Apple's spring conference, did you see it? To the small partner who did not see a wake-up call, Apple's new product this time can be described as very interesting, here Xiao Lei said two points that everyone may understand: the starting price of $429 (lower than the previous generation) and A15 chip.
If we convert according to common sense, can't we buy a brand new iPhone equipped with the A15 chip of the "strongest mobile core on the surface" for less than 3,000 yuan? It wouldn't be a dream, would it? However, this is really a dream, because then Apple's official price shows that the price of the iPhone SE is actually 3499 yuan, even more expensive than the previous generation of iPhone SE 200.
Although the price is not very beautiful, the product itself still has a lot to discuss. For example, the chip, this time Apple is very generous to the current best mobile phone chip A15 in their hands to the iPhone SE this entry product, I believe it will definitely surprise Android mobile phone manufacturers.
As for another refreshing mobile phone product, it is a pity that it is only the new color of the iPhone 13/Pro series: Cangling Green.
I have to sigh that the dark green iPhone 13/Pro is indeed quite attractive, but Xiao Lei believes that the biggest protagonist in the mobile phone field tonight is still the latest iPhone SE, and there are too many things that can be discussed on him.
The entry machine uses the flagship core
The third generation, the newly released iPhone SE, brought two "shocks" to Xiao Lei himself.
First of all, the first time, it is naturally a "ten thousand years unchanged" design, although many fans, including Xiao Lei, have been mentally prepared, but Apple can copy the design language of the iPhone 8 or even the iPhone 6 so unchanged, it is really shocking beyond words: Apple's determination and confidence seem to have been unshakable.
Back to the point, this new machine iPhone SE (2022 model) in the appearance of the actually not much to say, Xiao Lei even suspected that the three dimensions of the fuselage are consistent with the previous iPhone SE or even iPhone 8. But there are pros and cons, if you have to say what is the benefit of a design like the iPhone SE, Xiao Lei did think of a few points.
First of all, the LCD screen is naturally retained, considering that there are still a small number of users on the market who are more sensitive to the screen material, while giving priority to the LCD screen, then the newly launched iPhone SE is naturally the most suitable.
Secondly, after the iPhone X, although Face ID is much more secure, but on the senseless experience, Touch ID still has many advantages, coupled with the current epidemic affecting the wearing of masks will more or less affect the unlocking experience of Face ID, then the iPhone SE that supports fingerprint unlocking, is it possible to get one more point?
Well, if these reasons are far-fetched, let's talk about the iPhone SE, which might get you excited.
The first point is naturally the chip, who could have imagined that Apple would be so crazy to directly delegate the latest and strongest A15 chip on an entry-level mobile phone, so that the iPhone SE, such a retro-looking model, directly performed a performance "kill" on the current Android flagship.
A powerful chip to bring the experience gain is the most direct, not to mention the performance of A15 allows the iPhone SE to play all the games currently on the market, and A15 can also ensure that the iPhone SE in daily use has been enough or even overflow system fluency, in the comparison of the same price point mobile phone, A15 chip has become the last moat of the iPhone SE.
At the same time, as one of the world's top SoCs, the A15 chip not only brings an upgrade in computing performance, but also supports peripheral features. For example, computational photography, relying on the strong computing power of the A15 chip, poor as the 12MP single camera of the iPhone SE, can actually play computational photography, is this a kind of "vigorous miracle" technology myth?
However, A15 is not really a "miracle", such as low screen resolution, backward charging specifications and small battery capacity, A15 can not save the iPhone SE. This illustrates a serious problem: although the iPhone SE has the strongest mobile phone chip, it is still essentially a cheap product, full of compromises and deductions.
The second point to be said next is closely related to "compromise" and "cost": price. Originally, when looking at the US price of $429, Xiao Lei also speculated with joy that the iPhone SE would not set a starting price of 2999 yuan in China to make the majority of fruit fans happy? However, the fact is that under the influence of various factors, the starting price of the 64GB storage iPhone SE (which naturally refers to the latest model) is 3499 yuan, if you pay attention, you will find that this price is higher than the starting price of the previous generation of iPhone SE that year.
But there's no denying that price remains one of the iPhone SE's biggest competitive advantages. In the final analysis, the current Apple still has a huge advantage in the mobile phone chip and system ecology, and from Apple's point of view, "we even use the same glass material as the iPhone 13 on the iPhone SE", although its starting price is not as low as we predicted, but from the use experience, comprehensive texture and other subjective ideas to consider, iPhone SE in the 3000 yuan or so gear still has a very obvious competition.
And it should be noted that the subsidy activities for the iPhone on these platforms are wave after wave, and in China, we basically do not have to worry about buying a new iPhone SE below 3,000 yuan.
In addition, the new iPhone SE does have some upgrades, such as finally supporting 5G networks, and supporting a certain degree of waterproofing, at least for daily use, the experience can still be better.
Apple's "two-handed preparation"
Although the iPhone SE product line that is positioned to start is not very high in the entire Apple mobile phone family, in fact, since Apple restarted the iPhone SE production line, its status has risen rapidly to the naked eye.
This time Apple for the iPhone SE directly devolved the A15 chip such a move is particularly obvious, Apple seems not to have too much thought to calculate how to arrange product positioning, set product differences, but choose to use the most direct "performance crush" to destroy his competitors, so as to establish a market advantage.
If the previous generation of iPhone SE used a chip of the previous generation and appeared to be competitive is not very obvious, then this time the iPhone SE, it is really to find the core pain points of users in the low-end market and accurately attack, seeking to decide the winner and defeat with competitors on the most core issues.
Of course, from another point of view, the situation may be completely different. Let's assume that if the iPhone SE is equipped with an A15 chip and supports 5G, it will be forced? It is precisely because Apple has a strict and difficult to adjust product echelon planning, so that the iPhone SE can only show its current appearance (including appearance and other peripheral configurations), in the case of helplessness, in order to maintain competitiveness in the market, so it can only endure the pain of cutting the A15 chip to love?
In fact, no matter what kind of conjecture we can find that Apple now knows how to use the "nuclear weapon" in their hands - chips. Even the entire spring conference, looking at the iPad, Mac these chips, the most surprising and admirable thing for us is also from the chip part, Apple with unprecedented financial and technical strength, constantly put the chip resources that friends are begging for and can't do, playing in the palm of the hand, so that there is still room to install A13 chips for a display.
It is no exaggeration to say that with the hardware configuration of Studio Display, playing "Original God" may be more stable than most Android flagships. To be sure, under Apple's almost crazy chip offensive, the current Android mobile phone manufacturers have a hard time, and the future may be even more difficult.
On the other hand, we have seen another exploration of Apple's high-end product line: strengthening product cognition through "color" and artificially extending the life cycle of products.
At this time last year, we saw a new color scheme of purple exclusive to the iPhone 12, and after the conference, the new color matching directly pushed Apple to the first place in Weibo hot search. At this time of the year, when everyone agreed that Apple was going to continue to launch a purple color iPhone 13, he unexpectedly came up with the "dark green" option, and expanded the new color support model to the iPhone 13 Pro, giving the two products a new temperament.
In Xiao Lei's view, the importance of the iPhone adding a new color match should be no different from the release of a new model. Anyway, potential users need visual differences rather than internal differences, and changing the design or adding color matching can make Apple achieve its purpose.
Through this conference, Xiao Lei finally saw Apple's new way of playing: the low-end uses the chip to "vigorously produce miracles", and the high-end stimulates user perception through visual differences, triggering spontaneous discussions among high-end users at the perceptual level and increasing the popularity of the product.
In fact, apple has been able to dominate the global mobile phone market in the fourth quarter by relying on the ability of the product itself, but it is clear that Apple wants more. Not only did they dominate the market in the fourth quarter, they even wanted to be the leader throughout the year; not only did the high-end market go ahead, but now even if it was an entry-level market, they also had to swallow the ground and make competitors have no place to stand.
Perhaps, on the proposition of "who can beat Apple", the answer is "tomorrow's Apple".