Gurman: New iPhone SE and More Likely at Apple Event in March or April

[MacRumors]

Apple's first event of 2022 will likely take place in March or April, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said today in his "Power On" newsletter. Gurman said a new iPhone SE with support for 5G and a faster chip is likely to be among the announcements at the event.

"Apple's first virtual event of 2022 is coming up in just a few short months and is likely to take place in either March or April, I'm told," wrote Gurman.

Last year, Apple held an event on April 20 to unveil its AirTag item tracker, new iPad Pro and 24-inch iMac models powered by the M1 chip, the second-generation Apple TV 4K, and a new purple color option for the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini.

In 2020, Apple did not hold a spring event, likely due to COVID-19 being declared a worldwide pandemic in March of that year. Apple still announced several new products with press releases on its website that spring, including updated MacBook Air and iPad Pro models on March 18 and the second-generation iPhone SE on April 15.

In addition to a new iPhone SE, Apple might announce new 27-inch iMac and high-end Mac mini models with M1 Pro and M1 Max chips at the March or April event.

Gurman also said that he is near certain that WWDC will remain a fully virtual event this year, shortly after it was announced that the E3 video game conference normally held in person in June will be an online-only event again this year.

While it has been rumored that the Apple Watch Series 8 will gain a body temperature sensor, Gurman said "chatter about it has slowed down recently," so it is unclear if this feature is still on track to launch in 2022 or will be pushed back.

Subscribe to the "Power On" newsletter to receive Gurman's latest thoughts in your inbox.

Article Link: Gurman: New iPhone SE and More Likely at Apple Event in March or April

 

[thewhitehart]

Upgrade time! I love my 2020 SE, but 5G would be a nice addition at the low cost.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

You know what would be an absolutely brilliant move?
Introduce the new 5G iPhone SE at 399 just like the current one… and cut the price of the 4G version by half, so it starts at $249.
Boom! Most affordable iPhone ever, plus they just replaced the aging iPod touch with one little swoop.
gurman suggested the same thing in the MR podcast he was on recently

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Sweet! As it was expected to be released in March or April. I really hope it’s going to adopt the iPhone mini design since Apple maybe eliminate the mini this year.

 

[MayaUser]

The battery life will be even worse on this new 5G iphone SE if they keep the same 1800mah
Hope Apple place at least 2000mah

 

[adamw]

Bring on the Mac Mini Pro and the iMac Pro with Apple Silicon please!

 

[xxray]

Hopefully there are some big battery gains over the current SE.

 

[dz5b609]

You know what would be an absolutely brilliant move?
Introduce the new 5G iPhone SE at 399 just like the current one… and cut the price of the 4G version by half, so it starts at $249.
Boom! Most affordable iPhone ever, plus they just replaced the aging iPod touch with one little swoop.
gurman suggested the same thing in the MR podcast he was on recently

Except that a 5g-chip doesn't cost Apple 150 dollars and the other components would be more or less the same given that the rumors say that the new SE will still have the iPhone 8-like enclosure. Plus production, manufacturing, shipping and raw material costs are still having large problems everywhere and prices at all time highs so big chance that last year's iPhone SE (let alone the new SE) is actually costing more now to manufacture and ship than it did last year.

And Apple isn't going to start selling iPhones at a loss.

 

[ksec]

The most interesting part would be which modem it use, X55 in iPhone 12, or X60 in 13. Or they make a leap to X65 to offer better battery life while disabling a lot of advanced 5G features?

It would always make sense to test out Apple's 5G modem in an entry level iPhone. But the timing doesn't fit.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Hopefully there are some big battery gains over the current SE.

Wishful thinking. I don’t see that happening since it’ll be supporting 5G. I think it’s going to be an incremental increase in the battery life.

 

[Think|Different]

No one needs an event, virtual or otherwise, for an SE – gotta be way more at this, even if a bunch of smaller propositions.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Except that a 5g-chip doesn't cost Apple 150 dollars and the other components would be more or less the same given that the rumors say that the new SE will still have the iPhone 8-like enclosure. Plus production, manufacturing, shipping and material costs are still having large problems everywhere and prices at all time highs so big chance that last year's iPhone SE (let alone the new SE) is actually costing more now to manufacture than it did last year.

And Apple isn't going to start selling iPhones at a loss.

A13 vs A15, LTE modem versus 5G, most likely a slightly bigger battery.
It’s not just one chip change and that’s it, and it wouldn’t be the first time Apple did this.
The iPhone XR came out in October 2018 at $750, and in September 2019, less than a year later, was lowered down to $599.
Was it *really* $150 cheaper to produce only 11 months later? No. Of course not

 

[Ahmamies]

I am interested. Currently using Xs Max. Wife’s 13 Pro Max feels too much of a tank for me. And my all time favorite phone has been 6/6s. Maybe this is for me?

 

[Arline]

Eagerly waiting for the new larger iMac.

 

[Nozuka]

Time to upgrade the original SE from my mother

 

[Wackery]

You know what would be an absolutely brilliant move?
Introduce the new 5G iPhone SE at 399 just like the current one… and cut the price of the 4G version by half, so it starts at $249.
Boom! Most affordable iPhone ever, plus they just replaced the aging iPod touch with one little swoop.
gurman suggested the same thing in the MR podcast he was on recently

It sounds like a Tim Cook ‘reuse the chassis’ special, but actually not a bad idea

 

[Wackery]

The most interesting part would be which modem it use, X55 in iPhone 12, or X60 in 13. Or they make a leap to X65 to offer better battery life while disabling a lot of advanced 5G features?

It would always make sense to test out Apple's 5G modem in an entry level iPhone. But the timing doesn't fit.

Maybe they can leverage those intel modems they bought a while ago for the cheap phones

 

[Cosmosent]

A13 vs A15, LTE modem versus 5G, most likely a slightly bigger battery.
It’s not just one chip change and that’s it, and it wouldn’t be the first time Apple did this.
The iPhone XR came out in October 2018 at $750, and in September 2019, less than a year later, was lowered down to $599.
Was it *really* $150 cheaper to produce only 11 months later? No. Of course not

I'm an App Developer, who found a HW bug the first day I began testing our first XR.

The XR was released on Friday, Oct 26th, & the bug was discovered on Saturday, Oct 27th, 2018.

I/we put the word out immediately, both to the General Public & to Apple.

A few days later, Apple announced that they would NO longer report iPhone Unit Sales, in part, I believe, because I/we had another app in Apple's "curated" iOS App Store, called Timmy, which was the ONLY per-Qtr, per-Device iPhone Unit Sales on the planet, & Tim Cook didn't want the General Public making the connection, & seeing the Insight that Timmy offered.

The gist, the XR was a Perf-crippled iPhone !

I/we refer to the Bug as "Phil's Bug," after Phil Schiller; there is naturally a story behind it.

Apple tried to screw us over, & screwed-themselves in the process !

Do a Google search on Performance Controller HW Bug !

The Bug made it thru two generations of A-series chips, A11 & A12 !

Apple fixed it when they got to the A13.

Ask yourself, why does Apple NO longer promote their Performance Controller designs ?

You now know the reason !

Tim Cook's Apple has Trump-level insecurity !

 

[Psychicbob]

For the love of gawd, give us an SE with good battery life ???

 

[ksec]

Maybe they can leverage those intel modems they bought a while ago for the cheap phones

Not impossible, but I seriously doubt Intel will sell those 5G Modem when they are currently capacity limited. Otherwise it would be Apple Modem ( with Intel Design ), again Timing doesn't fit.

 

[alpi123]

What's next? New iPhones in September?

 

[satchmo]

You know what would be an absolutely brilliant move?
Introduce the new 5G iPhone SE at 399 just like the current one… and cut the price of the 4G version by half, so it starts at $249.
Boom! Most affordable iPhone ever, plus they just replaced the aging iPod touch with one little swoop.
gurman suggested the same thing in the MR podcast he was on recently

Brilliant for customers, but perhaps not so much for Apple. If they did this, who would buy the 5G SE?

Has 5G even truly penetrated the market to where it’s a must have feature? Most who are at the SE budget level would be perfectly happy with 4G.

 

[boak]

Wouldn’t the chassis need to be slightly tweaked for the 5G antenna? Unless it doesn’t support mmWave, like the iPhone 12 outside the US.

 

[jz0309]

so what is he "predicting"? nothing really ...

 

[ikramerica]

How about an SE+ model?