Last month Apple launched the iPhone 11 , 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max. They’re great phones but, starting at between $699 and $1,099, one thing they ain’t is cheap.
However, according to noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of TF Securities, Apple will soon be releasing a more affordable option in the iPhone SE 2. Kuo previously predicted the SE 2 would come in early 2020, and now expects it to launch for $399.
That would make sense, since the original iPhone SE launched in 2016 for $399 (£359, AU$679). That phone was essentially an iPhone 5S with some updated specs. Kuo sees something similar for the iPhone SE 2, predicting it to look like 2017’s iPhone 8 but with improved internal parts. The iPhone 8 currently sells for $449.
Kuo is an Apple analyst with spectacular pedigree. Last year, for instance, he correctly predicted that Apple would release a 6.1-inch iPhone with an LCD display (which would become the iPhone XR ) after simultaneously launching two OLED-based iPhones (iPhone XS, XS Max ).
Outside the $399 starting price, Kuo’s latest report, shared by 9to5Mac, says the iPhone SE2 will come with an A13 processor — the same one that’s in the iPhone 11, 11 Pro and Pro Max — 3GB RAM and come in space gray, red and silver.
We compare the cameras on the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone XS
This would be Apple’s third attempt to produce an entry-level iPhone. In 2013, it released the iPhone 5C , or the iPhone 5 in new plastic casing, as a cheaper alternative to the flagship iPhone 5S.
Then there was the aforementioned iPhone SE. With less people willing to splurge four digits on a new phone, and the importance of huge, price-sensitive countries like China and India, more affordable phones are arguably more important now than ever.
The phone is also devised as a more affordable way for iPhone 6 owners to jump onto iOS 13 — since only the iPhone 6S and up supports Apple’s new operating system.
