When you can virtually mark your calendar for when Apple will launch its flagship iPhone lineup annually, the discharge cycle for Apple’s funds iPhone SE is one other matter. With solely three generations launched over the previous seven years, it’s arduous to foretell with any certainty when the following one will arrive — or whether or not there’ll ever be one other iPhone SE in any respect.
The saga of the iPhone SE over the previous yr has been a rollercoaster journey — an on-again/off-again cycle of analysts making an attempt to learn the tea leaves from Apple’s suppliers to determine precisely what the corporate is as much as.
After a late 2022 report that Apple had delayed or canceled a brand new iPhone SE, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported in February that the next-generation iPhone SE 4 was again on monitor for a 2024 launch. A number of different analysts confirmed this in April, suggesting the brand new funds iPhone may very well be a proving floor for Apple’s first 5G modem chip — a transfer that might make a variety of sense contemplating how sophisticated it’s to develop such chips.
Nonetheless, a few of these analysts additionally urged {that a} 2024 estimate was optimistic and that we possible wouldn’t see the following iPhone SE till not less than 2025, which matches the unique estimate for when Apple’s 5G modem chip will probably be prepared.
Now, a brand new report from Korea’s The Elec (Google Translate) confirms the 2025 timeline with a special purpose for the potential delay: manufacturing points with OLED panels for the brand new iPhone SE.
The Difficult Historical past of the iPhone SE
The unique iPhone SE arrived in March 2016, shaking issues up with a return to a smaller four-inch iPhone design that had seemingly been deserted when Apple debuted the bigger iPhone 6 in September 2014. That first iPhone SE was principally a souped-up doppelgänger for the 2013-era iPhone 5s, which was discontinued the exact same day its non secular successor arrived.
Regardless of what appeared like excessive hopes for a equally pocketable successor over the following few years, Apple as soon as once more modified issues up in early 2020 with a second-generation iPhone SE that repeated the historical past of its predecessor, taking a 2.5-year-old iPhone design — the iPhone 8 on this case — and rounding it out with the then-current A13 chip. Whereas that seemingly dashed the hope of a smaller iPhone, Apple adopted that up with the iPhone 12 mini later the identical yr — a tool with flagship specs that in the end didn’t impress, proving that the market had moved on and plus-sized telephones had turn into the brand new regular.
It additionally grew to become clear that the iPhone SE was about cheaper, not essentially smaller. Taking a longtime design and including a brand new processor allowed Apple to market a sub-$500 iPhone with cutting-edge efficiency.
Whereas two releases are hardly sufficient to outline a development, it did lead many to consider that Apple was organising a four-year cycle for its funds iPhone mannequin. That will have put 2024 because the yr for the following iPhone SE launch, which, if Apple adopted the identical playbook, would tackle the design of a late 2021 iPhone and add no matter course of can be most present.
Nonetheless, Apple threw us a curveball final yr with a third-generation iPhone SE. Clearly stemming from a need to deliver 5G capabilities to its total lineup, the 2022 iPhone SE added 5G assist (sans quicker mmWave capabilities) and the iPhone 13’s A15 Bionic chip however was in any other case unchanged — and visually indistinguishable from its predecessor.
Most thought of the 2022 iPhone SE a stopgap gadget launched or the only real goal of including 5G assist, and stories that Apple was nonetheless engaged on a so-called “iPhone SE 4” for a 2024 launch appeared to again that notion up.
Sadly, this was adopted by stories suggesting the brand new iPhone SE was a dud and Apple was slashing manufacturing. Nonetheless, when the mud settled, we found that the businesses truly making the iPhone SE had heard nothing about cutbacks.
Though gross sales of the 2022 iPhone SE have been weaker than these of its predecessor, it’s possible that got here as no shock to Apple. Including 5G and a brand new chip to a two-year-old iPhone isn’t all that thrilling, and whereas 5G is a promoting level for these taking a look at Apple’s flagship iPhone lineup, most people out there for a wallet-friendly iPhone couldn’t care much less.
In the meantime, if the stories are correct, the fourth-generation iPhone SE will probably be way more thrilling. Apple has been anticipated to undertake an OLED display on that mannequin for a while, and this report of OLED panel availability inflicting manufacturing delays seemingly confirms that.
Alongside the identical strains, the brand new iPhone SE ought to remove the house button as soon as and for all by transferring to an edge-to-edge display, and can very possible unify Apple’s iPhone design language throughout all fashions, transferring to a squared-edge design and a side-button Contact ID sensor similar to Apple has now accomplished with its total iPad lineup.
Because it’s very uncertain the iPhone SE will get a TrueDepth digital camera, it must also function a notchless design, with nothing greater than a gap punch for the front-facing digital camera — assuming it doesn’t tuck it into the bezel as an alternative.
Nonetheless, the true downside is that the iPhone SE has by no means appeared like a primary precedence for Apple. If it really plans to make use of the low-cost iPhone as a testbed for its new 5G modem, that might push issues ahead a bit quicker, making a 2025 launch possible, however it additionally wouldn’t be shocking to see it pushed again additional if the corporate must shift manufacturing and parts elsewhere.
[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]