Apple Launches Affordable iPhone SE

• Apple Launches Affordable iPhone SE

Disappointing sales amidst slowing global economy has forced the world’s most capitalised company, Apple to reinvent in a move to access consumers in emerging economies.

Apple Inc has finally launched an affordable iPhone of $399, according to a statement released by the world’s most valuable company.

The new, second-generation iPhone SE has similar internal components as the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro but has the same body as iPhone 8 produced in 2017.

iPhone SE

While the new iPhone SE is likely to be a success given its quality and price, Apple’s revenue is expected to remain down in the near-term, especially after the Chinese economy contracted by 6.8 percent in the first quarter of 2020, the most in almost five decades. In February, the company had said it was expecting weaker sales in the second quarter as sales drop due to coronavirus in China and the rest of the world. This is likely to extend to the rest of the year with US, India, UK, German, Japan, Korea and other top Apple markets under lockdown.

The giant tech company recorded its first sales decline in 15 years in 2016 when sales dropped by 8 percent to $217 billion, down from $244 billion recorded in 2015.

Since then Apple revenue has been on the decline with slowing global growth and stagnant income growth. The trade war between the US and China negatively impacted global growth and plunged income of the Chinese people in recent years.

Apple sales dropped by 27 percent or $5 billion in the final quarter of 2018 shortly after China recorded its slowest growth since 2019.

Tim Cook, Chief Executive Officer, Apple Inc., said: “Weak macro conditions in some emerging markets was significantly more severe than we originally foresaw, especially in Greater China.”