The Newest iPhone That’s Cheaper Than the iPhone 7

Matthew Gupta
Tech Editor

Apple has officially added its newest member to the iPhone community. To raise stagnating sales numbers, the iPhone 16e is being marketed as a budget-friendly option. The phone also marks a new adventure for Apple – its first in-house cellular modem.

With a release date of February 28th, the iPhone 16e is marketed as a high-tech, durable phone with a budget-friendly price. The iPhone 16 starts at $599 for 128 GB of storage, with 256GB and 512 GB at additional prices. The phone possesses many features on its other iPhone 16 models, including Apple Intelligence, powered by the A18 system on a chip (SOC). The phone also comes with a 26-hour battery life, matching its fellow iPhone 16 models.

The iPhone 16e also comes with Apple’s newest venture- its first attempt to build its own cellular modem, the C1 chip. This chip is designed to allow for data to be transferred between the device and the Internet without a physical link, such as a cable. The new chip is Apple’s first attempt to move away from relying on Qualcomm, a company focused on designing the semiconductors Apple has in its previous iPhone iterations. If successful, the iPhone 16e could be the perfect test for this new modem in the real world and could be upgraded to fit Apple’s next-generation iPhone.

Apple has seen its iPhone sales stagnate since 2015 despite previously being one of its fastest-growing sectors. Between then and 2023, iPhone sales declined approximately 3% overall. Therefore, any revenue growth, which has reached over 60% between 2015 and 2023, is attributed to the company’s yearly price increases on its newer models. By matching the price of the new phone to the release price of the iPhone 7, Apple hopes that these sales numbers will increase.

Contact Matthew at matthew.gupta@student.shu.edu