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Kuo: Apple No Longer Planning to Launch iPhone SE 4 Next Year

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Apple has informed suppliers that it has canceled plans to release a fourth-generation iPhone SE in 2024, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

iphone-se-4-modified.jpg

Kuo previously said that the fourth-generation iPhone SE would be canceled or postponed, but he now firmly believes that the device has been canceled.

In a post on Medium today, Kuo said that Apple planned to introduce its first in-house 5G chip in the fourth-generation iPhone SE, but that is obviously no longer expected to happen since the device is apparently canceled. Instead, Kuo said it is likely that Apple will continue to rely on Qualcomm for 5G chips in 2024, including for the iPhone 16 series.

Kuo said Apple planned to test the 5G chip in the iPhone SE before rolling it out to iPhone 16 models to ensure that real-world performance was acceptable:
Due to concerns that the performance of the in-house baseband chip may not be up to par with Qualcomm's, Apple initially planned to launch its baseband chip in 2024 and let the low-end iPhone SE 4 adopt it first, and decide whether to let the iPhone 16 use its baseband chip depending on the development status of iPhone SE 4. However, the cancelation of the iPhone SE 4 has significantly increased the chances of Qualcomm remaining the exclusive supplier of baseband chips for the 2H24 new iPhone 16 series, which is better than the market consensus that Qualcomm will start losing iPhone orders in 2024.
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The third-generation iPhone SE was released last March and features Qualcomm's Snapdragon X57 modem for 5G. iPhone 15 models are expected to use the Snapdragon X70 modem, while iPhone 16 models might use the as-yet-unannounced Snapdragon X75.

Article Link: Kuo: Apple No Longer Planning to Launch iPhone SE 4 Next Year
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2023/01/06/iphone-se-4-canceled-kuo/
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Especially now that the price of iPhone 15 is expected to drop.

That being said, I doubt the iPhone 15 will get any meaningful upgrades over the 14 or 13 for that matter, considering inflation and increased manufacturing costs and the fact they are targetting a price reduction...
 
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Interesting news. It also confirms, as expected, Apple’s baseband chip is discrete rather than integrated into the SoC.

But I’m surprised Apple would test in iPhone SE rather than something with low data throughput like Apple Watch. That would be more logical given concerns about performance. Testing in SE suggests the Apple baseband isn’t great with power consumption at all.
 
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JPack said:
Interesting news. It also confirms, as expected, Apple’s baseband chip is discrete rather than integrated into the SoC. But I’m surprised Apple would test in iPhone SE rather than something with low data throughput like Apple Watch.
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I'm sure it was more about low volume shipment than low data throughput, in terms of the decision to test in the SE.
 
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I think Apple might wait it out this 5G and go straight to 6G for their inhouse modem. They might license 5G or 4G patents from others to include that functionality and go forth from there.
 
MacDevil7334 said:
Anything to reduce the bloat in the iPhone lineup. Just keep an older model in the line at the SE price point.
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There is no bloat. Not to any single customer of iPhone. Only to people who comment on the internet.

Every $100 increment is an entirely different smartphone market that appeals to tens of millions of people.

People like you who complain about "bloat" don't have the faintest clue what the iPhone market actually looks like.
 
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I really don't think it made sense for a SE 4th Gen if it was going to be 6.1" anyway. Just keep reducing the prices of older models to fill that gap. Now if it was going to based on the previous mini, that is a big loss. If anything would get me to switch from iOS it would be the lack of a smaller phone option when the time comes (assuming there are smaller Android options).
 
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PauloSera said:
There is no bloat. Not to any single customer of iPhone. Only to people who comment on the internet.

Every $100 increment is an entirely different smartphone market that appeals to tens of millions of people.

People like you who complain about "bloat" don't have the faintest clue what the iPhone market actually looks like.
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There's a lot that want TouchID, so having only Face will kill those sales. At least start putting Touch in Power into the new model if you scrap SE
 
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d5aqoëp said:
I think Apple might wait it out this 5G and go straight to 6G for their inhouse modem. They might license 5G or 4G patents from others to include that functionality and go forth from there.
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You can’t walk without crawling first. Nobody makes a 5G baseband without 4G first. Not Huawei, MediaTek, Samsung, etc.

Besides, 6G is focused on terahertz communication between infrastructure, not consumer devices. And 5G will evolve for a long time before 6G is introduced.
 
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They've already added 5G to the SE and raised the price along with it.

If they've cancelled a 2024 refresh of the SE (which is still pretty far out), I bet this has something to do with the switch to USB-C. Apple is going to introduce the iPhone 15 line with USB-C next year, but they aren't going to run around and redesign all of their old iPhones that they still sell to include USB-C. That also rules out reusing an old product design for an updated SE (which they are so found of doing). By 2024, any SE would have to be an entire new design with USB-C...something Apple has proven unwillingly to do for a low cost iPhone. It may well be that the SE we have today will remain until a USB-C iPhone trickles down to the SE.
 
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MacDevil7334 said:
Anything to reduce the bloat in the iPhone lineup. Just keep an older model in the line at the SE price point.
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That older model phone would have to be at least 4 years old to hit the SE price point though. The SE is $429. The 2 year old iPhone 12 is still $599. If the iPhone 11 was still being sold, it might hit a $400 price point, but I doubt it. It would have to be the iPhone Xs.

But at that age that phone would only see another 1, maybe 2, years of OS upgrades. $400 for that old of a phone is no deal. Actually, it's a terrible deal, IMO.

On the other hand, an SE would have a much newer A chip and would be able to receive 5-6 years of OS upgrades.
 
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