India, March 14 -- In China, Apple's new $599 iPhone 16e is now outpacing the sales of the $429 third-generation iPhone SE in which was released a few years back.

However, this still won't be enough to reverse the declining sales in the country, Bloomberg reported, citing analyst firm IDC.

The iPhone 16e sales were 60% stronger in its opening three days, compared to the iPhone SE from 2022, but the forecast remains that China sales will decline about 2% overall this year.

An important reason is that the device has only one rear camera, limited base storage and insufficient AI features (Though Apple is wokring to bring its Apple Intelligence suite to Chinese consumers as early as the middle of this year), making it a tougher sell in the...