New Report Claims iPhone 16e Isn't Selling Well, But Does It Matter?

A new report from a well-known leaker on Weibo claims that Apple's iPhone 16e isn't selling well. The leaker, who has provided accurate information about upcoming Apple products in the past, says that Apple's effort to deliver a lower-cost iPhone has been unsuccessful. Nonetheless, Apple reportedly plans to move forward with the iPhone 17e next year.

If we're to take the report about the iPhone 16e at face value, I don't think it's indicative of a failed product. By design, the iPhone 16e is a niche product designed for users who care more about an affordable device than next-gen features. It's a way to attract iPhone buyers who, were it not for an affordable iPhone tier, might otherwise venture off and purchase an Android. In other words, no one assumed that the iPhone 16e was going to become a runaway hit sales-wise. That wasn't its purpose.

That said, earlier reports from more credible sources have indicated that the iPhone 16e during the quarter of its release accounted for 11% of all iPhone sales in the U.S. That's about on par with previous iPhone SE releases. And though overall iPhone 16e sales have gone down since, the device at this point has been on the market for nearly nine months. Does this make the iPhone 16e a failure? Unless we know what Apple's initial sales projections were for the device, it's impossible for anyone to make that call definitively.

Even if we assume that iPhone 16e sales are lackluster, it's important to consider that the device isn't exactly a carbon copy of the iPhone SE. Apple's iPhone SE models offered a compact form factor, often with older technologies. Those devices were also priced below $500. The last iPhone SE model, for instance, started at $429.

The iPhone 16e, however, starts at $599. It's also bigger than the iPhone SE. So, while it's certainly the most affordable iPhone available today, it's not exactly as wallet-friendly as its predecessors. As a result, it's possible that prospective iPhone 16e buyers, upon seeing the sticker price, decided to spend a little bit extra and get the iPhone 17 instead. To this point, the Weibo post also suggests that "demand for the iPhone 17 series continues to surge, with production orders continuing to explode."

All in all, the main takeaway here might not be that the iPhone 16e is a flop, but rather that the iPhone 17 has proven to be so incredibly popular that it's eating into iPhone 16e sales. Apple famously doesn't break down iPhone sales figures by model type, so we don't have an official way to ascertain how strong or weak iPhone 16e sales are. What we do know, though, is that revenue from iPhone sales overall have skyrocketed since the release of Apple's iPhone 17 lineup. And if people are buying iPhones en masse, at a certain point, it doesn't matter to Apple which models they're buying.

One final thing worth noting about the iPhone 16e is that Apple's goal with the device wasn't solely to attract cost-conscious iPhone buyers. Alongside that, the iPhone 16e was the first iPhone to feature the company's C1 modem. Apple has been trying to wean itself off of Qualcomm's modems for years due to royalty terms that Apple views as unfair and oppressive. Recall that Apple even took Qualcomm to court over this a few years back, before the two companies ultimately reached a settlement agreement.

The larger point here is that the iPhone 16e was a way for Apple to test out its in-house designed modem on a niche device before introducing it on its flagship models. If there were problems with cellular connectivity on the iPhone 16e, it wouldn't have had a massive impact on overall iPhone sales. But if the iPhone 16e performed as well as, or even better than, Qualcomm's modem, it would provide the necessary evidence for Apple to proceed with its plan to slowly phase out Qualcomm altogether.

Indeed, a recent rumor claims that all of Apple's iPhone 18 models will ship with the company's C2 modem. Another rumor, meanwhile, claims that only the iPhone 18 Pro will ship with the C2. Either way, it's clear that Apple needed the iPhone 16e to be something of a test case before launching a flagship iPhone model without a Qualcomm modem. In this regard, one could make the case that the iPhone 16e has been a rousing success.