Apple thinks the iPhone 16e target market doesn't care about MagSafe
Apple has responded to iPhone 16e critics, and says that engineering choices like a lack of MagSafe that make the device unappealing to the tech-savvy don't matter to the larger market.
Apple can't say wired charging is better than MagSafe, but it's trying
There's a great line from Jony Ive, said around the time that Apple Park was first opened. There were criticisms of its design and he said he was bemused at them, because of who Apple Park was built for.
"We didn't make Apple Park for other people," he said in Dezeen magazine. "So a lot of the criticisms are utterly bizarre, because it wasn't made for you! And I know how we work and you don't!"
In the same breath, he said that he thought it was valid for people to criticize Apple products that were meant for them. But every Apple product gets criticized and sometimes it's for what seems to be the same rationale as whatever those bizarre yet now forgotten ones that were made of Apple's headquarters.
Quite possibly the most distinct example of this is what has happened with the new iPhone 16e. Across the board, reviews have been middling, at best.
The reviews are not unfair. They compare the price with the iPhone's features, and they specifically compare the iPhone 16e with all other models in the same range.
By that measure, it's true that the iPhone 16e comes up short. But as John Gruber suggests, its shortcomings don't matter. At least, not to who Apple expects to buy the iPhone 16e.
We'll never actually know who makes up that expected market, but there are clues. Such as how Apple's launch kept comparing the iPhone 16e to the 2019 iPhone 11.
Or just how Apple has specifically and directly told Gruber that its market doesn't care about MagSafe.
Charging speeds and methods do get more attention from long-term or technical users than they do from regular consumers. Nobody really cares about the difference between 7.5W and 15W, because nobody really notices -- they just know their iPhone is charged up by the morning.
They do also know that the iPhone has to be charged up overnight. So if there were some tradeoff between MagSafe and a larger battery, Apple made what most of its buyers will probably think is the right decision.
If you're shaking your head now, though, it's because you've used MagSafe. Once you have and you know how convenient is to just pop your iPhone on a stand, it is very hard to go back.
Yet if you haven't used MagSafe, you can be told it's convenient and fully believe people about it, but you've no way to know just how handy it really is. And neither the iPhone 11 nor the iPhone SE 3 had MagSafe.
Then again, the iPhone SE 3 was build with the iPhone 8 chassis in mind, and there was no space for MagSafe magnets inside that design. The iPhone 16e is clearly derived from the iPhone 14, and the iPhone 14 clearly has space for MagSafe, so it isn't that factor that precluded inclusion in the new model.
It's the same with Ultra Wideband tracking and Thread radio, both of which are absent from the iPhone 16e. The former, especially, means that using Find My is less accurate when you're trying to hunt down your luggage by the AirTag inside it.
But there's accuracy and there's accuracy. What real-world users know is that even the top of the range iPhone 16 Pro Max which has Ultra Wideband tracking, can be poor at Find My in an underground car park.
It's going to be better than not having Ultra Wideband, but it isn't the thing that will make buyers return their iPhone 16e in disgust.
iPhone 16e and assorted cases - Image credit: Apple, UAG, Casetify
The iPhone 16e is a good iPhone, at least for some people. And Apple is of course aiming it at those people -- because it's aiming the other iPhones at other audiences.
Although, there is one thing. It's true that buyers probably won't notice the lack of Ultra Wideband, and it's true that they may not notice the absence of MagSafe, or they'll buy a MagSafe case.
But they will notice the price -- the iPhone 16e will stand or fall on that, mainly. And because of its price, users will probably be comparing it to Android sooner than they are to the more costly iPhones.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
Where is the link to the quote where Apple has "responded"?
Oh right, they actually haven't. This article states something that is so obvious as to be tautological: Apple omitted a feature that they don't believe is worth the price for the target audience.
Next up: "Apple believes people will pay $600 for an iPhone 6e."
Oh, I stand corrected: there is a second hand reference to what Apple has apparently said in the linked Daring Fireball article:
But the main point remains: Apple did what it thought best based on its understanding of the market.
Do you think people are taking the case off of their iPhone and using the built-in MagSafe magnets to mount the phone to the stand charger? Of course not. Everybody's phone is in a case and it stays in the case for 99.99% of its life. Cases offer MagSafe. People's iPhones are attaching to the stand via the case's magnets, not the phone's. A quick Amazon search shows that popular case makers like Spigen already have magnetic charging cases for the iPhone 16e.
This was the right call by Apple.
there are millions of people who only care about upfront cost and if they can have the status of an iPhone without the huge upfront cost they will go for it…
personally I believe the 17air and a foldable, which in my uneducated opinion is coming sooner than people think, will fill any void.
look at the Oppo Find N5, I have been salivating over it since it was announced and I would buy it if I could, that coming from a guy who has been strictly Apple since 1991…
Well, yes and no. Let's remember that the SE--which was a terrific choice at a fantastic price for users who wanted a solid phone that covered the basics well--was Apple's worst selling model. Clearly, even at $429, the feature set didn't resonate enough to make the SE as much of a success as it needed to be to stay in the lineup. The iPhone 16 is far from cheap in the world of smartphones, but it's the world's best selling model. Apple's next best seller after that is its most expensive iPhone, the Pro Max. People are willing to spend money on iPhones when they think the feature set is right for them, And I think the feature set of the 16e, as much as the price and maybe more so, will determine whether it stands or falls.
Maybe $600 is cheap in the US, but €700 is EXPENSIVE here in the EU. Especially for a phone.
Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain
On average the EU citizen is just barely surviving, working just to live. A €700 is definitely a luxury few can afford.