Join me on a flight of fancy for a moment: say Tim Cook finally does what the rumors keep saying he'll do and steps down, and due to some convoluted web of hijinks and misunderstandings, I end up as CEO of Apple. The first thing I'm doing is driving a go-kart around the whole Apple office like a corporatized blend of Mario Kart and NASCAR, to assert my authority, of course. The second thing I'm doing is killing the iPhone 17e, and all future iPhone e-series models and bringing back the iPhone SE.
Hyperbole aside, I genuinely think Apple's made a big mistake with the iPhone 16e, and the iPhone 17e that is heavily rumored to be launching as its replacement this month. It took an aging but still serviceable budget model, and was replaced with an all-new device with significant upgrades but a 50% larger price tag. The result is a good phone - it works just as Apple promised it does on the store page - but one that fails to understand the reasons the iPhone SE was popular to begin with.
