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When Steve Jobs led Apple, the company was famous for making products that would impress and even “delight” its customers. The uninspiring iPhone SE unveiled shows how far Apple has strayed from that standard.
That’s unfortunate, because the world’s richest technology giant certainly has the means to do better.
Apple’s new budget phone is underwhelming.Credit:Bloomberg
The Apple iPhone SE, introduced in its current form in 2020, was designed to appeal to budget-minded consumers who might otherwise gravitate to competitors such as the Google Pixel. Starting at $679 in Australia, the SE cost around half the price of the more popular flagship models. But for that price, consumers got a smaller screen and a weaker camera.
On Tuesday, Apple revealed its newest update to the phone, one of several new and upgraded devices rolled out at a product event. The new SE features a faster processor and higher-speed 5G wireless capability instead of the 4G used on the prior model, among other incremental improvements. But that’s about it. The phone has a similar design to its predecessor, and Apple raised the price to $719 in Australia.
A snappier experience from new chips and better wireless network access are welcome. But most SE users will barely notice the change. Nearly all the commonly used mobile apps, including TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, work nearly as well on 4G networks, and there aren’t yet any killer apps that require the faster speeds.
Overall, the SE will be a letdown for Apple customers who have been waiting for a while for an updated affordable iPhone. The design, based on a five-year-old configuration, feels stale. It’s clear that Apple isn’t prioritising customers at the lower end of the market, which is disappointing for a company with an annual R&D budget of $US22 billion ($30.3 billion).
Apple has decided that when it comes to the affordable segment of the market, minor upgrades will suffice. That’s quite a comedown for a company once known for making every detail count.
Apple could have been more aggressive with the SE either by sharpening the design, improving the screen or camera, or even cutting the price. iPhones account for just 28 per cent of the global smartphone market, compared with 71 per cent for Android-based phones, according to StatCounter. A superior SE phone could have made significant inroads with the competition.