If Apple goes ahead with the iPhone SE 4, we are likely to get yet another iPhone with Face ID and a big screen. And not everyone wants that.
Apple repurposed the iPhone 8 design with the iPhone SE 2 and iPhone SE 3 — and both of them did quite well. But folks have been itching for something new. According to previous reports this year, Apple was looking to redesign the next iPhone SE, with a launch set for 2023.
For the unaware, the “redesign” in question was supposed to be based on the iPhone XR‘s design. But it looks like the company has shelved its plans to launch the iPhone SE 4 next year. According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple is expected to cancel or at least postpone the iPhone SE 4 until 2024.
As per Kuo’s latest tweets, Apple is reevaluating its strategy and pricing because it was planning to bring the iPhone XR’s full-screen design to the next-gen iPhone SE. It would have resulted in a higher cost of production since the new design would have dropped Touch ID in favor of Face ID. The latter is more expensive to make as there are more sensors involved in executing the facial scans to unlock the smartphone.
The analyst says that scaling back and postponing the iPhone SE 4 will help Apple reduce unnecessary new product development expenses. The next-gen iPhone SE was also supposed to be launched sometime around March or April 2023, which is expected to be a year of global economic recession. The postponement of the iPhone SE 4 is said to be aimed at helping Apple navigate “the challenges of the global economic recession in 2023.
