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

Post by radlad » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 4:25 AM UTC

mark-r wrote: post #191

lostlogin wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I recently had to use a smaller screen phone when my larger one broke and I was waiting for its replacement. I found the smaller keyboard to be nearly unusable compared to what I was used to, and the replacement larger phone only reinforces that impression.

Post by Wowfunhappy » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 4:32 AM UTC

_chris_ wrote: post #157

lostlogin wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

> Do HN readers have an unusual like for ‘small’ phones or is it just an unserved market? My wife wants a phone that can fit into her jean pockets. Requiring handbags just to carry a phone around is absurd, and untenable for many people.

Post by lsc » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 4:33 AM UTC

stevewillows wrote: post #131

lostlogin wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

For me, I barely physically use my phone. I use iMessage from my mbp and get most notifications on my Pebble. I do use the phone itself for audiobooks and podcasts, but otherwise its basically a server (not the best term for that.. but you get what I mean.) What I don't get about the larger phones is how people comfortably carry them around. Maybe its because I wear skinny jeans / pants, but there's absolutely no way…

Post by Wowfunhappy » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 4:36 AM UTC

thedays wrote: post #170

twblalock wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are virtually no, modern, reasonably-specced and reasonably priced phones with smaller screens available currently, so it's no wonder they're not selling. They don't exist because phone companies know that the demand is too low to justify the investment. If you want to convince people that the demand is there, you'll need to explain why every phone manufacturer has come to the opposite conclusion. Not a singl…

> Not a single one is making small high end phones. This is not quite true - Sony still is producing the high-end XZ2 Compact with the Snapdragon 845 and 4GB RAM - https://www.sonymobile.com/us/products/phones/xperia-xz2-com... Sony is the only manufacturer I'm aware of that is still producing smallish phones. It is rumoured to be replacing this phone with the XZ4 Compact, but Sony is not particularly good at marketi…

Post by Wowfunhappy » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 4:40 AM UTC

bscphil wrote: post #139

huebnerob wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Small phone equals small battery, and when you have a reduced power budget there's some things you just can't do. Small phone also obviously equals small hardware components. To the extent that components occupy physical space on a logic board, there's going to need to be a trade-off there. People say they 'just' want a 4" modern phone, but they define it as a phone with multiple cameras, high storage capacity, and f…

>People say they 'just' want a 4" modern phone, but they define it as a phone with multiple cameras, high storage capacity, and fast processors, etc. etc.. It's a nontrivial engineering challenge to get everything into a smaller package, and this at a time where the market at large has picked bigger phones as the winner. I don't know. My Nexus 4 was fine with respect to all of these things when it came out. Not top o…