Confusing names: What does the “E” mean on the new iPhone 16E?

Apple was once very proud to drive an easy-to-understand name policy-in contrast to Japanese companies or PC competition. An iPhone was an iPhone, an iMac an iMac and a Mac mini a Mac mini. But it's not that easy for a long time. For years, Apple has been numbering and additions to the “simple” names, which is increasingly confusing users. Even worse: Name additives no longer have an official explanation, they should be accepted by customers. This will be particularly wild at the iPhone 16e next week.

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“MacBook Pro M4 Pro”

Not that only iPhones would be affected. Since the introduction of the Pro variants of the Apple-Silicon chips, the MacBook Pro shines with a double name: you don't buy a simple model (“MacBook Pro M4”) and also not the max variant (“MacBook Pro M4 Max”) Then the tongue breaker “MacBook Pro M4 Pro”. At iPhone, Apple has even combined the terms “Pro” and “Max” (“iPhone 16 Pro Max”) for generation 11, which in turn have nothing to do with Apple Silicon, but only with a product order (“Pro”) and screen size (” Max “).

At the iPhone 16E, Apple now has a completely new name, which has not yet been explained. At the beginning there were so-called “S” models on the iPhone. These were devices that joined a new design in the previous year and stood for mostly purely internal improvements. From the iPhone 3G an iPhone 3GS, from the iPhone X an iPhone XS. The name was then stopped from the iPhone 11, but resumed at the first iPhone SE from 2016. This received no number (because Apple planned to keep the model over – then four – in the program for four -) and an additional “E”. Actually, the “S” no longer fit properly because it was not an expansion of an existing model, but an entry -level model. Explains what “SE” should mean, Apple never officially has.

“e” (not) for “Everyone”

At the iPhone 16e, observers had long assumed that Apple would continue to describe it as SE – supplemented by the addition “fourth generation”. But it didn't come like that. Apple took over the name 16 from the 2024 iPhone generation and just hung the “e” said, this time. It is interesting to number that Apple actually installs its way to sell the 16e over several years, since the old number always attaches to him (this is how the iPhone 17 will come in autumn 2025). But that doesn't matter to the group – or he plans a “iPhone 17E” comparatively quickly.

And what does that mean “e” now? At a press briefing, which Apple blogger John Gruber reports, should Apple communicated have that it stands “for nothing”, but the device is “built for everyone” (“Everyone”). “I don't think (Apple) wanted to indicate that the” e “secretly stands for” everyone “, even if I am pretty sure that Apple does not want everyone to buy the cheapest iPhone model . ” Grubers grin can literally grip from these lines.