“I’m a big fan of the iPhone SE,” Bill Maurer writes for Seeking Alpha. “For my needs, it was a perfect blend of features and price, and I don’t really like large screen phablets that can be pain to carry around.”
“For Apple, I’ve discussed how there still is a decent following from the small screen crowd, and how I was hoping the company would continue to keep a phone like the SE in its lineup moving forward. Last week, there was a report that suggested we will see this new phone during the first half of 2018,” Maurer writes. “Apple originally released the iPhone SE in the spring of 2016. This year, the only change was upping the storage versions. As a result, many of its key internals will be two years old by spring 2018, which is a lifetime for smartphones and their technology… The report about a new SE for next year says that the device could be priced around $450. That would be an increase from the $399 price that the SE originally had, but you are getting much better technology. Additionally, this new model could start with 64GB of storage, up from previous models, and with the huge increase in DRAM prices recently, a $450 starting price still comes in well below the iPhone 8.”
“I would almost guarantee that a new SE will not have Face ID, and I would be highly surprised if it had the dual-camera setup of the recent Plus models and X. Where you would see the major differences over the original SE would be is the likely A11 Bionic chip, a better primary and secondary camera, Bluetooth 5.0, etc.,” Maurer writes. “The potential decision by Apple to bring back an updated iPhone SE is a win for both consumers and investors.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yup.
We imagine the iPhone SE would offer Apple’s A10 Fusion chip, rather than the A11 Bionic, and keep the Home button with Touch ID while potentially providing camera improvements (although the SE’s cameras are already very good). We might also see capacity bumps up from the current 32GB and 128GB choices.
We wonder if Apple would go so far as to redesign the case to follow more in the vein of the iPhone 6/7/8 look? — MacDailyNews, November 22, 2017
SEE ALSO:
Apple readying next-gen iPhone SE2 – November 27, 2017
Apple said to release low cost iPhone SE 2 in first half of 2018 – November 22, 2017
They could name it the iPhone SEs.
… the iPhone SEx? 😜
Knowing Apple, it will be iPhone X SE, just to be a little seductive but not in your face.
I would buy this product only if the notch was absent. I prefer to live without Face ID if Apple can’t design Face ID sans notch.
You ought to change your name to Kolnotche, because you are fixated on that little area.
A minimum of 43% of people agree with me. That’s a lot of people who won’t be handing over their cash. Do you actually think Apple is happy that a minimum of 43% of people refuse to purchase iPhone eXperimental?
Yeah, MDN comment-ratings are a thorough product market analysis. Good point.
MDN ratings are statistically unreliable and biased.
Yes, indeed.
Media professionals use the term “unscientific analysis” and discount the results.
Exception: When it comes to MSM polling favoring Democrats …
43% of what? That number of previous iPhone buyers won’t buy it? Probably the same imaginary 43% who won’t buy it due to the fact they can’t afford it but don’t wish to admit it even to themselves perhaps. Of course the only other present choice is a phone that has a notch top and bottom that just happens to be the width of the phone. That will however appeal to their visual sensibilities no doubt if nothing else.
I guess you mustn’t know this… there are MANY other types of phones available from various companies. Just check with your mobile provider. I’m sure you can find something you like.
Why do I get a sneaking suspicion you will change your tune if millions of people actually take your advice.
Of course we would change our tune if millions of people actually take his advice. Oh wait! They won’t.
Of course millions of people would prefer if there were no notch without the awful compromises that would result. But they are still buying the phone because they know it is a compromise well worth the benefits.
Your proposition is silly, incessantcynic.
No need to propose some theoretical migration of millions… I am proposing to about three incessant whiners that they go and find products they are happy with. Very simple.
No sir. Your smugness says, aloofly, “go somewhere else”, and I say what if people, just as aloofly did? Would you remain so aloof?
You must know that the only reason for the notch is the FaceID gear. Apple’s lowest cost, smallest screen iPhone is NOT going to have FaceID, so you can dial down the notch anxiety a tad.
A wee bit
A smidgen
A micro notch
I would like to think that Apple had the ingenuity to develop the technology of Face ID without the notch. Then again, maybe you are correct that Apple doesn’t have the ingenuity.
I think that Apple would like to do so, but the technology doesn’t yet exist to provide the performance required without putting the sensors somewhere on the display plane. Apple are always working on ways to improve things and I have no doubt that eliminating the notch is quite a high priority.
If Apple would like to keep Face ID without the notch but can’t then this is a significant indicator of Apple’s lack of capacity or ability to innovate. Or, it could mean that Apple considers the notch less important than Face ID – an aesthetic flaw superseded by a technological function.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. iPhone X is an ugly woman who can sing well. Unfortunately, I have to gaze upon this hag just to listen to her.
This just shows how little you know about the technologies involved.
Having the required sensors look *through* the display is just not practical with OLED and likely not possible with other, up coming display technologies. Having the required sensors embedded as an integral part of the display requires redesigning the entire display implementation. That can be done, but just look how long it took before an OLED display was just good enough for Apple. (OLED displays of one kind or another have been around for several years.) Even now Apple has to develop its own display control algorithms to make it acceptable. (Just look at Samsung’s OLED phones versus Apple’s iPhone X and see the difference. Both displays are made in the same plant. Apple takes the displays and does a better job at making a phone out of them.)
We may see sensor-display integrations in a few years. I’m guessing 3-5. But, I don’t expect the notch going away in 2018 and likely not in 2019.
I can wait.
And in the meantime you will be missing out on the best phone on the planet. Keep waiting. I’m sure that you are currently enjoying a much less desirable experience.
“Keep waiting. I’m sure that you are currently enjoying a much less desirable experience.”
Put me down on the waiting list, also.
What less desirable experience am I missing? Oh yeah, the cool kid hype this is the most neato iPhone ever made and see how hip and fashionable I am in the VIP crowd.
Animated emojis? Kid stuff. VR? More kid stuff. FaceTime? My fingerprint sensor on the SE works just fine. Edge to edge display with the intrusive notch? Years late to the party and not a clean screen like you find on Samsung originals debuted years ago. Superior camera?s How much better can it be when over 95% of buyers only post to Fakebook, et al. and are not photography professionals. Better innard specs? Yes, but invisible under the hood specs nerds mostly care about and the overwhelming number of consumers could not be bothered.
You don’t miss what you don’t have. Or in this particular case, what you CHOOSE not to have …
“Having the required sensors embedded as an integral part of the display requires redesigning the entire display implementation. That can be done, but …”
NO BUTS. Glad you agree it can easily be done through the redesign process. Something team Apple does with every product release since the beginning. Just another day at the office for Jony.
What I don’t understand is why you continue to say the hideous “notch” will not go away for 3+ years, then hem and haw whether or not it can be done. You have inside information you care to share?
I suspect it is simply mere speculation and opinion …
Agree with your analogy.
I suspect the “notch” was purposeful design to stand out, call attention to itself and shout above the crowd of other TRUE edge to edge screens out there.
Clearly a prima donna design move because elegance in the best designed products are always transparent, not showy and ostentatious.
The “notch” gets attention alright, getting in the way of premium content and something a sane person cannot ignore … Ugh.
Fingers crossed it will be long gone hopefully next year …
But this is digital, so we very much expect that after two (2) years, the technology will be better, even at the same price point.
To contemplate a +30% price increase on Apple’s supposedly “low cost” product is simply more corporate hubris.
“Courage!” /S
You are welcome to your opinion. But the price of an iPhone involves a lot more than “technology.” Components, assembly, shipping…there are many components to the cost of an iPhone.
And a $51 increase from $399 is essentially a 25% increase (1/4), not +30%. Math is a valuable skill.
That’s funny! The joke is on you! 51/399 is 12.78%. You are both wrong. Accurate math is a valuable skill!
But it’s 2017, and exaggeration skills trump (no hidden agenda intended) the logic of math skills in news and social media these days.
That’s funny. I used three different percentage change calculators online and they all came up the same figure: +28.93%.
And you three So, that’s four different figures? …
Then you are inputting the data wrong or the online percentage calculators are in error themselves.
The arithmetic is straightforward. (I won’t call it math. It’s simple arithmetic you should have learned in 3rd or 4th grade–as long division is sometimes not taught until 4th grade.)
To get a percentage increase you take the new value and divide it by the old value, subtract the number 1 from this intermediate answer, then convert to percentage. That final answer is the percentage increase.
Thus…
450/399 = 1.12781954887 (approximately)
1.12781954887 – 1 = 0.12781954887
Converting to percentage: 12.781954887% (approximately)
The percentage increase is 12.781954887% (approximately) — assuming no typographical errors.
This is nowhere near 29.93% and even further from 30%. You should have paid more attention in class back in 3rd or 4th grade.
Did I say I did not know 3rd grade math? Did the nuns show you my report card?
Once again, you continue to assume too much, swallowed the bait hook, line and sinker resulting in faulty interpretation.
I simply pointed out online calculator results and four different figures, hello?
Well known they are faulty at times. BTW, I knew the correct answer all along. It was simply delightful watching it all play out.
I hope the pie on your face is your favorite flavor … 😋
I’m with you: 399 x 112.78 = $450 (within a fraction of a penny). A 12.78% price hike is not something to be shocked about.
> And a $51 increase from $399 is essentially a 25% increase (1/4), not +30%.
Incorrect, because the SE has been out for ~2 years and its original price is no longer germane: its manufacturing scale/etc … resulted in Apple revising its price to where it current stands, which is $349.
Note that this price reduction is a –> direct illustration <– of my first point of "IT stuff gets cheaper" that you tried to take wave off.
———–
Thus, working from Apple's *current* price for the SE, the report's "around $450" price estimate is $450 vs $349.
Doing the math: $450/$349 = 1.29, which is +29%.
Oh, so you want to bitch about the rounding?
Sure: since the $450 report was an "around" and not definitive, to summarize this as exactly +29% would invoke false precision. As such, the value needs to be rounded off again, and practices here are generally to the nearest 5% … so +29% becomes +30%.
So now we conclusively put ourselves into the eyes of a perspective buyer today, where the fact that the current SE is $50 cheaper today than it was two years ago is simply not germane: their see that their prospects are merely the current price ($349) versus a potential new product which is currently estimated to cost ~$450 … which for them represents around a +30% price increase.
One of my closest friends lost his sight about twenty years ago and is concerned about the prospect of all iPhones adopting Face ID because he cannot look at his iPhone ( he knows about the option for not requiring attention, but that reduces the security ). For him, the iPhone SE is excellent and an enhanced SE which retains Touch ID would be wonderful. Obviously he has no need for a larger screen, so the portability and accessibility of the iPhone SE is absolutely perfect for his needs, all the more so now that he also uses an Apple Watch.
Keep the ON/OFF switch at the top, please!