At 2:00 a.m. Beijing time on March 9, Apple's 2022 spring conference continued to be held online. Nandu reporter combed and found that the main three aspects that caused the industry and consumers to focus and discuss are the following three aspects: First, the "cheapest 5G iPhone" released by Apple, that is, the third generation of iPhone SE (64GB) is priced at only 3499 yuan; second, the iPhone 13 and 13 Pro have also ushered in a new color matching; the third is the top price of up to 59999 yuan, equipped with a self-developed chip Mac Studio, known as the "strongest Mac computer" M1 ULTRA.
For whether the three generations of iPhoneSE will impact the existing low-end stock market of mobile phones, on March 9, Xiang Ligang, an analyst in the communications industry, told Nandu reporter, "There will be a certain impact, but it will not be particularly serious." He believes that for example, in the Chinese market, Chinese users have a lot of choices at this price point, and most people think that buying Apple is still to buy high matching.
The cheapest Apple 5G phone
Although the attention of the spring conference is often not as good as that of the autumn, on the morning of March 8, the Nandu reporter found that the hashtag of #dark green iPhone13# has been on the Weibo hot search, and after the conference, #What are the highlights of the #Apple spring conference.
iPhone 13 new color palette green.
After the new dark green news of iPhone13 appeared on Weibo's hot search, many netizens complained that they did not understand. For example, because the iPhone12 has repeatedly exposed the problem of green screen, some netizens joked that "this time the screen is not obvious." Coupled with the recent sharp decline in stock market funds, many netizens said that dark green looks like leeks.
At the press conference, the new color of the iPhone 13 that had been spread long ago was also settled, and Apple named it Cangling Green.
Why the spring conference has a new color match, some netizens believe that spring and summer is the sales off-season of traditional smart phones, and dark green will undoubtedly bring a new wave of sales climax. "For the real fruit powder, people who want to buy iPhone 13 have long bought it, and the dark green mainly stimulates old Apple users such as iPhone 6, iPhone8, and iPhone XR, stimulating these users to change new."
In addition to the new color of the iPhone 13 series, there is no doubt that the most concerned about this spring conference is the new generation of iPhone SE.
"This year, we built the most powerful and durable iPhone SE to date, with longer battery life thanks to the A15 Bionic, and the same sensor as our iPhone 13 series also unlocks advanced camera features like Smart HDR 4, Photographic Styles and Deep Fusion. With 5G, iPhone SE provides users with faster download and upload speeds, higher-quality video streaming, real-time interactivity in apps, and more. Offering the latest generation of technology and performance at this price is something that only Apple can do. KaiannDrance, Apple's vice president of global iPhone product marketing, said.
Consistent with the previous messages, the appearance of the new generation of iPhone SE is similar to the previous Reuters message, using the iPhone 8 design, the front is a 4.7-inch non-full-screen screen, the rear single camera, and the home screen button that supports Touch ID.
This is the first time Apple has equipped 5G in the SE series of mobile phones. Compared with the previous generation, its biggest feature is not only the support for 5G, but also the use of the same A15 chip and glass panel of the iPhone 13 series. In terms of photography functions, the iPhone SE3 uses a 12-megapixel rear camera, but due to the use of a newer processor, the photography function has been improved.
Previously, some netizens speculated that the new generation of iPhone SE may adopt a full-screen design, but after Apple announced that it would still use the previous generation of design, netizens praised Cook's business acumen, calling it "the longest-lived smartphone mold in history".
In terms of price, the price of the new generation of iPhone SE is 64GB 3499 yuan, 128GB 3899 yuan, 256GB 4699 yuan, the color matching continues the tradition, it is still black, white, red three colors, will be listed on March 18, March 11 at 9 pm pre-order.
In addition, the conference did not launch the M2 chip, but launched the ultimate version of the M1 chip M1 ULTRA, equipped with M1 and support 5G iPad air5, M1 Max and M1 Ultra versions of the Mac Studio, and Display Studio display.
Develop the low-end market and expand market share?
After two years, Apple has released a new SE again, which seems to mean that although Apple returned to the first monthly sales in October 2021 with the hot sales of the iPhone 13, the low-end market is still a big cake that Cook is unwilling to give up.
According to a report by the market research agency Canalys, under the influence of the shortage of semiconductor components, global smartphone shipments increased by only 1% in the fourth quarter of last year, but because of the record sales of the iPhone 13 series, Apple topped again with a market share of 22% in 2021.
On January 28, Apple announced the first quarter of fiscal 2022 (October to December 2021), quarterly revenue increased by 11% year-on-year to $123.95 billion, the highest single-quarter revenue in history, and net profit was $34.63 billion, up 20% year-on-year.
But global shipments in the smartphone market are already saturated. Counterpoint data shows that global smartphone shipments peaked at 1.566 billion units in 2017, and from 2018 to 2020, shipments declined year by year, and in 2021, although recovering from the epidemic, it was still below 1.4 billion.
In the Chinese market, the previous report of the Academy of Information and Communications Technology showed that in January 2022, the domestic market shipments of mobile phones were 33.022 million units, down 17.7% year-on-year. Among them, 5G mobile phone shipments were 26.324 million units, down 3.5% year-on-year. With the lack of innovation of mobile phone manufacturers and the impact of the epidemic, the user replacement cycle has gradually become longer.
Therefore, in the face of the low-end market that has been flat before, Apple still made the decision to increase the size. Although the response to the first iPhone SE in 2016 was flat, data from the market research agency Localics showed that the proportion of total sales of all iPhone models at that time was only 0.1%, while the sales of the previous generations of products, the iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone 5s, which were launched in the first week, accounted for 2%, 1% and 0.9%, respectively.
But the iPhone SE2 released in 2020 is outstanding, also in the middle and low-end mobile phone positioning, Omdia data shows that the iPhone SE sales reached 24.2 million units, second only to the sales champion iPhone 11 more than 60 million units.
The performance of the sales of the second-generation iPhone SE products has also allowed Apple to readjust its strategy for the low-end market, and the new product is also equipped with the same chip as the iPhone 13 series not long ago - A15 Bionic, intending to let Apple's aura promote the development of the low-end market.
In the face of market shrinkage, broadening the market is undoubtedly regarded by Apple as the way to development. A previous report by IDC pointed out that the target group of iPhone SE is very clear, that is, Apple's old model users, rather than comparing it to Apple's "spear" of competition in the mid-range market, is more of a "strong shield", and its existence is to compete with the same price Android products and compete for iOS stock users.
However, in addition to the chip, the other functions of the new generation of iPhone SE are also considered by netizens to be "old wine for new bottles".
On March 9, Xiang Ligang, an analyst in the communications industry, told Nandu reporters that most people will choose to buy a high-end apple, and most people are very sensitive to Apple's brand image. Therefore, if you choose to buy SE, most of the user groups will feel that they are separated from Apple's brand image. Therefore, for the sales of the new generation of iPhone SE, Xiang Ligang believes that "I don't think there will be none, but it will be very limited."
Or because of that, though, before the day's launch, Apple's stock price rose rapidly, from falling more than 2% to rising more than 2% in less than an hour and a half. After the press conference, Apple's stock price fell rapidly again, and by the close of the day, Apple's stock price fell more than 1% to $157.44, with a market value of $256.9 billion.
Written by: Nandu reporter Kong Xueshao Intern Cao Ziyi