Mark Gurman reports that the iPhone 5SE will go on sale on Friday March 18th, just three days after it is revealed on Tuesday March 15th. With the caveat that his sources think this could be changed (which means I’m tagging this as ‘assuming Taniyama-Shimura‘) this release date says a lot about Apple’s strategic thinking.
It starts to spread iPhone sales throughout the year instead of clumping them around September. It boosts Apple’s short-term sales for the start of the year and could keep the iPhone growth figures positive. And it will weaken the release of the Galaxy S7 devices from arch-rival Samsung.
Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, visits an Apple store where third grade children are learning how to code through Apple’s ‘Hour of Code’ (Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
Assuming that there is a demand for an updated four-inch screened iPhone (and with sixty percent of iPhone users on the smaller ‘pre-iPhone6′ handsets there is a huge untapped market) the March release could see a run of sales the iPhone 5SE, on top of the faithful who buy a version of every handset no matter what.
These sales will give Apple a timely boost in a quiet sales period, and while that will have a notable impact on the April-June quarter, the rush of initial sales is going to take place in the first calendar quarter of the year. Apple has already noted that it expects iPhone sales to drop in this period after a plateau of iPhone sales in the holiday period that saw year-on-year growth of under a million devices.
While the markets have been prepared for the possibility of iPhone sales showing negative growth in the current quarter, the impact of this actually happening would lead to a wave of uncomfortable stories for Tim Cook and Apple. Bringing that first spike of sales into this quarter could be enough to prop up the iPhone sales figures to keep them flat or showing slight growth.
It also allows Tim Cook to do a classic “one more thing” as he tells the faithful that the 5SE will go on sale “this Friday!” That’s going to set the tech and mainstream media into overdrive, and if there are any other big smartphone stories in that week, they will be pushed into second or third place in the running orders behind the Apple news coverage and enthusiastic ‘hot takes’.
Are there any key smartphone stories Apple would find it beneficial to disrupt? While there may be other major handsets to come out of Mobile World Congress at the end of February, the big launch is Samsung”s Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. The devices will be revealed at #TheNextGalaxy event on February 21st, and is expected to go on sale in a handful of territories between the 4th and the 17th of March.
Many sources suggest March 11th as the date for the US and UK release. Putting aside the die-hard Galaxy fans who will buy a version of every handset no matter what, the general public will be aware that Apple is going to be showing ‘a new iPhone’ after that weekend and no doubt will wait and see what Tim Cook has to offer.
Apple will steal away digital column inches, will force the Galaxy S7 to share the headlines with the iPhone 5SE, and will ensure that many consumers will be hesitant to buy the S7 or S7 Edge in the first week of sales.
It has only been in the last few years that Apple has shied away from major hardware releases in March, so this can be seen as a return to form as well as a way to spread a portfolio of devices over fifty-two weeks to flatten the rather roller coaster sales curve of the iPhone. But the alleged date chosen has many benefits to Apple in the short-term as well as the long-term. Part of that is by circumstance, but Apple is able to recognize and maximise those opportunities.
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