“When Apple released the iPhone SE earlier this year, you can believe some were skeptical. Basically, it replaced the iPhone 5s in essentially the same case, but sporting most of the guts of the iPhone 6s,” Gene Steinberg writes for The Tech Night Owl. “That meant for superior performance on a par with the larger model, more or less, except for the lack of 3D Touch.”
“For an iPhone, the price was quite aggressive, starting at $399 for the 16GB model. A 64GB version is $100 more,” Steinberg writes. “Now the tech pundits really didn’t take it seriously, but that changed when it turned out that Apple was chronically back ordered. This situation persisted for weeks. Evidently Apple severely underestimated potential demand, but the surprise success of the iPhone SE clearly helped boost sales in the June quarter to a point where the decrease wasn’t quite as bad as expected.”
“There’s a new report indicating it’s responsible for growing Apple’s smartphone market share in the UK, according to surveys from Kantar WorldPanel ComTech,” Steinberg writes. “Believe it or not, the iPhone SE is the UK’s best-selling smartphone… The iPhone SE appears to be an important object lesson for Apple. With the proliferation of large smartphones, Apple evidently succumbed to the meme that customers didn’t want small anymore. But that’s clearly not so.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote of the SE back in May:
Classic design is classic design (and the Sleep/Wake button is on top where it’s supposed to be, too).
SEE ALSO:
4-inch iPhone SE looks like a winner for Apple – July 22, 2016
Demand for Apple’s iPhone SE still outstripping supply – June 16, 2016
Apple’s ‘boring’ iPhone SE is paying off – June 16, 2016
Slate reviews Apple’s iPhone SE: ‘Simple, functional, and iconic – love it’ – May 31, 2016
AnandTech reviews Apple’s 4-inch iPhone SE – May 16, 2016
Ars Technica reviews Apple’s iPhone SE: An apology to big-phone haters everywhere – April 6, 2016
iPhone SE event led to website traffic spike in China and India – April 5, 2016
Daring Fireball’s Gruber reviews iPhone SE: ‘Feels the best in hand’ – April 1, 2016
Macworld reviews iPhone SE: ‘It’s a pocket-size powerhouse’ – March 31, 2016
TIME reviews Apple’s iPhone SE: ‘The perfect smaller smartphone’ – March 30, 2016
Mossberg: Understanding Apple’s iPhone SE and 9.7-inch iPad Pro – March 30, 2016
Wired reviews Apple’s iPhone SE: You’ll use it differently – March 29, 2016
USA Today’s Baig: Apple’s iPhone SE is like a cute, adorable baby – March 24, 2016
The Daily Mail reviews Apple’s iPhone SE: The ‘perfect first time iPhone’ – March 24, 2016
WSJ reviews Apple’s iPhone SE: ‘Smaller gets smarter with better battery life to boot’ – March 24, 2016
Apple tries to stimulate growth with the powerful 4‑inch iPhone SE – March 23, 2016
Why the tiny 4-inch iPhone SE will be a gigantic hit for Apple – March 22, 2016
Apple just put a Mac mini in your pocket (with keyboard and screen) – March 22, 2016
Apple’s got millions of reasons to make the smaller iPhone SE – March 22, 2016
The new iPhone SE finally makes a small phone feel powerful – March 21, 2016
Apple unveils iPhone SE, the most powerful phone with a four-inch display – March 21, 2016