When the previous generation of iPhone SE was released, none of the small-screen flagship enthusiasts around me spent real money to place orders, but there were several first purchases after the release of the iPhone 12 mini.
Even if the iPhone 12 mini battery life is not very good, the screen is relatively small, the display content is relatively small, and even because of frequent business trips to buy another mobile phone to use alternately, they can not hinder them.
You can touch it and you know, this feel, this weight, simply.
For a long time, the iPhone SE has been bound to the title of small screen flagship, but obviously the iPhone 12 mini is the small screen flagship in the iPhone product line.
Interestingly, even so, the second-generation iPhone SE (hereinafter referred to as the iPhone SE 2) still maintained good sales and became a hit for a while.
According to data released by counterpoint Research, the iPhone SE 2 has accounted for 12% of all iPhone sales in the year and a half since its release.
Compared with the iPhone SE 2, the third generation of iPhone SE (hereinafter referred to as iPhone SE 3) has a lot of upgrades in terms of hardware, can it continue the record of blockbusters?
Why is the iPhone SE hot
The iPhone SE 2 was released in April 2020, and Counterpoint Research tracked sales of all iPhones from the time of its release in the second quarter of 2020 to the fourth quarter of 2021.
To do a simple arithmetic, the iPhone SE 2 accounted for 12% of the sales of iPhone models sold during this period, that is, about 47.88 million units, and the iPhone SE 2 is also one of the best-selling phones in the world in 2021.
▲ iPhone sales from Q4 2019 to Q4 2021. Data from: Counterpoint Research
This is also the result of Apple's lack of development for the iPhone SE 2, the advertising and marketing of less than the 12 or 13 series models, the global epidemic and the lack of cores.
Shortly after the release of the iPhone SE 2, Counterpoint Research posted that it would sell well, and pointed out the reasons, judging from today's results and Apple's new trends, it still said a lot of content.
The first is 5G support, 5G full commercial use in 2020 has only just begun, the number of base stations, coverage, signal quality, etc. there is still room for strengthening, so even if the iPhone SE 2 does not support 5G, there is still a 2-3 year buffer period.
No, 2 years later we are waiting for the new iPhone SE 3, and 5G is one of its main highlights.
The iPhone SE has always been aimed at older iPhone users like the iPhone 8 or low-end Android users.
In the case of longer and longer replacement cycles, the iPhone SE with an affordable strategy is very attractive, not only using the same A-series chip of the flagship, the price is less than half of the flagship model.
The latest A series chips, not only make the SE model look more cost-effective, but also bring a longer term of new feature support, iPhone SE 2 can achieve excellent HDR effects with only a single camera, inseparable from the A13 chip.
This is related to its powerful AI computing power, I mentioned in the previous article, iOS 15 system many functions have requirements for chips, such as live text is required to be used on models equipped with A12 and later, computational photography, natural language processing and other functions that include AI computing learning, which inevitably require stronger AI computing power.
▲Live text function
This can be seen from the gradual increase in AI computing power of the A series chips every year.
The recently released Studio Display, which can support video character centering, spatial audio and other functions, relies on the A13 chip, iPhone SE 3 is equipped with the latest A15 chip, not only to appear more cost-effective, but also to prepare for the new features of iOS later to achieve a longer use cycle.
Counterpoint Research believes that the iPhone SE 2 is equipped with the flagship A13 chip, attracting more older models or Android users to change machines, which is conducive to promoting the growth of subscription services such as Apple Music and iCloud, and achieving higher product lifetime value (CLV).
▲The iPhone has a long life cycle, driving the growth of subscription services such as Apple Music. Image courtesy of Counterpoint Research
The lowest price in the same product line, the old design mold, the latest A-series chips, the long life cycle and other features are the key to the big sale of the iPhone SE model, and we can also see similar features in the new generation of iPhone SE 3.
The iPhone SE 3 has been upgraded a lot, but things have changed
The iPhone SE 3 is obviously maintaining the previous cost-effective strategy, in addition to the A15 chip, it has also upgraded some "pain point" hardware, which is almost a long-term drought and ganlin-like experience improvement.
The battery life of the previous generation with the most complaints has been strengthened in this generation, according to apple's official website, the movie playback time and streaming time have increased by 2 hours, 15 hours and 10 hours of battery life, respectively.
The running memory capacity has also increased from 3GB to 4GB, which means that more background applications can be run at the same time, and the situation of WeChat, Alipay and other applications automatically returning to the background will be less, which is still very useful for people who do not often clean up the background habits
Interestingly, the upgraded iPhone SE 3 stands in a flush position with the iPhone 12 mini in many hardware features, the two endurance is consistent, the memory capacity is the same, and the same support for 5G, the difference is reflected in the design, structural process, camera, etc.
In the past, this may just highlight the iPhone SE 3 cost performance of another fire, on Apple's official website the two still maintain different price ranges, iPhone SE 3 in the 3000 yuan price range, and iPhone 12 mini in the 4000 yuan price range.
▲iPhone SE 3 and iPhone 12 mini official website price comparison
But if you open a third-party e-commerce application, you will find that the price of iPhone SE 3 and iPhone 12 mini is already very close, and there are even cases where the difference is only more than 100 yuan.
Perhaps the chip supply is insufficient, or perhaps the cost of A15 is too high, the iPhone SE 3 is 200 yuan higher than the previous generation, and the iPhone 12 mini in the face of price decline is somewhat insufficient.
▲The price of the iPhone 12 mini e-commerce platform is close to the iPhone SE 3 offer price
Originally iPhone SE series models are one of the good choices for parents, Android relatively speaking, software permissions are more chaotic, the system, lock screen, pop-up window advertising is a lot, iOS more concise system is an advantage.
But in front of the iPhone 12 mini larger screen, the advantages of the iPhone SE 3 no longer exist, as the age of people's vision may decline, the large screen with more content can also be enlarged in a larger number of times, is conducive to seeing the content.
iPhone SE 3 size is actually similar to the iPhone 12 mini, the latter screen can be a lot larger in the case of similar feel, the phone is small does not mean that the screen is small, as mentioned at the beginning of the article iPhone 12 mini is the small screen flagship.
▲ The screen is larger and smaller, and the iPhone 12 mini has a good grip experience
Even if the subsequent third-party channels reduce prices and open up the price gap between the two products, the cost of the A15 chip will not be greatly reduced in the short term, and the third-party channels will reduce the price of the price is also a small adjustment, and it is impossible to dive.
The only problem comes from the supply, whether models such as the iPhone 12 mini can continue to maintain supply, how much goods can be obtained from third-party channels and sales are closely related, in the early days of the iPhone 13 series, Apple has a precedent of prioritizing the supply of new products with parts.
Once the supply is sufficient, iPhone SE 3 sales may be affected by the iPhone 12 mini, the domestic major mid-range flagship is also its strong competitors, from the sales distribution of the previous generation of iPhone SE can also be seen, the United States and Japan are the main sales areas of SE models.
▲ iPhone SE 2 sales. Data from: Counterpoint Research
Can we still see Liu Haiping iPhone SE?
Before the press conference, a friend said to me that if the iPhone SE 3 can use the bangs screen design, even if it is the ultra-thick bezel of the same iPhone XR, this is also the highest voice on social media in recent years.
It seems that whether the iPhone SE, which is fried cold rice, can use bangs is actually related to whether Apple can achieve breakthrough technological innovation.
It may seem a bit abnormal, but a closer look reveals that it is inevitable.
Image courtesy of: wiki
There is such a picture on the iPhone Wikipedia, the horizontal coordinate is the time, the vertical coordinate is the iPhone model, different colors represent different models, and the length of the rectangle represents the official website sales cycle.
One trend that is easy to see from the figure is that the number of iPhone models on sale is growing, from the earliest single machine to the current 5 models sold at the same time, covering 3000 yuan to 12000 yuan gear.
In the gradual growth of the replacement cycle, people tend to fine consumption, find more suitable for their own products, Apple uses multi-model play to meet the personalized needs of consumers.
▲ At present, apple's official website has 5 iPhones on sale
Of course, the multi-model strategy refers to not a simple price reduction processing of the old model, in recent years, Apple has been maintaining the same and similar performance of the IPhone on sale A series chips, thanks to the high performance and excellent power consumption of the self-developed chip, the iPhone on sale can smoothly use the iOS system and all functions.
The consistency of the basic experience makes every iPhone extremely competitive.
On the other hand, Apple also distinguishes each iPhone on sale through the technology gap, corresponding to different needs.
▲ iPhone form factor changes often mean technological innovation
Almost every generation of iPhones sold on Apple's official website represents an era of technological development, and to be more precise, the appearance of each generation of iPhone changes, which means a major technological innovation, from the iPhone 4 to the latest iPhone 13 Pro Max.
The four models currently on sale on the official website actually represent the four cycles of iPhone design development, iPhone SE 3 is the last generation of non-full-screen design, iPhone 11 is a thick bezel 4G phone, iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 represent the latest 5G small bangs iPhone.
In this way, each iPhone keeps a good experience without conflicting with each other, and Apple has completed the product population segmentation very maturely.
▲The rumored iPhone 14 digging screen design. Image courtesy of: 9To5Mac
iPhone SE is an entry-level iPhone, for Apple, the most important thing for this product is to absorb replacement users and low-end Android users, it does not have the need to use the latest design, only the Pro Max model with the legendary pill or even no bangs full screen design, iPhone SE has the opportunity to innovate the use of bangs screen.
However, this technological breakthrough can not be solved in one or two years after all, and the under-screen camera technology is still not mature enough.
Instead of expecting Liu Haiping iPhone SE, look at the mid-range Android flagship, or the price-cutting old flagship like the iPhone 12 mini.