There will be no more cheap iPhones: Apple may abandon extremely popular iPhone SE series

Apple may completely abandon the cheapest iPhone SE series of its smartphones, or delay the release of a new generation of SE series phones for a very long time. According to MacRumors, this prediction was made by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who is almost never wrong in his predictions about Apple.

We'll have to say goodbye to the iPhone SE

The analyst (it was he who predicted the release of the second-generation iPhone SE six months before its debut) pointed out two main reasons for this scenario: first, buyers have almost zero interest in the iPhone SE 2022, because it has no innovation, although the original iPhone SE was very popular. The second reason is the poor sales of the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus.

The iPhone SE has traditionally been Apple's cheapest line of smartphones. As of December, the company has released three versions of it in 2022: the 2016 first version, which became very popular, the second, more modern, was released by the company in 2020 and the last in 2022.

iPhone SE 2022: 2017 by design

In the U.S., the latest iPhone SE 2022 with 64 GB of internal memory costs just $429. For comparison, note that the iPhone 14 with the same memory is almost twice as expensive: $799. Even the iPhone 12 older than two years is sold by Apple for $599.

What's wrong with the iPhone SE?

From the beginning, the idea behind the iPhone SE was that Apple intended to create a compact but well-functioning device for those who love and appreciate small, classic phones by today's standards. The company succeeded in achieving this. The first iPhone SE with a 4-inch screen enjoyed great interest among users and is still very actively sold on the secondary market in many countries around the world, despite the fact that it is almost seven years old.

The second generation iPhone SE, also known as the iPhone SE 2020, was no longer in high demand because it no longer had the "magic" of a compact device; the screen diagonal was increased to 4.7 inches. While the first iPhone SE was essentially an iPhone 5s with iPhone 6s features, the iPhone SE is just a slightly larger iPhone 8 with iPhone 11 features.

Apple has tried three times to sell a smartphone with the same design: the iPhone 8, SE 2020 and SE 2022. Pictured here is the 2020 iPhone SE.

The third-generation iPhone SE, released in 2022, didn't make the vast majority of users want to buy it, but it made them wonder why the phone was released in the first place. It turned out to be a redesigned iPhone 8, which had recently turned five years old and whose design was long outdated. Perhaps Apple at the time was trying to appeal to fans of older phones with a home button on the front, which, however, didn't work.

It's not just the phone that's the problem

Ming-Chi Kuo believes that the delay or even possible complete cancellation of the fourth-generation iPhone SE is not only due to the poor sales of the third generation of this model. In his opinion, the overall reason for the 2022 iPhone's performance is relatively poor.

NEWS.am Tech previously wrote that the base iPhone 14 failed completely in sales because it's not a new phone. Apple took last year's iPhone 13, only slightly changed its functionality, keeping the old design, and is trying to sell it as a new phone. However, users soon figured it out, and iPhone 13 owners just didn't see the point in replacing their phone with the new iPhone 14.

iPhone SE 2016 - an iconic smartphone

The situation is the same with the iPhone 14 Plus, whose only difference is a bigger screen compared to the iPhone 13, which was not enough for potential buyers. As a result, it also sold very poorly, so poorly that Apple had to hastily reduce production volumes.

So, only the Pro and Pro Max versions of the new iPhone 14 series are selling, although not everyone is willing to buy them because of the high price (Pro costs $999, Pro Max - $1099).

Optimization of the lineup

Thus, the possible "death" of the iPhone SE series may be due to two factors: first, the lack of innovation in the model and the unique features of the device, which could attract the buyer. Previously, it was thought that the iPhone SE 4 will get an OLED screen instead of IPS, but, first, OLED has many opponents, as well as IPS has many supporters, and secondly, Apple's OLED screen will not surprise anyone, they are very common.

The second factor is Apple's tough attitude to poorly sold devices. For example, the company left the failing iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 13 mini in the past. When they were released, Apple hoped that people would be attracted by their small 5.4-inch screen, but this did not happen, in part because the batteries of both smartphones were weak and the phones could run very short on a single charge.

Apparently, the iPhone SE series could suffer the same fate, since Apple is unlikely to sacrifice the basic iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus for it.