Apple’s forthcoming budget iPhone SE 2 (sometimes referred to as the “iPhone 9“) is rumored to deliver this March the physical size of iPhone 8, including a 4.7-inch display, Home button with Touch ID instead of the more expensive notch-bearing TrueDepth Camera system and Face ID, and Apple’s latest A13 Bionic six-core system-on-a-chip. So, just how much will Apple’s budget iPhone cost?
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes for ZDNet:
Apple’s current lineup spans from the stratospherically priced iPhone 11 Pro Max, which starts at a no-nonsense $1,099, to the iPhone 8 at the other end, which, at $449, is hardly cheap, doubly so when you think that this handset was first released in September 2017.
With no Face ID, which apart from the OLED display is the priciest part of modern iPhones, Apple has a fair bit of leeway with pricing here, especially if it were willing to dip into its bountiful profit margin.
That said, Apple is unlikely to take the pricing too low as this might have the effect of cannibalizing sales of more expensive iPhones. So how low would Apple go? The iPhone SE original had a price tag starting at $399, and I’d be willing to bet a crisp $10 that this is the price point at which the updated handset will land.
MacDailyNews Take: Yup. At a $399 starting price, this budget iPhone will fly off the shelves. Hopefully, Apple assemblers can ramp up and make enough of them for launch and beyond!
I’ll pay $1,000 but it needs to be SE size
Size matters !!
Pay attention Apple or my SE will be the last iPhone I buy
No! $600 max for 64 GB minimum.
Amen, brother! I have been posting exactly the same for months. Size matters and if larger than the current SE — TOO BIG!… 😡
I agree. I’m not giving up on our iPhone SE until Apple releases a phone that is very close to the same form factor with the following updates: It needs as close as possible to an edge to edge display with face ID and a great camera system. A notch and high quality LED display is fine. Use the rest of the cavernous interior of this form factor to include a current, high-end processor, and as much battery capacity as possible. Apple needs to realize that most people who prefer this form factor don’t want an entry level phone; they want a state of the art, top quality smaller phone. If Apple also wants to make a cheap, entry level phone for emerging third-world markets, that’s fine. Apple seems to be making the same mistake that the U.S. car makers made back in the 1960’s and ’70’s. The public, for the most part, didn’t want a cheap POS small car (Pinto, Vega, Gremlin. . .) They wanted a fine quality sensibly priced small car that was serviceable, reliable, and would last a couple of hundred thousand miles. That is why Toyota, Honda, VW, BMW, and a host of others picked up a good chunk of the U.S market share. I’m not sure the American car makers ever learned their lesson on that one.
Help me out here. What phone would you buy to replace your current SE? Is there an Android equivalent?
I’ll take two please.
I bid $US 449 at the most. Because that is the current retail cost of the iPhone 8.
MDN is just fishing for clicks whenever they keep regurgitating the articles demanding a new small phone. You do know that Apple is just going to reuse old tooling from iPhone 6,7,8, models, right? Tim feels zero incentive to invest tons of money into a new smaller chassis size. Past behavior shows that the Apple beancounters believe that won’t make any money. Besides, to pack all the stuff they need to behind a 4″ screen results in a thick candy bar, something Apple has tried to avoid doing on every model since the 5C sales dud. Anyone who wants a chunky phone, Apple has insanely overpriced aftermarket cases to sell you. Apple has made it very clear they don’t care about making small phone models. Timmy is confident that the monopoly walled garden is powerful enough to make all the iPhone 4/5/5E lovers stick with iOS no matter what size iPhone he delivers next. No physical design choices, good or bad, would ever make the religious faithful leave the sheep pen.
What Apple does need, however, is a cheap phone to sell in emerging markets. Since 4/5/5E models are all antiquated and incompatible with the latest network tech, Apple doesn’t even sell any <4″ screen model anymore as far as I know. The 4.7″ screen iPhones are the smallest you can find. You know very well that since Apple has already amortized the costs of iPhone 8 production, Apple will simply morph the old iPhone 8 model into a last cheap “Special Edition” with a new color or two for marketing purposes and call it a day. And you will buy it, because Apple doesn’t care that you liked a 4″ screen device. Mac lovers who wanted a modest cost mid-range tower computer with user-customization and repairability have been given the middle finger since 2012. Welcome to Tim Cook’s Apple.