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This is all reasonable, except for the fact that $399 has been rumoured as the price point for a long time too. It seems overwhelmingly likely that the current

by graeme 7y ago

This is all reasonable, except for the fact that $399 has been rumoured as the price point for a long time too. It seems overwhelmingly likely that the current release + pricing is merely fortuitous.

totalZero 7y ago
Fairly unlikely that anything planned is fortuitous when we are talking about major product release by a trillion-plus-dollar company.... $399 is where the prior SE was unveiled, but handset MSRP has bloated since 2016. The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus base models came out at $649-$769 when new, compared to $699-$1099 for the base models of the iPhone 11. On the Samsung side, base model S20 Ultra is pushing $1400. My personal view is that the next major battlefield for Apple vs Huawei vs Samsung is the developing world, and consumers there are fairly price sensitive (plus they often pay a premium due to import taxes, importer costs, and other add-ons to the retail price). There has to be a huge divergence in the slate of prices -- on the one hand, you have flagship handset expectations going skyward due to 5G, multi-camera, screen improvements, etc -- and on the other hand you have countries like Ecuador and Colombia where an entire month's minimum wage (before tax and living expenses) is insufficient to buy a new iPhone SE, even without accounting for the economic slowdown due to the virus. Some of the market for the iPhone SE didn't even exist a couple of months ago. Apple only announced online sales and plans to open a store in India after Trump helped negotiate an entry point to that market during his visit a month ago. Are you suggesting that Apple doesn't respond to its consumer sales environment when choosing pricing?
- graeme 7y ago
  I’m suggesting that long-standing credible rumour said they intended the price to be $399, well before the pandemic. The same rumours accurately predicted the phone’s major hardware features. I would agree with you if rumours had said $449 or $499. But, they didn’t. So there appears to be zero evidence of a change in intent.

by graeme 7y ago

This is all reasonable, except for the fact that $399 has been rumoured as the price point for a long time too. It seems overwhelmingly likely that the current release + pricing is merely fortuitous.

totalZero 7y ago

Fairly unlikely that anything planned is fortuitous when we are talking about major product release by a trillion-plus-dollar company.... $399 is where the prior SE was unveiled, but handset MSRP has bloated since 2016. The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus base models came out at $649-$769 when new, compared to $699-$1099 for the base models of the iPhone 11. On the Samsung side, base model S20 Ultra is pushing $1400. My personal view is that the next major battlefield for Apple vs Huawei vs Samsung is the developing world, and consumers there are fairly price sensitive (plus they often pay a premium due to import taxes, importer costs, and other add-ons to the retail price). There has to be a huge divergence in the slate of prices -- on the one hand, you have flagship handset expectations going skyward due to 5G, multi-camera, screen improvements, etc -- and on the other hand you have countries like Ecuador and Colombia where an entire month's minimum wage (before tax and living expenses) is insufficient to buy a new iPhone SE, even without accounting for the economic slowdown due to the virus. Some of the market for the iPhone SE didn't even exist a couple of months ago. Apple only announced online sales and plans to open a store in India after Trump helped negotiate an entry point to that market during his visit a month ago. Are you suggesting that Apple doesn't respond to its consumer sales environment when choosing pricing?

graeme 7y ago
I’m suggesting that long-standing credible rumour said they intended the price to be $399, well before the pandemic. The same rumours accurately predicted the phone’s major hardware features. I would agree with you if rumours had said $449 or $499. But, they didn’t. So there appears to be zero evidence of a change in intent.