Apple’s iPhone SE 2024 isn’t happening. According to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the company has informed its suppliers that it has planned to cancel the next-gen iPhone SE which was said to debut in 2024.
Kuo, in his previous reports, said that iPhone SE 4 may be cancelled or postponed but he now believes that Apple has killed the iPhone SE 2024. This brings us to the million-dollar question of what will happen to Apple’s long rumoured in-house 5G chips. The analyst believes that this could be due to lower than expected shipments of mid-to-low-end iPhones like SE 3, 13 mini, and 14 Plus.
Apple was said to test its in-house 5G chip with the low-budget iPhone SE 2024 and then based “on the development status of iPhone SE 4” use it for the premium iPhone 16 later in 2024. Apple planned to experiment its 5G chip with a cheaper model first and then based on the responses it receives use it for the premium models.
This could change things for Qualcomm, which as per the market consensus’ predictions, will start losing iPhone order in 2024. Kuo now believes that Apple may continue using Qualcomm 5G chips for its iPhones coming in 2024.
“Due to concerns that the performance of the in-house baseband chip may not be up to par with Qualcomm’s, Apple initially planned to launch its baseband chip in 2024 and let the low-end iPhone SE 4 adopt it first, and decide whether to let the iPhone 16 use its baseband chip depending on the development status of iPhone SE 4,” Kuo said via post on Medium.
The cancellation of iPhone SE 2024 has improved the prospects of Qualcomm to continue supplying its baseband chips for the 2024 iPhone 16 series.
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