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Apple resumes selling iPhone SE at lower $249 price on its clearance store

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Re: Apple resumes selling iPhone SE at lower $249 price on its clearance store

#181

Post by sjwright »

seltzered_ wrote: post #177
stanmancan wrote: post #71

The only thing that could get me to upgrade from my iPhone 7 would be a premium version of the iPhone SE. I want a smaller phone, not a bigger one, but I want updated specs and possibly an OLED screen.

I’d love to buy an “upgrade service” of my iPhone SE that just replaced the mainboard and camera panel with whatever the latest and greatest is, and replaced the battery with a fresh one. Would love to understand supply chain / reverse logistics / ewaste trade offs to understand if this is practical. (And yes, I’m aware of projects like fairphone, ara, etc. I’m not saying user serviceability is a requirement) I’ve sp…

I don't think upgrading a phone makes sense from an e-waste point of view, particularly if the alternative is a robust recycling program like what Apple promotes.

Look at the constituent parts of an iPhone SE:

https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/cDmVFvtAKTZvjOBk.h...

An upgrade necessarily includes a new logic board and likely a new camera module. Once you're disassembling it, you'd inevitably be swap out the battery too. Most of the remaining parts have a distinctly limited service life—in particular the battery, physical buttons and connectors.

The front glass assembly with LCD screen might have a long theoretical life but these do deteriorate over time, they get damaged easily and replaced fairly often.

After excluding the above, there's not much left to salvage—mostly aluminium parts like the outer casing, and aluminium is already one of the most recyclable components of a phone anyway.

So there's really no point.

Re: Apple resumes selling iPhone SE at lower $249 price on its clearance store

#182

Post by lsc »

lostlogin wrote: post #77
stanmancan wrote: post #71

The only thing that could get me to upgrade from my iPhone 7 would be a premium version of the iPhone SE. I want a smaller phone, not a bigger one, but I want updated specs and possibly an OLED screen.

Not only is this something I’d love, it’s also a comment that gets a lot of upvotes on Hackers News every time it’s made. Do HN readers have an unusual like for ‘small’ phones or is it just an unserved market?

My theory is that big phones are best for single device users. Most of my social circle has a computer at home and at work, and they often carry a laptop or tablet. The phone, in that case, really is a mobile device, and especially if you are carrying around a bunch of other crap, a small phone is awful nice.

My theory is that big phones dominate because a lot of people don't have reliable/maintained computers other than their cellphone. If that was true of me, I'd want the biggest cellphone I could get, too.

Personally, I think if this is true, and phone companies figure it out, you'll see phones begin to be priced like turn-of-the-millennium laptops. The giant and clunky "desktop replacement" units should be giant and priced at the bottom of the market. The small units should have all the premium features and be way more expensive.

The fact that there are very few small smartphones being made and that none of those are 'premium' smartphones would indicate that either I am wrong or there's a market opportunity that the major cellphone manufacturers are missing.

Re: Apple resumes selling iPhone SE at lower $249 price on its clearance store

#183

Post by sjwright »

brohoolio wrote: post #154
stanmancan wrote: post #71

The only thing that could get me to upgrade from my iPhone 7 would be a premium version of the iPhone SE. I want a smaller phone, not a bigger one, but I want updated specs and possibly an OLED screen.

My dream phone is a “military grade” SE. Slightly larger battery, rugged phone. I know it would be thicker, I’d be good with that.

The SE is so small that you could add all of these elements to the existing phone with a well designed case and you'd still have a reasonably small (albeit thick) device.

(Of course it would be nice if a next-gen SE had IP67+ water/dust resistance and a larger battery, then all you'd need is to add a highly ruggedized case and you'd be golden.)

Re: Apple resumes selling iPhone SE at lower $249 price on its clearance store

#184

Post by angry_octet »

barbs wrote: post #176
frabbit wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.amazon.com/Unihertz-Smallest-Smartphone-Android-... I have had one of the above for about a year. Battery life is not too great, but for my needs (occasional phone call, text, google maps) it works fine. Fits in the front coin pocket of my jeans.

Oh cool, thanks! How's the performance?

Get the battery replacement from Apple. Still free in Australia due to consumer Law guarantees.

Re: Apple resumes selling iPhone SE at lower $249 price on its clearance store

#185

Post by sjwright »

brohoolio wrote: post #153
FreakyT wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back when I bought my SE, it was cheaper than getting a 6, despite having better specs. I also check for deals online a lot, and the SE was almost constantly being discounted. I think it's not unreasonable, based on these, to assume that it never really sold particularly well. Based on that, I'd say that they stopped making the SE simply because only a very small, specific slice of the market actually wants to purcha…

The 5s/SE is less than 5% of mobile traffic at our site.

Five percent of iPhones is still an enormous number when Apple sells ~200,000,000 iPhones per year. (And that's despite Apple not catering for this market for the past three product cycles. Imagine if they did!)

Re: Apple resumes selling iPhone SE at lower $249 price on its clearance store

#186

Post by intopieces »

jdietrich wrote: post #73
JBReefer wrote: post #7

Why does everyone love this phone so much? Clue me in?

The iPhone SE was the last stand of a dead philosophy - the one-handed phone. To Steve Jobs, it was absolutely essential that all of the core functions of the iPhone could be performed with one hand. That requirement dictated large parts of the iPhone's design and the UX principles of iOS. One-handed operation formed a key part of the marketing of the iPhone 5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O99m7lebirE The one-hand…

I can use the iPhone X with one hand (and do, most often, even when I have the other hand free) and I have pretty small hands, so I'm not sure why it's considered a phone in the "post-one-hand" era.

Re: Apple resumes selling iPhone SE at lower $249 price on its clearance store

#188

Post by burlesona »

Like many others I wish they’d release one with fresh hardware. I’d buy one immediately, for my wife, who hates all the phones since the 5s because she can’t hold them well. There’s this whole ridiculous pop-socket thing she uses so that she can hold an iPhone 7 without dropping it, she swears it’s the only thing that makes it usable for her.

Wish this market was bigger since apparently there’s not enough demand.

Re: Apple resumes selling iPhone SE at lower $249 price on its clearance store

#189

Post by sjwright »

city41 wrote: post #110
zach43 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

theyre still available in other colors here: https://www.apple.com/shop/refurbished/clearance i just ordered one, finally got the phone ive wanted!

This will be my third gold Apple device. I don't mind the color but the world in general seems to. I'm excited, once my iPhone 6 kicks the bucket, I'll have a great backup ready.

It's not fair to call it a mere backup, it's an upgrade to the iPhone 6 in every respect other than screen size. The SE is effectively a 6S logic board shoved into the case of an 5S.

Re: Apple resumes selling iPhone SE at lower $249 price on its clearance store

#190

Post by sjwright »

jostmey wrote: post #146

I have an iPhone SE and I've been extremely disappointed in its quality. After the warranty expired, the touch screen started giving out, a microphone stopped working, and the LED backlight started fading. I don't recommend the phone

I know five people with iPhone SE devices (I recommend them to older family members who aren't phone addicts and to anyone who baulks at the cost of a new phone) and all of them are still working perfectly. I do recommend the phone.

Given the hundreds of millions of iPhones Apple sells, there inevitably going to be some lemons.

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