People more interested in Apple iPhone SE than coronavirus in April: Study

iPrice’s research showed that when people stopped searching for COVID-19, they started searching for the iPhone SE instead.

Carlsen Martin

May 21, 2020 / 20:05 IST

The Apple iPhone SE recently went on sale in India. The 2020 iPhone SE was unveiled globally in April, and unlike past iPhone reveals, the iPhone SE 2020 was released through a regular press release. Perhaps the company did not see the merit in a big launch event given the current state of affairs.

But despite the rather down-to-earth approach, the iPhone SE 2020 was still the most popular phone at the time of its launch. According to data collected by iPrice Group, the new iPhone SE dominated search trends beyond the tech sector, and for a moment, was even able to steal netizens’ attention from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The e-commerce aggregator analysed search data on Google in 17 different countries and regions, including seven countries with the most cases of COVID-19, including India, Thailand, Vietnam, and Brazil.

iPrice discovered that concerns and curiosity about the coronavirus for all countries surveyed dropped significantly in April, just as rumours about the iPhone SE started to gain strength.

iPhone SE vs Covid

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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