Apple’s decision has been made and quite a few customers will not like it at all. A popular iPhone model will no longer be available in the future. The rumored successor next year has been canceled – an iPhone SE 4 is no longer coming.
Apple insider Ming-Chi Kuo takes away all our hopes for a new fourth-generation iPhone SE. The successor of the currently cheapest iPhone was already on the brink in December, and now Apple is said to have actually decided against the iPhone SE 4 in the end – it is no longer expected in 2024 and beyond (source: Ming-Chi Kuo).
Apple cancels iPhone SE 4
Originally, according to Kuo, Apple planned to introduce its first in-house 5G chip in the iPhone SE 4 – a test run before rolling out the 5G modem to Apple’s entire iPhone 16 model line. This strategy was meant to ensure that performance would be acceptable. But that will no longer happen; Apple’s first in-house 5G chip is probably still not ready, or does not offer acceptable quality. That’s why Apple also cancels the entire iPhone SE 4 project in connection with it.
This also means that Qualcomm will still supply the 5G chips for the iPhone 16 in fall 2024 and thus remain Apple’s exclusive mobile chip supplier for the time being.
Previously, concerns were raised at the end of 2022 that Apple might decide against the iPhone SE 4 due to lower market opportunities. For Apple, the model would no longer have been worthwhile, if only because of the higher development costs. As a reminder, Apple would have focused on a new design with the iPhone SE 4. The new model was supposed to be based on the shape of the iPhone XR. However, it was still uncertain whether Apple would have used Touch ID instead of Face ID despite the full-size format and whether the display would have used OLED or LCD technology. However, these speculations are now obsolete since there will most likely be no iPhone SE 4 at all.
