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Apple finally launched the iPhone SE, the 4-inch smartphone that was supposed to be in a budget. But clearly, the SE on the new iPhone stands for ‘Super Expensive’ and not ‘Special Edition’.
Consider this, when Apple launched the iPhone 6s in India they priced it atrociously at Rs 62,500. And now with the iPhone SE, they have done the same. At many e-commerce platforms, the iPhone 6s 16GB is selling at as low as Rs 41,000.
So, why would Indians pay a sum of Rs 39,000 for a phone that’s not even Apple’s flagship phone?
The iPhone SE promises a brilliant 12-megapixel iSight camera that will record 4K videos. That’s cool, but what’s not cool is that in order for you to have a seamless experience you want a 64GB iPhone SE and not a 16GB one.
The least the company could have done was to discontinue the 16GB storage version and the entry level iPhone SE should have been, at least, a 32GB one.
In 16GB with iOS 9 and pre-loaded apps, all you’ll get is 10-11GB of free space. Top it up with your favourite apps and images and you won’t be able to record more than five minutes of 4K videos.
That’s one big shame. Why call a phone ‘special edition’ when it does not even have the special 3D touch?
Spending Rs 2,000 extra would get you a flagship iPhone 6s with 3D touch.
Many app developers have already started making apps for iOS, utilising the 3D touch feature. Buying a phone for Rs 39,000 without the force touch technology is just beyond us, even if you are an Apple fanboy or girl.
Yes, many would argue that they always wanted a smaller iPhone, but let’s be realistic. That is because many could not afford the exorbitantly priced iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, so, they settled for an iPhone 5 or 5s.
The iPhone SE was to give those people an opportunity to get a new product from the company in a budget. But sadly at that price point and in 2016 a 4-inch display with all that iOS capability and processing power just doesn’t make sense. If they really wanted to make a special edition they should have given all that processing power minus the 3D touch on the iPhone 6.
They always say India is an important market, but clearly they don’t really care about us. The iPhone SE was supposed to be an affordable one. So they first took our hopes high by saying that the phone will start at Rs 30,000. It was still expensive but understandable. But when they corrected themselves and said that it’ll start at Rs 39,000, we understood how much they love their Indian fans.
Also, India should have come in the first list of countries for the phone to be released since it has seen iPhone 5 and 5s adopters. But they decided to treat India as a secondary market and give us the new phone later in April 2016.
So, we think that Apple has completely lost the plot with the iPhone SE. Tell us what you think in the comments section below.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)