Part Suppliers are Worried About Success of iPhone SE
posted Sunday Apr 3, 2016 by Scott Ertz
When Apple announced the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, there were many people who were really excited about the ability to finally get ahold of an iPhone with a screen comparable to the rest of the industry. Unfortunately for Apple, there were others who were unhappy with the larger size, hoping to keep something closer to what they have always known. Those dreams would be dashed, however, as there were only these larger phones.
With the biannual increment there were still only the larger format screens, but nothing to directly replace the iPhone 5s which was officially 2 years old and missing all of the new features to the Apple ecosystem. Finally, Apple has announced a "new" handset, the iPhone SE, which is designed to fill that gap.
At first glance you would think it was an iPhone 5s, and you would not be far off. In fact, the device itself is nearly identical to the former device from the outside, but with some new stuff under the hood. Essentially, you will be getting an iPhone 6s inside of an iPhone 5s body. While this product obviously is designed to fill a consumer need, like that iPhone 5c, but like the 5c, it is not expected to succeed in the market.
According to sources inside the industry, there are concerns about the success of the new device. Despite launching the new phone, as well as a smaller iPad Pro, Apple's parts order quantities have not changed from last quarter. This indicates to the suppliers that Apple themselves have no real hopes of success for these products. According to the source,
Overall chip orders placed by Apple for the second quarter will only be slightly higher than those for the first quarter, despite the upcoming availability of its 4-inch iPhone SE and 9.7-inch iPad Pro devices, said the sources.
Shipments for the new iPhone SE will be unable to offset the fall in shipments for the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus devices in the second quarter, the sources continued. The shipment target for the SE in the second quarter is four to five million units, the sources said.
While this may not be a completely accurate indicator, it is not something that can be ignored. Of course, Apple could just be acting cautiously in the wake of the disaster that was the iPhone 5c, but they could also be indicating their own dislike or distrust in the concept of pandering.
