Apple’s newest “funds” iPhone is popping out to be a shocking hit regardless of considerably elevating the value bar for its most inexpensive mannequin. New gross sales information reveals that the iPhone 16e outperformed the final iPhone SE throughout the first few months of its launch in 2022 — however maybe not by as a lot as you’d assume.
The report, which comes from Client Intelligence Analysis Companions (CIRP), merely says that the iPhone 16e was promoting higher than the iPhone SE did presently final yr. It shouldn’t be all that shocking {that a} model new iPhone with the newest A18 chip and trendy specs like OLED and Face ID would promote significantly higher than a two-year-old mannequin with a six-year-old design did presently final yr.
Particularly, CIRP stories that the iPhone SE accounted for five% of general iPhone gross sales in March 2024, in comparison with 14% for the unique iPhone 14, which was practically $300 dearer. The iPhone 14 Plus got here in a lot weaker, with solely 3% of gross sales, which simply presents extra proof of why Apple is abandoning the iPhone Plus lineup, a lot the identical method it did for the iPhone mini beforehand.
By comparability, the iPhone 16e represented 7% of complete iPhone gross sales in March 2025. That’s a wholesome achieve, but when something, it’s shocking the rise wasn’t larger. It additionally contrasts starkly with the iPhone 15, which nonetheless beat it out with 12% of the market regardless of being priced at $100 extra. The report additionally contains the iPhone SE, iPhone 14, and iPhone 14 Plus, accounting for 11%, regardless of these being discontinued the month prior. It’s unclear the place these gross sales got here from, however they nonetheless collectively beat out the iPhone 16e, possible resulting from deep reductions geared toward clearing out previous inventory.
Nonetheless, the 7% determine isn’t as spectacular once you issue within the iPhone 13 gross sales from March 2024. That mannequin sat in the identical $599 worth slot that the iPhone 16e now occupies and managed to seize 10% of iPhone gross sales throughout that interval.
For essentially the most half, gross sales of the opposite present fashions didn’t change a lot year-over-year. The iPhone 15 lineup accounted for 68% of complete gross sales in March 2024, whereas the opposite 4 iPhone 16 fashions accounted for 67%. Add within the iPhone 16e, and that quantity reaches a extra spectacular 74%, however that’s not a wholly truthful comparability.
The elemental shift was inside every of the mainstream households. Whereas the general gross sales percentages solely modified by a single p.c, there was a much bigger transfer towards the usual iPhone mannequin, coming primarily from the iPhone Professional. The iPhone 16 elevated its share of iPhone gross sales by 6%, rising to twenty% over the iPhone 15 final yr, whereas the iPhone 16 Professional dropped to 17% after the iPhone 15 Professional had captured 22% of gross sales the yr earlier than.
CIRP’s numbers are additionally based mostly on unit gross sales slightly than income. That’s a fairer comparability, as pricing variations would skew the numbers. Nevertheless, it additionally signifies that the bigger percentages of iPhone 16 Professional Max gross sales are multiplied by the upper worth of that mannequin, making these much more helpful to Apple.
Early iPhone SE Fashions Had been Wildly Widespread
Whereas CIRP doesn’t make any comparisons from earlier than 2024, we went again and seemed on the numbers ourselves. The iPhone 16e did outperform the 2022 iPhone SE throughout its launch quarter in unit gross sales, nevertheless it wasn’t by practically as excessive of a margin as you might assume. That’s type of shocking, because the 2022 iPhone SE was a little bit of a lame duck from the beginning, and early stories pointed to poor gross sales.
The 2022 iPhone SE was a modestly up to date model of its 2020 predecessor. It swapped out the inner chips for an A15 and a 5G modem, in comparison with the A13 chip and LTE modem of the prior mannequin, however in any other case retained the identical design, together with the display screen and digicam specs, which the 2020 iPhone SE had in flip borrowed from the 2017 iPhone 8. It additionally had a $30 increased price ticket, abandoning the extra snug $399 of the 2 prior SE fashions.
There was a good bit of uncertainty concerning the gross sales efficiency of the 2022 iPhone SE. Information from CIRP and Counterpoint recommended, Apple bought between 1.9 and a couple of.9 million items within the first quarter, whereas Digitimes Analysis was considerably increased, estimating 11 million. Nevertheless, the consensus was on these decrease numbers, which might have represented a 4–6% share of general iPhone gross sales at a time when the iPhone 13 lineup was nonetheless essentially the most present.
Nevertheless, earlier iPhone SE fashions fared significantly higher. When the unique iPhone SE launched in 2016, clients have been clearly nonetheless eager for the older iPhone 5s type issue and eagerly devoured it up. It captured 25–30% of general iPhone gross sales within the first quarter in opposition to the then-current iPhone 6 Plus and iPhone 6s Plus, promoting an estimated 10–12 million items.
The 2020 iPhone SE wasn’t fairly as well-received, nevertheless it nonetheless managed to seize 15–20% of general iPhone gross sales within the first quarter throughout the iPhone 11 period.
In different phrases, Apple had a pair of hits on its arms with its first two iPhone SE fashions. The third entry was an outlier, nevertheless it’s onerous to imagine that Apple anticipated it to promote like hotcakes with such a dated design.
In fact, a single month doesn’t inform the entire story, and we’ve got but to see any analyses of Apple’s iPhone 16e gross sales for the following quarter. It could possibly be a sleeper hit, and we might even see gross sales choose up over the following few weeks. Nonetheless, Apple’s e-series iPhones are very a lot an experiment at this level.
There’s reportedly a successor within the works for subsequent yr, and it’s too early to foretell whether or not these fashions will become a hit, particularly if the iPhone 17e raises the bar. Nevertheless, it’s additionally price preserving in thoughts that the iPhone mini and iPhone Plus fashions have been canned for equally lackluster gross sales.