Apple launched a new SE series at this year's spring conference, and the biggest selling point is to carry A15 chips + low-cost + 5G, which is also another attempt at low-end Apple's mobile phones.
In the domestic mobile phone competition to launch more than 5,000 yuan price mobile phone today, Apple is once again doing the opposite, releasing such a low-priced mobile phone, can not help but wonder: Apple should not be constantly increasing the price of mobile phones, and constantly occupy high-end models?
Looking back at the mobile phones released by Apple over the years, you may be able to find out.
1
Apple's layout is low-end and has a long history
The earliest Apple low-end mobile phone can be traced back to the 2013 iPhone 5C, which is also Apple's first colorful version of the iPhone phone, including blue, green, pink, yellow, white five optional colors, before apple phone basically only "black and white double brake" optional, and this is also the first plastic body of the iPhone phone in the history of the phone.
Therefore, for the C word in the iPhone 5C, Apple's interpretation is color, and the public ridicules it as Cheek, which means "cheap, cheap".
The phone didn't work out, at least certainly not as Much as Apple expected.
In terms of price: at that time, the iPhone 5c National Bank started at 16GB 4488 yuan, 32GB 5288 yuan, which is indeed an iPhone with a lower starting price in Apple's history, but this price is only 800 yuan lower than the 16GB model of the iPhone 5s released in the same period, and the iPhone 5S is a real upgrade flagship product.
Reflected in the market, the analytics marketing platform Localytics has published an activation analysis report (the number of activations can be about equal to sales) after the release of the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s mobile phones. The report shows that 48 hours after the sale, the global market has about 3.7 times the number of iPhone 5s activations.
According to a survey of iPhone sales in the US market released by CIRP in early 2014, in the fourth quarter of 2013, the sales of iPhone 5s accounted for 59% of total iPhone sales, and the sales of iPhone 5c accounted for only 27%, lower than the 32% sales of the iPhone 4S in the fourth quarter of 2012.
Less than a month after the release of the iPhone 5C, there was the largest price reduction in the history of the iPhone, and even if the price was reduced, the final sales were very poor, and almost no one bought it, which made the iPhone 5C the most failed iPhone, and until now, the iPhone ending in C has not appeared again.
Apple's first attempt at low-end and mid-range ended in failure.
2
Ready to go, the SE series is making a comeback
Apple wasn't overwhelmed by the dismal sales of the iPhone 5C, and three years later the first-generation IPhone SE returned.
In terms of appearance, it is almost exactly the same as the iPhone 5S, equipped with the same A9 processor as the iPhone 6S series, the screen size is still 4 inches, the rear camera has been upgraded to 12 million pixels, and the iPhone's unique home button at that time. That is to say, from the first generation of the iPhone SE, the "matryoshka doll" quietly began.
In 2020, after 4 years, the second generation of iPhone SE is coming. The appearance of this new SE is roughly the same as that of the iPhone 6, 7, 8, and the back is almost the same as the iPhone 8, so it is difficult not to think again of Apple's inventory? The processor is equipped with A13 bionic, plus the starting price of 3299 yuan, many people directly call this is simply "buy A13 to send mobile phones".
Looking back at the same period, most mobile phones have adopted a "full screen" design, even if many hundred-yuan machines are no exception. At that time, the iPhone was designed with full screen + bangs. Therefore, such an iPhone SE that maintains the appearance of three years ago has been complained about by many people, coupled with the 64GB starting storage, everything is out of place with the current era.
Despite the spit and spit, the SE sales of these two generations are still good. The first-generation iPhone SE sold a total of 30 million over its entire cycle; the second-generation iPhone SE currently sells more than 24.2 million.
Overall, the sales of the iPhone SE series did not perform well in the iPhone series of the same period. However, the sales volume of 3,000 yuan has reached the level of tens of millions, which is still difficult to achieve for Android models.
3
Why Apple clings to the "low-end dream"
In 2022, many domestic brands have a strong impact on the high-end, and even their sub-brands are trying to enter the high-end mobile phone market dominated by Apple; on the contrary, since the launch of the iPhone 13 series last year, Apple's mobile phone occupies an absolute advantage in the high-end mobile phone market, and now it has launched the third generation of iPhone SE to seize the "common price" of domestic mobile phones. The opposite strategies of the manufacturers are determined by their current environment.
In order to increase profits, domestic mobile phone manufacturers must occupy a place in the high-end mobile phone market, which is an important reason for Chinese mobile phone companies to continuously increase the price of mobile phones, and they try to share a piece of the high-end mobile phone market.
Another goal is to hope to completely get rid of the reputation of low-end cheapness, in the past decade, domestic manufacturers have successively launched sub-brands to do cost-effective products, and the original brands have begun to be high-end. However, the brand that fights the price war has formed an inherent impression on consumers, domestic mobile phones are equal to cheap branding lingering, there are very few manufacturers who can get rid of the inherent impression, and only in the high-end mobile phone market can we completely get rid of the cheap reputation.
Apple is different from domestic manufacturers, Apple with a series of unique technologies, such as customized images, customized screens, second to none chips, perfect software ecology, and IOS system has formed a moat, in the high-end mobile phone market position, market share are extremely stable, even if domestic manufacturers continue to impact the high-end, in the screen, system, chip, image, etc. can not play a differentiation, it is difficult to threaten Apple's high-end status.
Therefore, the pricing of mobile phones by domestic manufacturers has been raised to the price of 5,000 yuan, impacting the high-end mobile phone market; Apple will reduce the pricing of the new iPhone to the 3,000 yuan price segment, impacting the low-end market. Their different pricing strategies are based on their actual interests, which also means that the competition for mobile phone market share in 2022 will be more intense.