Apple Leak Reveals iPhone SE Launch Date

Replace, Sunday Feb 9, 2025: This text has been up to date with particulars on Apple’s new 5G modem and potential pricing.

Apple’s eagerly awaited return to the ultra-competitive mid-range smartphone market with a brand new iPhone SE might occur within the subsequent week.

Writing for Bloomberg, famous Apple reporter Mark Gurman providing a schedule for the discharge of the iPhone SE; and it’s sooner than many anticipated: “The corporate expects to announce the machine as early as subsequent week, forward of it happening sale later within the month, based on folks with data of the matter.”

When Was The iPhone SE Anticipated To Launch?

The launch of the fourth iPhone SE has been pencilled in for Q1 2025 by the neighborhood for almost a yr, though current reporting has pointed to a late March launch, probably slipping into early April. This could occur near the discharge of iOS 18.4 and the ultimate steps within the first technology suite of AI instruments awkwardly backronymed to Apple Intelligence.

These plans look set to alter, a minimum of partially. Though Gurman stories a launch within the coming days, the precise launch of the iPhone SE is a extra nebulous “later within the month,” pushing deeper into Q1.

How A lot Will The iPhone SE Price?

Replace, Sunday Feb 9, 2025: Writing for Bloomberg’s Energy On e-newsletter, famous Apple reporter Mark Gurman doubts-own on his prediction of an iPhone SE launch “this week.” With Apple planning to launch the brand new smartphone by press launch, there’s nothing to cease that being delayed if circumstances warrant it.

Gurman additionally picks out options that Apple’s neighborhood will regard as new—eradicating a bodily residence button, including facial recognition via Face ID, and changing the Lightning port with a USB-C connector.

Maybe essentially the most shocking prediction, and one that may mark out the iPhone SE as an costly handset within the mid-range, is the recommended value. Gurman signifies a value of round $500. That means a transfer to 128 GB of storage for the entry-level mannequin. Even then, it is going to be $20 dearer than the earlier 128 GB model.

The Significance Of The iPhone SE Modem

Replace, Saturday Feb 8, 2025: One fascinating quirk of launching earlier is the suggestions Apple will get from the iPhone SE’s 5G modem. 9to5Mac stories that the SE will debut Apple’s in-house modem quite than the Qualcomm chipset that has served numerous iPhone fashions during the last decade. This might be Apple’s first modem following the acquisition of Intel’s smartphone modem division for $1 billion in July 2019.

Apple might be eager to deliver the modem stack beneath its full management quite than following Qualcomm’s roadmap and timescales. The iPhone SE would be the first public step on this course of. Little question, an extra step might be taken in Sept 2025, with a minimum of one of many new iPhone 17 fashions coming with an Apple modem.

The early launch of the iPhone SE in late February, in comparison with doubtlessly mid-April, which was beforehand mentioned, will give Apple consumer knowledge from the modem some six weeks earlier, which is able to give greater than sufficient time to contribute to the ultimate design of the iPhone 17 household.

Why Ought to The iPhone SE Launch Early?

There are some benefits for Tim Prepare dinner and his workforce if the choice is made to disclose the iPhone SE at this time limit.

First, launching a brand new iPhone will increase general gross sales. Whereas the iPhone 15 was the top-selling smartphone in world gross sales for 2024, Apple’s world share of the smartphone market fell within the final quarter of 2024, based on knowledge from Counterpoint Analysis. This quarter contains the overwhelming majority of gross sales of the present iPhone 16 household.

Then, there may be the aggressive nature of the mid-range market. Earlier than Apple can promote the iPhone SE it has to cease customers from shopping for a smartphone from one other producer. This yr’s Cell World Congress will happen on Monday, March 3, and a raft of recent smartphones might be introduced, lots of which is able to immediately compete with the iPhone SE.

Whereas the die-hards within the Apple neighborhood will look ahead to the SE, the typical shopper might not be as related to the discharge dates. Launching and releasing earlier than MWC will give the iPhone SE a clearer run to the market.

Lastly, Apple can take higher management of the story by launching early. Within the MWC run-up, many smartphones set to launch in Barcelona could have their specs, particulars and distinctive options leaked. Producers will hope this ties in with their advertising choices, however that might not be the case. The identical is true—maybe extra so— for any new iPhone launch.

What Challenges Will The iPhone SE Face?

It has been three years since Apple launched a mid-range smartphone, and the market has modified. Cameras have a number of lenses and improved optics, chipsets are sooner with extra efficiency, storage and reminiscence have grown nearer to flagship ranges, and generative AI has develop into an enormous promoting level within the final yr.

Apple’s AI efforts are competent at greatest, the principle digital camera is anticipated to supply only a single lens and the “iPhone value premium” might work in opposition to the {hardware} in such a aggressive house. Apple’s determination to get forward of the story and set its personal phrases stands out as the most vital good thing about an early announcement.

With all that mentioned, the iPhone SE might develop into one of many pivotal iPhones to return out of Cupertino in years.

Now learn extra in regards to the potential specs of the iPhone SE…