Apple could stop there with its iPhone SE range, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes.
There are predictions that we would prefer to place on the side of fabrications. Unfortunately, the analyst’s reputation precedes it, so there may well be no successor to take the place of the iPhone SE released in 2022.
Apple disappointed with iPhone SE sales
Presumably due in 2024, the fourth-generation iPhone SE may never see the game, Ming-Chi Kuo believes in a series of tweets. Very well informed, the analyst believes that Apple could, at best, postpone the production of the smartphone and, at worst, cancel its release.
According to him, the reasons would not be difficult to find. Apple would indeed be disappointed by the sales of its most affordable devices. This concerns in particular the iPhone SE (the latest model is marketed from €599), but also the iPhone 13 mini and iPhone 14 Plus which would all have missed the two sales targets.
Conversely, the most high-end iPhones (and therefore the most expensive) will be the only ones to keep their heads above water in a market that has plummeted this year.
The iPhone SE 4 would have cost more
Among the other reasons given by Kuo, the production costs of the iPhone SE 4 would have been higher than those of the current model. Indeed, it was expected that this future model would borrow its design from the iPhone Xr to the detriment of the iPhone 8. A larger smartphone, which also embeds the technologies purchased from Face ID for unlocking the smartphone… so many elements that would therefore have pulled the prices up and reduced the gap that separates this “affordable” iPhone from the other models in the Apple catalog.
So what alternative is there for those who wish to afford an Apple smartphone at a lower cost? In recent years, the brand has got into the habit of leaving in its annual catalog at least one model from the previous year. We still find the iPhone 13 and even the iPhone 12 on the manufacturer’s official website, even though the 14th generation has been released.
There is also the possibility of buying a refurbished iPhone. Especially since the private copying levy which had (unfairly) been applied to this type of product is no longer in force.