Right now on apple.com you can buy the SE, 6, 7, 8, and X from their website. Talk about a cluttered, friction inducing decision.
The iPhone is already a expensive premium phone, why bother with incremental changes of the 8 when the cool and shiny X is right around the corner.
It's also strange to me how they offer two new phones with different feature sets. Usually when Apple introduces a new device with a controversial change (e.g. USB-C only on the 2016 MacBook Pro), they don't offer a updated device without that change. It can be perceived as a lack of faith in the new product.
The base model of the MacBook Pro is about the same price as the one in 2016, but it has 128GB rather than 256GB of storage. The 256GB model is now a couple hundred dollars more expensive than last years.
Who else is able to increase prices in technology? In spite of the complaints about their products, for people who think they are good enough and don’t think what competitors have to offer is good enough (in terms of frustrations rather than in terms of features/price) there aren’t alternatives, and Apple has a lot of pricing power.
SE: only small choice, starts at $349
6S: 449 7: 549 8: 699
6S+: 549 7+: 669 8+: 799
So each "normal" size is available at 3 price points. Horace Dediu has talked a lot about price segmentation and umbrellas in the past; this seems like a perfectly reasonable strategy, and I doubt people are all that confused about what they want. Pick a size, pick a price point, buy.
What size phone do I like - 4, 4.7, or 5.5?
How much money do I want to spend?
It's a good lesson to the rest of us.