that Apple had started to re-price iPhones to
shield customers from the impact of currency
fluctuations and that Apple would “essentially
absorb part or all of the foreign currency
move as compared to last year.” To date, Apple
has dropped the price of the entire iPhone
range in China by up to 5% [https://edition.cnn.
com/2019/04/02/tech/apple-iphone-vat-in-
china/index.html] to increase sales and comply
with local taxation laws, and in other territories
has passed on discounts to retailers, who are
offering iPhones, iPads, and Macs at below-RRP
to encourage sales.
iPHONE SE SUCCESSOR IS FEASIBLE
Whilst it’s good news that Apple is cutting the
cost of iPhone internationally, the need for a
low-cost smartphone - a successor to the iPhone
SE, so to speak - has never been greater. Apple’s
cheapest iPhone is the $449 iPhone 7, but that
was released more than three years ago and
features outdated technology. By designing
a new budget iPhone from the ground up,
Apple can create a cheap yet functional device
that appeals to the mass market and helps the
company reclaim its smartphone market share
on foreign turf at a time when new players are
disrupting pricing and cutting their margins to
increase their market penetration.
Indeed, with more competition than ever before,
Apple cannot rest on its laurels and expect
consumers to pay over-the-odds for phones
that simply cannot compete. But a successor
to the iPhone SE could include features like
an LED display, 32GB storage, 2GB RAM, the
ability to charge wirelessly, an A11 Bionic chip,
Touch ID, a 12-megapixel rear-facing camera