anything more than finance plus interest.
We also have 1£=1$ for some reason for all Apple goods, maybe VAT really is a tariff on US goods 😂
 
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We also have 1£=1$ for some reason for all Apple goods,

For some reason? The UK pre-VAT 16e price is approximately £499 which at the current exchange rate is around $626 USD. That's fairly in-line with the pre-sales tax U.S. price of $599.


maybe VAT really is a tariff on US goods

Given the above, how is UK VAT really a tariff on U.S. goods? Besides, doesn't the VAT apply to all goods regardless of where they are from/made?
 
Flaws? What flaws? Not everyone needs the latest and greatest or the best. Why would someone pay to upgrade something if they're not going to make use of it? Some people couldn't care less about the camera or the other bells and whistles and just want a simple smartphone. Apple knows what they are doing; they're not dumb.

By your logic, why should we stop at the iPhone 16?
We might as well pay $100 more for the 16 Plus!
Well, if we're going to get that, we might as well pay $100 more to get the 16 Pro!
Wait, the 16 Pro Max is only $200 more, we better get that instead!
Gosh, now at this point it's only $200 to get 512GB of storage!
Actually, let's drop another $200 to get 1TB of storage!
Now we're paying $1600 for a phone when the $600 one was perfectly fine.

Point is...most people buy what they need, not what looks good on paper.
Your scenario is actually what Tim Cook dreams of each night:

billions of people convincing themselves to climb up the iPhone pricing ladder.
 
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Your scenario is actually what Tim Cook dreams of each night:

billions of people convincing themselves to climb up the iPhone pricing ladder.
It’s what the CEO and Board of Directors of every corporation dream of every night!
 
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Totally agree.

The 16e is missing a lot of features that you simply won’t miss if you’ve never had them - ie the features on the top of the S curve.

MagSafe, Dynamic Island, ultra wide band find my, new style camera modes.

Ok useful but not essential and in product management terms, ‘nice to haves’.

Only one camera lens compared to the regular 16…

How many times do you find yourself taking closeup shots?

And I’ve never seen an ultra wide lens shot that doesn’t make it look like you’re on strong psychedelics.

The zoom lens is great. But that’s always been a pro thing.

But you can only get it in two boring colours!!! 99% of people put their iPhone in a case, so who cares?

No 5g fast milliwave thing. Not relevant to anyone outside of the USA (like me) and if this sort of thing bothers you, you probably should be getting a pro anyway.

A modern fast processor ready for when apple intelligence actually becomes a must have, insane battery life, fantastic regular camera - all sounds good to me.


If the "flaws" of the 16e make people purchase an iPhone 16 for $200 more instead, Apple did a great job.

I see quite a few complaints on this forum about the non-top model lacking feature X with comments stating "how bad of Apple that the Air doesn't have feature X, I have to get the Pro then".

Their upselling strategy seems to be working very well indeed. I'm sure they did the math on how many potential customers they actually lose vs. how many end up spending more for a higher-end model.

I think what will happen is that most people who waited for this long-rumored device to upgrade from whatever their current iPhone is will now upgrade to a regular 16 if they're disappointed by the 16e. And people who never considered an iPhone because it was too expensive (with the old SE design being unappealing to most) now have $200 less to think about. These people probably don't care much about stuff like MagSafe, partly because they don't own anything compatible with the MagSafe ecosystem anyway.
 
Secondly, you could see the SE models as an anomaly. Apple doesn’t really do low end. It’s mid to high end consumer. tech and they charge a premium for that.

The SE wasn't really low end anyway. It started at $429 which is around mid-range Android.
 
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Given the above, how is UK VAT really a tariff on U.S. goods? Besides, doesn't the VAT apply to all goods regardless of where they are from/made?
Yes we all pay sales tax. I was being ironic (re Trump claims) We have to laugh else cry.
 
When Apple just launched the iPhone 16e, what was she thinking? Would people prefer all these flaws for $200?
If it had cost $500 I think it would have been a hit, and people would have lined up to buy it, but at $600 I'd save a little more and buy an iPhone 16 for $800
Maybe it's even worth giving up Apple Intellect
Really Apple, it seems like you want this to remain a niche phone like the SE 3 (I'm not sure the amount Apple paid the programmers to write this HTML was worth it to them)
What do you think about this?

I think that Apple will consider the 16e a success so long as it accounts for about 5-6% of overall iphone sales.

Remember, Apple probably doesn’t want too many people buying it when they could be getting more expensive models.
 
When rumors of a new SE surfaced, I ignored them because I would not buy one. The reality is that the SE has gone the way of the iPhone Mini - it no longer exists. For me, this simplifies my decision process as I am looking to upgrade my iPhone 12. Cost is not a factor, but I do not spend money on things I won't use. Personally I would get no value from a 16 at $200 more.
 
I think that Apple will consider the 16e a success so long as it accounts for about 5-6% of overall iphone sales.

Remember, Apple probably doesn’t want too many people buying it when they could be getting more expensive models.
A lot of people just don’t understand this.
 
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The SE has never been about being small. The current SE was not a replacement for the 13 mini, it was a replacement for the previous SE. It was simply an older, cheaper design that could be offered at a lower price point with updated processor. Older designs just happened to be smaller. The SE line already existed when the minis were launched. The minis had a price point in a bad spot in the lineup between the iphone 12/13 and the SE.
The minis were quite in a good pricing spot. They were even cheaper than the larger 12/13ns even though they had higher integration (which is the thing that costs money - you pay for phones to be smaller for a given capability).

The SE were positioned as successor to the minis because they couldn't/wouldn't produce newer minis. So they became state of the art. The alternative in many cases was not to buy a "regular" iphone, but simply an android phone like the fairphone as apple has a lot more competition in the bigger phone market.

That the SE was cheaper than the mini was simply a result of consolidation. People interested in cheap usually don't buy apple.
 
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So actually t-mobile at Sam’s club is giving $830 towards an upgrade if you upgrade a 11 or newer…. So pretty much why get an e……
 
I have MagSafe on my new 16 pro and doubt I will ever use it. I don’t think it’s a major selling point for most.
I didn't think it was much of a feature until I got a wireless dock and just having it click into place is nice. But that's really it for me.
 
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I didn't think it was much of a feature until I got a wireless dock and just having it click into place is nice. But that's really it for me.
I can see that but plugging in works for me too. At least the little pucks are relatively cheap.
 
I didn't think it was much of a feature until I got a wireless dock and just having it click into place is nice. But that's really it for me.
I just ordered some self adhesive magsafe rings for my phone cases.
Not sure price was the only factor, some of our resellers with stock of SE3 are advertising them for £599 ($600+) for the 128GB. Even third party refurbs are selling out. Lucky to get an ex demo SE now.
 
I just ordered some self adhesive magsafe rings for my phone cases.
Not sure price was the only factor, some of our resellers with stock of SE3 are advertising them for £599 ($600+) for the 128GB. Even third party refurbs are selling out. Lucky to get an ex demo SE now.
For some reason I thought no MagSafe meant no wireless charging for a quick second. The adhesive rings make sense.
 
For some reason I thought no MagSafe meant no wireless charging for a quick second. The adhesive rings make sense.
Arrived - I had to make a cutout for my kick stand. Plain steel, Strong enough to hold the puck at least
 

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