Since Apple releases a new version of its most affordable smartphone every two years, and since the iPhone SE was released in 2022, the next one was anticipated to come out in 2024. Today, a report from Ming-Chi Kuo, a well-respected analyst who covers all things Apple, gives us reason to believe that the SE experiment is finished.
According to Kuo, Apple has reportedly informed the partners in its supply chain that manufacturing and shipment plans for the 2024 iPhone SE have been scrapped entirely, rather than just postponed. Oddly enough, this choice has repercussions that reach Apple’s much-talked-about in-house baseband processor, which continues to be “just around the corner” in rumors despite the fact that it has securely held that position for years.
The baseband chip was initially planned to be used in the subsequent iPhone SE series. Apple intended to utilize that gadget as a kind of guinea pig so that if anything went wrong, it would at least happen on the most affordable smartphone it sells and not on one of the more profitable versions. If all had gone according to plan, the chip would have made its way into the iPhone 16 series sometime later in 2024.
However, now that Apple has decided not to produce the iPhone SE in 2024, there are still questions over whether or not the performance of Apple’s own baseband processor will be on par with what Qualcomm’s products are capable of achieving. And because of these worries, the likelihood of Qualcomm delivering baseband chips for the iPhone 16 generation has greatly increased. This is due to the fact that Qualcomm has been under scrutiny. This would be contrary to what has been referred to as the “market consensus” up to this point, which has been that Qualcomm will start losing iPhone orders in 2024.
In light of this new information, Qualcomm would continue to provide Apple with components until at least the year 2025. As a consequence of this, it is anticipated that it will continue to dominate the worldwide high-end mobile baseband chip market both this year and next, leading to significantly larger profit margins than its (very few) competitors.
