Apple needs a $250 iPhone to boost sales

The iPhone still anchors Apple’s revenue story, but the premium market is saturated. In India, Latin America, and large parts of South-East Asia, shoppers notice the brand, but the pricing knocks them out before they finish the sentence. Android manufacturers pounce on every price point below $400 USD.

Apple knows how to design delightful, long-lived hardware. What it may have forgotten is how to ship a device that feels aspirational without crossing the psychological $299 threshold. A $250 iPhone SE with Face ID, modern cameras, and the latest silicon would be disruptive, not cheap. It would give Android switchers a frictionless on-ramp into iOS services.

Hardware margins would tighten, absolutely. Yet the lifetime value of a new Apple customer still climbs through iCloud storage, Arcade, Fitness+, and the upcoming Vision Pro ecosystem. When Wall Street asks for growth, a mass-market iPhone is the only honest answer.