I am skeptical about this report. Several analytics firms, remember, claimed that the 5C was a flop when it came out. BusinessInsider ran four or five articles loudly proclaiming that the 5C was a huge disaster. However, in time, it became clear that the 5C was, and is, a highly successful product for Apple. I predict the same will hold true for the SE.
Sales are down because the phone is out of stock everywhere. Its hard to sell phones that you don't have, which means apple planned for this to not be a massively popular phone.
I just don't understand the metric. Let's say Localytics has a tracking code in FB app. So it notes that you logged into FB on a given device. I got my SE on Sat. So I logged into FB on my 5S and my new SE on the same day. Wouldn't this negate penetration rate as a percent? You would need to know which models came into the market and which models left (if they even left at all). Does this metric just keep all the previous phones listed as active and just add the new ones? Similar with the iPads. You don't throw away an old iPad, you hand it down or push it to the side a bit. So selling 5 million in a sea of 25 million existing is greater than 5 million in a sea of 50 million existing.
My other note. I suspect the reveal of the SE pushed some to upgrade to 6S. Perhaps they were waiting to see if the SE has that one killer feature. Seeing it did not, they splurged on the 6S. I almost did.
Has everybody forgotten there were 3.5 million pre-orders in China alone? Who cares how the phone did this weekend? I'm getting an SE, and so are several people I know. But I'm in no rush, and neither are they. And I'm not sure how I want to pay for it yet either. The fact is, this is not the flagship phone, it's an upgrade over the previous 4" phone, and likely purchased by the more conservative users who would rather have held onto their old 4" and smaller iPhones than upgrade to the latest and greatest. And now they can almost do just that for less than Apple has ever sold any iPhone before. So it's not exactly a crowd that's going to rush out and buy the thing the day it comes out anyway, much less go into a store when it can be easily ordered online. It's a known quantity, so no need to go take a look at it. And because of its familiar appearance, many people who are the target market likely don't even realize it exists. None of the 4" users in my office knew about it, despite my telling them it was rumored to be coming. Nor are they particularly prioritizing the upgrade over phones that are mostly doing the job for them as is. So word of mouth is going to come into play here. As soon as people understand it's functionally the 6s in a 4" package, for less than the 5s used to cost, there will likely be a stream of steady sales.
OMG. The fact that people were not lined up around the block on launch day does not mean there's no interest. The people who are trading up from a 4 or 4S or 5 or 5S are clearly not bleeding edge type of customers who needed to upgrade over the first weekend.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, my daughter went to buy one over the weekend and the company-owned AT&T store was out of the model she wanted and said it would be a week or so to deliver via mail. She's been using a 4S and another week or two doesn't really matter to her.
64Gb wasn't available to click and collect from an Apple Stoe (UK). So I ordered one from the Apple online - estimated arrival was 16 days. Still waiting.
I pre ordered, and gave up my iPhone 6. I sold my iPhone 6 for $580 CDN, and purchased the SE for $579 CDN before tax. I have zero regret. This is the nicest phone I have ever owned. I don't really care about screen size either way, but to have all the premium features of the 6S for almost half the price is amazing. However, I imagine since the media and apple themselves are not heavily pushing this phone for advertising, it would be difficult to see an uptick in early sales. Once people realize it's the same phone as the "flagship" but in a smaller, less expensive package, sales will fly. As an anecdote and sidebar, I know the SE is said to use last generation Touch ID, but immediately noticed significantly faster response on my SE than on my 6. Maybe this is due to the chip and the ram, I don't know.
Not many people are excited about a 4" iPhone, except for a few tech nerds on various websites. Contracts have nothing to do with it. I got my iPhone 6 Plus on contract in October 2014 when it came out. AT&T will let me upgrade now with the AT&T Next program, without any penalties. So people with the original iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are not held back by contracts. Not many people want to go back to a smaller iPhone. I prefer the larger screen. It is easier on the eyes and can see more of everything with apps, the web, and of course photos and video. I compare my 6 Plus to my iPod Touch 6th Gen, and the 4" screen is just too small these days. Companies will most likely purchase the SE 16GB because they can deploy it out to employees and have current hardware for running a proprietary app. It was not that exciting of a release. So the 5S got an update with new internals and the iPad Pro features trickled down to the 9.7 model, which was expected anyway. What Apple learned was that no one wanted the cheap 5C with the plastic backing, so they resurrected the 5S because people preferred the aluminum design of the 5 series. Some people will buy an SE, but most will upgrade to an iPhone 7 with better features.
This comparison is irrelevant because SE is not a flagship, nor a new phone design. It is a comfort phone, with 6s spec and half the price. The size will be attractive to those who like smaller phone. Most people is expecting 7 coming end of this year, others who prefer SE are not the ones who rush to buy in day one. I believe SE will sell a lot, just not in one day.
It does not have the latest technology inside it like LTE Advanced, latest WI-FI. If it had had this I would of purchase it!
Do you know for a fact that you are using that technology now, and that you will be using it over the next year or two? In the US in particular LTE Advance is not likely to make a bit of difference to your web speeds for some time thanks to way it has been implemented and FCC regulation. Wifi MIMO I don't understand the allure of for a 4-inch phone at all. Presumably no one will be using a 4-inch phone for extensive web browsing where greater speeds would be a benefit. And I suspect Apple knows this as well.
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Also, has the SE come out in all countries yet?
My other note. I suspect the reveal of the SE pushed some to upgrade to 6S. Perhaps they were waiting to see if the SE has that one killer feature. Seeing it did not, they splurged on the 6S. I almost did.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, my daughter went to buy one over the weekend and the company-owned AT&T store was out of the model she wanted and said it would be a week or so to deliver via mail. She's been using a 4S and another week or two doesn't really matter to her.
This report is mostly a measure of shipping speed.