They’re not going to release a better phone than the iPhone 14 at a lower price point.
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They’ll treat AI as an upgrade option. There is no way they’re going to sell a better phone than the iPhone 14 for a lower price. If it retails for more than £600 it’s no longer the SE model.
iPhone 14 is going to be $599 starting next month.
The new SE is bound to be cheaper to produce, because according to rumors it will share the same ‘base’ manufacturing lines along with other iPhones.
They’re also going to skimp on some features, like the removal of cameras.
It’s safe to say that the new SE will retail min. $499, max $599.
My bet: Apple is adapting the iPad strategy. Basically 3 devices: budget, ‘Air’, ‘Pro’.
Next year, you’ll have ‘SE’, ‘16’ and ‘16 Pro’.
They’ll get rid of the iPhone 14. That model will become more expensive to manufacture and as of January 2025, they are not even allowed to sell that device in one of the largest economic unions in the world (EU).
Next year, you’ll have ‘SE’, ‘16’ and ‘16 Pro’.
They’ll get rid of the iPhone 14. That model will become more expensive to manufacture and as of January 2025, they are not even allowed to sell that device in one of the largest economic unions in the world (EU).
Pretty sure the SE 2 (2020) had the current processor also.
Well, the current SE sells for £429 and iPhone 13 - for £599. If you count in all the rumoured SE2025 upgrades over SE2022 (a bigger OLED screen, more RAM = Apple Intelligence), Apple could easily bring the prices to £500-550 zone. People might complain at the beginning and then will still go and buy them. Remember that over the years iPhone prices have been growing steadily and people would just follow, using their carriers subsidies or Apple’s own upgrade programmes when available.
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Apple is not about to sell iPhones 16 with a heavy(!) focus on AI only to put it all on sale in Q1-Q2 2025 with some <$799 iPhone 14 clone while Apple is still pushing heavily for 16 and 16 Pro because of AI. And also offering the non-AI capable 15/15 Plus starting at $699.
Apple has spent too much in r&d on 15 and 16 to cannibalize them with an OP SE 4.
8GB AI SE 4 is not happening.
SE 4 will only access Apple Inteligence with a monthly subscription service or not at all. SE 4 is not going to out-spec iPhones 15/15 Plus on any other spec than SoC.
Giving the buyer OLED, Face ID, USB-C and a bigger. 6.1" display and bigger battery is value enough to sell a new $429-$499 SE 4.
Apple has spent too much in r&d on 15 and 16 to cannibalize them with an OP SE 4.
8GB AI SE 4 is not happening.
SE 4 will only access Apple Inteligence with a monthly subscription service or not at all. SE 4 is not going to out-spec iPhones 15/15 Plus on any other spec than SoC.
Giving the buyer OLED, Face ID, USB-C and a bigger. 6.1" display and bigger battery is value enough to sell a new $429-$499 SE 4.
Getting rid of iPhone 14 makes sense, but what about 15? Could 9to5mac have been right speculating that 15 would have the shortest product lifespan? 🤷🏻♂️
The iPhone 15 may be obsolete faster than any model in history - 9to5Mac
There’s a compelling iPhone 16 lineup and iPhone SE 4 coming soon—all with Apple Intelligence. Where does that leave the iPhone 15?
9to5mac.com
Then iPhone 15 should also be able to access AI with this monthly subscription service, as they have all the specs except for RAM for it?
Still ridiculous that the most expensive phone and least expensive phone in apple’s lineup will have the same amount of RAM.
Doing away with the home button, once and for all?! Guess it's time to grab the current SE to upgrade from my 8+, ouch, 256MB max?! Oofah, Apple, you can keep your swipey screens with holes and notches and no home buttons. 
iPhones 15 won't get Apple Intelligence:
Apart from accessing ChatGPT, I don't see Apple selling Apple Intelligence as a subscription service as this would lead to too many users opting to subscribe to AI instead of upgrading from the perfectly speedy but older, non-AI iPhones.
Apple also wants its AI to be smoother and faster than its competitors which is close to impossible to control if Apple Intelligence is relying on pulling and sending data via the Internet.
Pushing the idea that AI is only fast, safe and useful if it's "on-device" works as the perfect sales argument for upgrading your iPhone instead of defaulting to any of the numerous cloud-based AI services.
-Everytime Apple has a big upgrade for Apple Intelligence, more RAM and CPU power will be needed, and thus a new iPhone is required.
If Apple has any kind of paid services related to its AI coming then it's only going to work on AI-compatible iPhones, like 15 Pro and newer.
Hard to make a definitive statement about it, because basically since 2007 Apple has always continued selling previous gen models.Getting rid of iPhone 14 makes sense, but what about 15? Could 9to5mac have been right speculating that 15 would have the shortest product lifespan? 🤷🏻♂️
The iPhone 15 may be obsolete faster than any model in history - 9to5Mac
There’s a compelling iPhone 16 lineup and iPhone SE 4 coming soon—all with Apple Intelligence. Where does that leave the iPhone 15?
That said, the article makes sense and based on all the rumours surrounding iPhone 16 and iPhone SE 4, it wouldn’t be surprising.
The iPhone SE 4 is also rumoured to use the same chassis as the iPhone 16. Right now, Apple has to maintain a lot of different production lines (iPhone 8-line, iPhone 12-line, iPhone 13/14-line and iPhone 15-line).
If they go ‘exclusively’ with 16 chassis, they can drop all these lines which will save a lot of money. In addition, now there’s a wide range of A- and M-chips still across a wide array of products. They can basically shut down all pre-A18 chip productions if they move the new base iPad 11, iPhone 16 and iPhone SE 4 to A18.
Initially, that might be more expensive, but maybe the cost per unit is actually cheaper: they can place one big order for just the A18 chip (plus maybe some small variants), instead of a smaller A18 order + A17 Pro order + A16 order + A15 order + A14 order (which they are doing today with their current line-up).
Regardless, even if they keep the iPhone 15, they can drop all those other older lines as well.
Again, I think they’re moving to the ‘iPad strategy’ as that’s been a commercially more succesful strategy where people tend to choose for a more expensive model.
Budget, ‘Air’, ‘Pro’. = SE4, 16, 16 Pro.
And maybe keep the iPhone 15 around unofficially, through carriers and third party retailers.
I really like the size of my XR phone as does my wife of her SE, so we’re disappointed to see an expected increase in size for the SE 4. I feel the same way about my iPad Mini. I don’t want to haul around a “brick”. It will be nice though to have all of our devices with the same type of charging port.
This will all become more clear next week once Apple announce their new lineup. Let’s also not forget that Apple know exactly how well those old models are selling, while we are just guessing. Yet slimming down their iPhone line makes quite a bit of sense, both economically and environmentally.
You are disregarding the other expensive components that will be missing from the new SE.
Only one single camera, no Dynamic Island, and my guess is (just like the new iPads) it will have limited 5G bands.
As for the chip, the SE *always* has used the same chip as the newest iPhones, so this is unlikely to change
Does not this contradict your idea of Apple Intelligence subscription access on the rumoured SE2025 then? If SE2025 cannot get AI in any shape or form, who are they making it for?
That is not what the law says.
The deadline only applies to newly introduced products, products already being sold do not count.
So the 13s and 14s will be fine.
You never know, Apple might throw in 10-12 GB into their 16 Pro, while giving 8 GB to the masses.
The law actually says that smartphones and tablets sold “by the end of 2024” onwards should all be equipped with USB-C ports. So while pre-iPhone 15 models will still work fine and be repaired, technically they can no longer be sold in the EU.
Long-awaited common charger for mobile devices will be a reality in 2024 | News | European Parliament
Following Parliament’s approval, EU consumers will soon be able to use a single charging solution for their electronic devices.
www.europarl.europa.eu
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Really none, which is why it sounds like the new “iPhone Air” or “17 Slim” makes more and more sense.
Looks like another year with my SE3 as it seems they have no desire to ever address the issue.