Why Apple Needs An iPhone SE2

Its no secret that Apple has had a hard past few months, With iPhone sales on stagnating and a handful of lawsuits, Its safe to say that Apple has seen better days. Apple in it's defence has tried to boost iPhone sales over the past few months, from offering heavy discounts to for the iPhone XR. But the era of yearly smartphone upgrades are over. No more can you expect customers to pony up egregious amounts of money on a yearly basis. The smartphone in general has become a tool, Most people need it to do maybe 5-6 basic tasks and if a phone does that well they're happy with it. Compounding the problem Apple makes really good products, Their phones last a long time, The iPhone 6 or 6s can still be your daily driver in 2019 no issues, Like I said they do the job that most people want them to do. So its no surprise that people are holding onto their phones for a much longer time than they used to.

Apple's Shift To Services

If Apple Music has proven one thing it is that, People are interested in Apple Services, People value the integration that only Apple services can provide with their iOS or macOS devices. The success of Apple Music is largely attributed to the large install base of iOS. No other streaming service enjoys that. Back when Apple released iOS 8.4 Apple Music was baked in, People switched just for the convenience of not having to need a third party app. None of Apple's competitors have this advantage and arguably it was the advantage that saved Apple Music. With Apple planning to come out with more services, Including a Netflix competitor. For Apple to replicate the success that it had with Apple Music you need a lot of iOS devices. Furthermore Apple could pitch a combined service which would include both music and video streaming in one package all for one fixed monthly plan. An iPhone SE 2 would lower the cost of entering the iPhone ecosystem and by-extension provide a larger pool of people for Apple to sell its devices to.

India

With the Chinese economy slowing down , the ongoing trade war between the United States and China and the detention of Huawei's CFO in Canada. Chinese consumers haven't really been welcoming to Apple in the past year and that sentiment reflects in their sales. With demand for iPhones in China tanking, Apple really needs another growth driver. India is the perfect place for Apple to grow. It has a vast population that that is largely untapped. But Apple's traditional strategy of pitching itself as a premium luxury brand is not going to work in India as, India is a price sensitive market and iPhones, at the time of writing are just out of reach for the general public. The latest iPhone XS Max costs about $1800 in a country where the annual average income is about $2000 and thats just the base model any upgrades will be north of $2000. Apple needs a relatively new cheaper iPhone for India. Back when the iPhone SE was relatively new Apple had stellar sales in India, Apparently doubling year over year. India could be more easily tackled with a cheaper iPhone. More over Apple has the necessary infrastructure in place in India to build these phones locally thereby reducing price of the end device.

The Demand Is There

Recently Apple put up the OG iPhone SE on the clearance section of it's website. The phone sold out quickly and maybe after seeing the demand for the SE they did it a second time and this time as well the phone sold out instantly. If this isn't a good indication as to the demand there is for a small powerful  phone then I don't know what is. People are rushing to buy a almost three year old phone with a design straight out of 2012 and bezels for days. Imagine the impact that Apple could make with an iPhone SE 2 with the Specs of an iPhone XR or even the iPhone 8! The edge to edge phablet future is not for everyone and recent events more than prove that!