By Stephen Pate – Apple has run out of the new 4″ iPhone SE with backlogs of 2-3 weeks on orders.
When the iPhone SE was announced it shipped within the week and first customers got them within 6 days.
Today the iPhone SE online delivery of any color, any memory size is 2-3 weeks in the US and Canada. The rumors of run-away sales success in China are now a worldwide story as Apple admits the iPhone SE is sold out in many stores and online.
Apple pundits predicted the iPhone SE would bomb because it didn’t have a large screen and new jazzy design. However, I knew it would be popular because price matters.
At $399 for the 16GB iPhone SE, it’s a story of money talks and you know what walks.
When people can buy a real iPhone, the genuine smart phone, for less money they vote with their wallets.
My Windows phone was dead so I ordered an iPhone SE and got it within the week. Yesterday my daughter replaced her iPhone 5 but she has to wait a bit.
Apple needs a hit since the growth in luxury smartphones seems to have disappeared. Yesterday Apple announced their 13-year streak of iPhone sales growth ended, with a year-over-year 18% drop in sales of the larger more expensive iPhone 6 and 6s models.
The iPhone SE did not ship until the end of the quarter so the impact of the $399 phone did not hit the financial statements. Apple could see this months ago which is why they produced and shipped the iPhone SE.
The North American and European smart phone markets are getting saturated. Anyone not shipping Android or Apple phones is getting squeezed out. Apple is also losing its ability to command a premium price for its products. This is a classic market development described in Geoffrey Moore’s book Crossing the Chasm Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers.
Correction – the story originally said “143-year” obviously the 4 was misplaced.
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