The original iPhone SE made it to Apple's list of obsolete products and was abandoned?
As the most profitable mobile phone company in the industry, Apple has always given the impression that it only makes high-end flagship products. Apple's digital series has never been cheap, and the most basic version of the iPhone 15 is also more expensive than most Android flagships.
However, it would be wrong to say that Apple does not want to make money in the mid-range market at all. Apple also had the idea of creating a "cheap" iPhone, and also opened up a separate product line in addition to the digital series - the iPhone SE series.
A few days ago, according to foreign media reports, the original iPhone SE was included in the list of "obsolete products" by Apple, which means that this cheap Apple mobile phone has officially reached the end of its product life.
(Source: Pixabay)
Officially certified "obsolete", the iPhone SE was abandoned?
First of all, let's talk about Apple's definition of "obsolete products", in simple terms, Apple products that have been on the market for more than 5 years but less than 7 years old will automatically enter this list. For obsolete products, Apple will no longer provide complete after-sales service. In other words, if the iPhone SE in your hand is broken and you want to find Apple after-sales repair, then you have to contact the official after-sales point in advance. If they still have corresponding parts, then they can be repaired for a fee, if not, then they can't be repaired, and Apple will not restock spare parts after after-sales.
(Source: Apple)
In this way, Apple's outdated products are not completely abandoned by the official after-sales service, but whether they can be repaired depends on luck. And if it is released for more than 7 years, Apple will classify it as a "discontinued product". Discontinued products are treated worse than obsolete products, and Apple will stop providing all related hardware services. That is to say, in another two years, after the original iPhone SE becomes a discontinued product, its repair requirements will no longer be accepted by Apple's official after-sales service. However, there is an exception for Mac products, where the "grace period" for battery repair has been extended to 10 years after sale on some models. In most cases, Apple products that enter the list of discontinued products mean that they have been completely abandoned by Apple officials.
So, will the original iPhone SE enter the list of obsolete products, will it have an impact on the average user?
Xiao Lei's answer is that the impact is very small. The original iPhone SE was released in 2016, seven years after it was discontinued in 2018. The original iPhone SE can basically be regarded as a replica of the iPhone 5s, with the same appearance and most of the components, but the processor has been upgraded to A9 and the running memory is 2GB. From the current point of view, the performance of the original iPhone SE is completely insufficient, and the 4-inch small screen is difficult to meet the current mainstream needs. In terms of system, the original iPhone SE can be upgraded to iOS 15 up to iOS 15, which is two generations behind the current iOS 17. Moreover, considering the performance of the chip, if this iPhone SE uses iOS 15, the lag situation will be very serious. And if you use iOS 11, iOS 12 and other old systems that match its hardware configuration, then software compatibility will be a big problem.
In addition, even if there are still a very small number of users of the original iPhone SE, they are extremely unlikely to use Apple's official after-sales service. For most users, the biggest problem with Apple's out-of-warranty repair service is that it is expensive. In the case of iPhone 15 Pro, the price of replacing the battery is as high as 809 yuan, the screen is 2698 yuan, and other damage repairs are 5299 yuan. If you don't buy AC+ service, not many people are willing to pay for official repair services. So, how much does the official repair cost of the original iPhone SE, which has been released for 7 years?
Xiaolei was shocked by the results of the inquiry, this old model, 559 yuan for battery replacement, 1048 yuan for screen replacement. On the second-hand platform, we buy a second-hand iPhone SE in good condition, usually only about 200 yuan.
(Source: Screenshot of Apple's official website)
In contrast, Xiao Lei thinks that few people should really go to Apple's official after-sales service to repair the iPhone SE.
Apple, which is not bad for money, still needs the SE series?
Currently, there are a total of three generations of models in the iPhone SE series, namely the original iPhone SE released in 2016, the iPhone SE2 released in 2020, and the iPhone SE3 released in 2022.
It can be found that there is a gap of 4 years between the original iPhone SE and the iPhone SE2, which is very abnormal in the rhythm of updates. The original iPhone SE can be seen as a small test of Apple's expansion into the sinking market, but in 2017, Apple quickly brought a blockbuster product, the iPhone X. The iPhone X is Apple's first full-screen model, which is equipped with an OLED screen and Face ID for the first time, and has the special significance of the iPhone's 10th anniversary. The iPhone X successfully allowed Apple to explore the higher-end market, and since then Apple has stabilized its position in the 10,000 yuan mobile phone market. The more expensive iPhones have allowed Apple to grab greater benefits. And the iPhone SE project, which focuses on the cheap market, is a bit of a chicken rib at the moment.
And when the time came to the spring of 2020, Apple's mobile phone business was in some trouble. At that time, 5G technology quickly landed in the Android camp, and Apple became a lagging player and was criticized. Following the iPhone X, Apple's strategy of pushing ultra-high-priced iPhones has become more and more frustrating, and the iPhone XS/XR product market has cooled, and it has to lower the price of the iPhone 11 series. At this time, Apple remembered the iPhone SE project that started four years ago.
The iPhone SE2 is basically a replica of the iPhone 8, and the chip is the latest A11 at the time. The phone still goes the pragmatic route, outdated appearance + tough performance + passable price. However, the iPhone SE2 is still not recognized by the market, and the data released by Countpoint shows that its sales are only 24.5 million units, which is not as good as the original iPhone SE that sold 31 million units.
(Source: Produced by Lei Technology)
The iPhone SE3 continues to follow the design of the iPhone SE2, which is extremely outdated in 2022. Its main changes are still the chip, with the powerful A15 and support for 5GB of networking. It is not easy for such a product to be popular with users. Soon after the iPhone SE3 was released, there was news that the foundry had reduced orders, and users also commented on it negatively.
(Source: Produced by Lei Technology)
As for the next iPhone SE, the news has long been flying in the sky. What is now almost certain is that the iPhone SE4 will change molds, put on an OLED screen, replicate the design of the iPhone 14, and be equipped with Face ID. In this way, the selling point of the iPhone SE4 is still sufficient.
After entering the all-screen era, the appearance of the digital series iPhone has not changed much, and as long as the iPhone SE4 is designed with a full screen, there will not be too many slots in the appearance. Moreover, the performance advantages of iPhone SE4 can still impress some people. iPhone SE4The biggest shortcoming may be the image, after all, the behavior of still equipping mobile phones with a single camera, only Apple has done it.
Write at the end
The original iPhone SE, released in 2016, has long since faded out of everyone's field of vision. What's more, this iPhone did not cause much ripples in the market, its sales ranked last among previous iPhones, and the impact on Apple's mobile phone business and revenue was minimal. Its successors, with a similar fate, belong to the obsolete products that Apple has created at the lowest possible cost.
There is nothing special about the original iPhone SE entering Apple's list of obsolete products. And as we said earlier, even if the iPhone SE completely loses the official after-sales service qualification, it will not have any impact on the vast majority of users. For those of us who eat melons, the event is more symbolic and evokes memories among digital enthusiasts of Apple's not-so-successful plan to build a low-cost iPhone years ago.
Today, the original iPhone SE has been buried in the eyebrows, and the market performance of the iPhone SE2 and iPhone SE3 is also relatively stretched. If Apple still wants to make the iPhone SE series and tell the story of the mid-range iPhone, then it has to show enough sincerity in the iPhone SE4. Otherwise, the product line is likely to collapse completely, becoming one of the most failed projects in Apple's history.