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Surprise! The iPhone 16e Is Selling Extremely Well
Counterpoint has put out their list of the best selling phones of 2025. And to the shock of no one the iPhone 16 took the top spot. Although that’s not the most interesting part. The most interesting part is that another phone made it to the number 10 spot: the iPhone 16e.
The iPhone 16e is, as you will recall, the budget iPhone. It replaced the iPhone SE. The iPhone SE never sold well. In fact it was almost like Apple was embarrassed to sell that thing. I remember going into the Apple Store and the only SE to be found was all the way in the back powering some HomePod demo.
So when Apple announced they were replacing it with the iPhone 16e I thought it would meet the same fate. But surprisingly it did not.
So why did the iPhone 16e do so well? I suspect it was the new design. The iPhone SE had a dated design based on the iPhone 8. The iPhone 16e got a modern design based on the iPhone 14. And never underestimate how much people love a new design. This is why I suspect the iPhone 16 did so well. Not much changed, but then they moved the cameras and YouTubers all over were like, “This is the one to buy.”
