17 ms·
Apple resumes selling iPhone SE at lower $249 price on its clearance store
- tomcam 8y agoThanks. Snatched up one of those bad boys up immediately.
- hkmurakami 8y agoWish this came before I refreshed to one of their newest models. The iPhone 5 form factor is still my favorite.
- porphyrogene 8y agoI bought a brand new SE a few months ago for $180. It was from a third party but Apple verified the serial as original and unused. It wasn't availability or pricing that kept them from anyone who wanted one, it was the lack of name-brand-new-thing validation.
- w-ll 8y agoMind sharing were you ordered it from?
- porphyrogene 8y agoIt was an Amazon third-party seller.
- dklsafhjskljfl 8y agoThe upcoming sony xz4 compact may be the only small phone with premium components, and it's extremely frustrating. It's not even /that/ small. You can find small phones but they have terrible cameras, sub HD resolutions, and bargain basement SOCs. Is the demand for a premium (or even mid range) small phone really that low?
- twblalock 8y agoYes, the demand really is that low. People who want a smaller phone in 2019 are a very small yet very vocal minority. If there was a large untapped market for smaller phones, then the limited number of small phones on the market would be selling a lot better than they actually are. Somebody would notice and start making more of them. Like phones with physical keyboards, phones with small screens have become a niche product and they will probably disappear in the next few years.
- spiritcat 8y agohow about a foldable small phone?
- twblalock 8y agoWe’ll see if anybody can make one that doesn’t have a compromised user experience. Even so, people who like small phones would complain that the screen is too big to use one-handed when the thing is unfolded.
- roenxi 8y agoYou might be right, but as far as I can see the SE is half the price of the next cheapest iPhone, the 7. There is going to be a market for people who want a phone that is not $500 American dollars, and it is wise of Apple to cater too it.
- kbrackbill 8y agoDo you have any insight as to why? I'm part of that minority and small phones seem better in so many ways. My hands are relatively big I think, but even with "small" phones now I can barely use them with one hand. The smaller screen uses less battery. Larger phones don't fit in pockets very well and result in a spot that wears through on my jeans where the corner of the phone pokes out from my pocket. I'm really struggling to think of advantages to larger phones. I guess if you always carry around a purse/bag then the size doesn't matter as much, and if you had smaller hands then maybe one-handed use is just impossible regardless of the size. But what's the use case? It's not like a real computer where a larger screen means you can multitask better, since you can barely multitask anyway.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- retrac98 8y agoNeeds a spec bump.
- JBReefer 8y agoWhy does everyone love this phone so much? Clue me in?
- baxtr 8y agoI believe it’s the size. I don’t get it, but many of friends prefer smaller phones.
- dklsafhjskljfl 8y agoFits neater in a pocket. Great for basic communication and tasks such as maps. Not the center of your life.
- adzm 8y agoSome people have small hands and/or short fingers. If you don't, it's hard to sympathize. Imagine trying to use a nine inch tablet with one hand.
- geofft 8y agoI have, I think, relatively large hands (I'm a 5'11" cis guy / I can comfortably play a 9th on a piano and uncomfortably play a 10th) and I still find the SE as large as I can manage. I want to be able to hold the phone in one hand and reach everything with my thumb. I can't do that on the 6 or anything larger. (I'd prefer the iPhone 4 form factor, with one fewer row of icons, if possible.) A couple years ago they called large phones "phablets." We've lost that word now.
- AceyMan 8y ago> A couple years ago they called large phones "phablets." We've lost that word now. The correct term is tablone <grin>. I loved my SE until I bricked it jumping in our local pool not feeling it was still in my pocket — one of the downsides not yet mentioned. I brought my previous Nexus 6 out of retirement since there aren't any phones, Android or iPhone, that is worth new pricing right now. Plus, I demand a 3.5mm headphone jack — dropping that was the most annoying design choice I can remember in a long time, in any consumer device. Grrr.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- imjustsaying 8y agoa literal advertisement
- reaperducer 8y agoNot really. The iPhone SE has been in a recurring topic here because it suits the needs of a certain market segment, and there wasn't a suitable equivalent after it went away.
- imjustsaying 8y agoYes really. It's a direct link to the actual product landing page to buy the product, complete with price information in the HN headline to draw the customer in.
- reaperducer 8y agoI guess it's time for all those HN people who were moaning about iPhones being too big/expensive/lacking in home buttons/etc... to put their money where their mouths are. It's a 2016 model, so it should remain supported until at least 2021. Not far off, but still better than some (many?) Android phones. I'm not sure how $299/128GB compares to Android products, but it's cheaper than its previous $449 price. I'd pick one up myself, except that I have a 5 that keeps on chugging along.
- dklsafhjskljfl 8y ago$250/32 is barely competitive. however, you cannot buy an android phone this small that isn't complete garbage
- navidr 8y agoI've been using SE for the past 2 years and it is perfect for its price and I have a plan to at least use it for another year too. Its fluid animation and acceptable performance make it way superior to most Android phones. I switched from Nexus 5 and I am not going to buy any Android phone until Google guarantees I am going to get OS+Security updates for at least 4 years.
- dingaling 8y agoThe only security feature I really want is a preinstalled user-configurable firewall. Keeps your system firewalled and your apps sandboxed and there's less of a need for constant OS patches. But it's notable that even 'privacy first' Apple doesn't ship a firewall because that would interfere with the market for ad-supported apps.
- javagram 8y agoConfiguring a firewall sounds like the opposite of the ease of use Apple wants to be associated with the App Store. Doubt that will ever be preinstalled. I believe you could theoretically install one on iOS using the VPN functionality available... a quick google only finds “guardian mobile firewall” which is still in beta though.
- anoother 8y agoSeems like it's $299 now...
- nicebill8 8y agoThey really are getting desperate.
- albertgoeswoof 8y agoBeautiful design- but it’s effectively dead on arrival due to iOS being too bloated for dated hardware, and it’s only going to get slower as newer iPhones get faster.
- olq 8y agoiOS flies on my SE
- knolan 8y agoIt has the internals of a 6s. Most folks I know with either are happy with iOS 12.
- geofft 8y agoI'm on the latest iOS and I haven't felt it be any slower than iOS 9 back when I first got one. I do see it shut down at an arbitrary percentage below 10% (whereas it would previously run until 1% and get slower), and I can no longer run 32-bit apps, but that's about it.
- javagram 8y agoI recently got a new battery for my SE and disabled the peak performance throttling. Performance is perfectly fine. Keep in mind the latest iOS release is actually faster than the previous. Phones have gotten to the same point as modern computers where they don’t need to be continually upgraded.
- midnightclubbed 8y agoMy year old SE works great no performance issues at all.
- LeoPanthera 8y agoYou've not been paying attention. (Or are deliberately trolling.) One of iOS 12's advertised features was that it's significantly faster than 11 on older hardware. And that seems to be true.
- mvanbaak 8y agoThank you!!!! Going to grab at least one!
- cuban-frisbee 8y agoNew hope for a refesh?
- yitchelle 8y agoDamn. Not available in Germany. I was going to grab two for my two kids. If Apple price them to below 100$ price point, it would kill the low to mid level phone market.
- martin_a 8y agoWas looking for that, too. Seems like they just removed the SE from the German store at all. Or did I look at the wrong place? :-D
- saagarjha 8y agoThis is cheap enough that I might consider buying one just to replace my current SE with a phone that’s less beat up. Is Apple still making any money at this price?
- stanmancan 8y agoThe 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.
- SwiftyBug 8y agoThat's my dream. I too currently own an iPhone 7. I was hoping for an improved iPhone SE, with the screen covering all of it's front, FaceID, the whole package. I couldn't care less about double, triple cameras. I want a phone smaller than the one I have now, which nowadays is the smallest you can get from Apple. That's frustrating.
- lostlogin 8y agoNot 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?
- whitepoplar 8y agoI like small phones because I feel that they're a better tradeoff between form + functionality. I want a premium phone, and I'm willing to pay a lot for it, but I also want to spend as little time on my phone as possible. A smaller screen gives me all the benefit while being easy to carry and handle, and the small screen keeps me from using it too much. I also happen to think small screens feel more elegant. The promise of technology has always been to amplify humans without detracting from the important parts of life. Big screen phones feel ideologically wrong to me in that people use them as a replacement for life.
- quicklime 8y agoWhen my iPhone 5S died on me a few months ago, I bought a large Android phone to replace it. I've tracked screen-on time and noticed it ramp right up - from something like 90 minutes a day to 2 or even 3 hours now. Most of the increase is due to the fact that it's easier to use in bed before I get up in the morning, as well as before I go to sleep. So I tend to waste more time than I used to, watching YouTube or mindlessly browsing the web. I'm going to try out the new Digital Wellbeing stuff in Android Pie, which lets me set restrictions on app use. But it feels like a smaller phone is a much better solution, as it doesn't have any compromise in terms of portability - what's the point of having a big screen if I'm just going to disable the things that it's good at? It would be nice if Apple or Google or anyone else could commit to serving the small phone market.
- 40acres 8y agoHardware lends itself to a vertical business model, Apple has clearly been the best example but even video game console manufacturers write their own games. With AI assistants seemingly the 'next big thing', which lends itself to a more horizontal model, will Apple change gears to accommodate? Their services division has been growing rapidly. Apple could leverage it's brand to create an awesome cell phone at a very cheap price. Not a lot of low income people are buying the the XR, my sister has had to replace her iPhone for at least six months but as a college student she's not going to spend a grand on a phone. Maybe it's time for Apple to dial down the luxury brand pricing and make a phone for the common man?
- madeofpalk 8y ago> With AI assistants seemingly the 'next big thing' Are 'AI Assistants' the 'next big thing' in the same way that 'chatbots' where the 'next big thing' in 2015? To me, it just seems that the market is mostly propped up by Medium articles and vendors trying to force the next big thing to make payday.
- scarface74 8y agoNot a lot of low income people are buying the the XR, my sister has had to replace her iPhone for at least six months but as a college student she's not going to spend a grand on a phone. Why do people act as if the only choice for Apple products is the highest priced option? This is about how people are composing that they have to buy AirPods now that there is no headphone jack. Apple sells the iPhone 7 for $475.
- cpcallen 8y agoAaand... they're gone.
- zach43 8y agotheyre still available in other colors here: https://www.apple.com/shop/refurbished/clearance https://www.apple.com/shop/refurbished/clearance i just ordered one, finally got the phone ive wanted!
- city41 8y agoThis 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.
- sjwright 8y agoIt'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.
- aboutruby 8y agoThanks a lot!
- protomyth 8y agoWell, it looks like all clearance iPhones are gone.
- JohnJamesRambo 8y agoBut HN commenters told me there must not be demand for this size phone!
- giancarlostoro 8y agoI wonder if they're going to discontinue production of them once they sell them all out? It seems to already be sold out for some of the models (depending on color chosen).
- eschneider 8y agoMy iPhone 4S is perfectly sized for me and seems indestructible but the battery has been gradually getting worse and worse. I'd hoped that the SE form factor would get an update with the last set of model refreshes and was sadly disappointed when it was discontinued. When I saw this post, I immediately ordered one.
- shykes 8y agoToo late for me, I already bought 3 of them at full price... I’m estimating that’s the reserve I need to hold out until Apple changes their mind and bring back this form factor.
- maz1b 8y agoI don't understand why Apple can't update the SE in its current design iteration. Obviously if they can release a redesigned iPhone in a small form factor, I'd hop on it. I want a small one handed device that has the latest specs and TouchID, and a headphone jack.
- huebnerob 8y agoSimple, because people would buy it instead of the more expensive new iPhones. They don't want unit sales anymore, they want ASP.
- dymk 8y agoFirstly, final phone price doens't matter. Margins matter. These phones are old hardware; it's not inconceivable that mass-producing them would yield margins just as good (if not better) than the cutting-edge. Secondly, Armament Systems and Procedures? Active Server Pages?
- eigenvector 8y agoAverage Selling Price.
- walterbell 8y agoAverage Selling Price, https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/averagesellingprice.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/averagesellingprice.asp
- FreakyT 8y agoBack 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 purchase such a device, and it's not worth keeping a unique product in their portfolio if the sales numbers just aren't there.
- aboutruby 8y agoIf I knew about it I would have bought one and told everyone I know to buy one.
- moltar 8y agoOnly US
- starpilot 8y agoGot a new one in November when the battery replacement for my old one failed at the Apple store. They just unboxed a new iPhone SE in front of me and I was amazed they still had any left.
- jostmey 8y agoI 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
- sjwright 8y agoI 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.
- DevKoala 8y agoI am an SE fan. I used mine until the XS was released. I wish the XS was just a tad smaller.
- intopieces 8y agoThe 128GB would make a great iPod. You can go to T-Mobile and get a data-only, $20/month "DHH" plan that includes audio streaming zero-rated, meaning it doesn't take up any of your data to stream Apple Music / Spotify etc.
- burlesona 8y agoLike 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.
- tass 8y agoThose awkward things attached to the back? I guess she doesn’t have pockets since it makes them a really awkward shape - such a weird usability trade off yet many people seem to have them. I hope this is a test of demand - I ordered one since my existing one is falling apart after some big drops but I didn’t want something bigger. I tried an LG v30 and it always felt like I was about to drop it (though the audio sounds really nice!) I can’t find any phone besides the SE that I’d rather buy even without price as a factor.
- drb91 8y agoIt says “out of stock”, dammit.
- lowlevel 8y agoApparently you need to upgrade to ios11 to view the site. NO DEAL.
- torgian 8y agoIt’s too bad they won’t make a new one
- pfalke 8y agoNote that it’s a clearance sale within ‘certified refurbished’, so these are not entirely new devices.
- eugeniub 8y agoThese look to be new. Refurbished listings clearly indicate that, for example, the listing "Refurbished iPhone 7 128GB - Black (Unlocked)" [1], and it goes on to describe details about what a refurbished phone from Apple entails — all things that are missing from the iPhone SE page. My guess is Apple doesn't normally sell new "clearance" products, so they decided to just add it to the existing discount/refurbished store. [1]: https://www.apple.com/shop/product/FN8L2/Refurbished-iPhone-7-128GB-Black https://www.apple.com/shop/product/FN8L2/Refurbished-iPhone-...
- holstvoogd 8y agoaaaand its gone (at least online)
- davej 8y agoI use iPhone SE as my daily driver because of the form factor. Give me a premium SE with thinner bezels and I would probably pay close to iPhone X prices. There are quite a few of us out there.
- h1d 8y agoDon't try to motivate Apple to make everything more expensive as it will fail them.
- maxdo 8y agoThat’s so wrong... you can have a borderless formfactor form redmi(sub brand of xiaomi) for 160 usd , and 5 y.o. Design for much $200+. I’m ok that Apple price is higher, but it should be decent. What Apple is doing is selling expensive outdated tech and formfactors.
- newintellectual 8y agoWhat Tim Cook is stupidly missing is that a large number of women, and of course some men, are physically unable to comfortably hold the new, wider phones. Many, probably most, of the sales of the SE are to women who want an iPhone they can actually hold and use. If ever there was a sexist decision, it was to only make devices that most women are excluded from using.
- cimmanom 8y agoDid they maybe finally realize that people love the phone for its size, not its price?
- EvanAnderson 8y agoI bought two to replace the iPhone 4 and 4S that my wife and I use. Does anybody know if there is still a reasonable source for a battery case for this model? (I'd like to prolong the life of the internal battery.) Everything I'm seeing on Amazon is scaring the heck out of me-- tales of melting cases, dead batteries after a month, etc. I assume that I've just come to the party too late.
- TheSaaSGuy 8y agoI am holding on to my SE and has been buying phones in the private market to keep a new SE available. I like the form factor size, but would be very keen to get an update processor .
- 8bitsrule 8y agoHmmm. From the comments, looks like it's time for modular phones. That way, everyone could assemble what they need, and change when they need. Whole new ecosystem follows.
- h1d 8y agoNow that they failed to make everything more expensive for no good reason, they bring back old models like Mac mini, iPad mini and now iPhone SE. Truly not a revolutionizing company anymore but just stares at the balance sheet to figure out what to do next. Apple was 5 years ahead of everyone while Jobs was around and now struggling to just stay relevant. I still like most of Apple products and use them daily but they should do better.
- KiDD 8y agoOf course it is sold out by now