Qualcomm is the biggest winner of Apple’s cancelation of the iPhone SE 4

A recent report from a renowned expert claims that Apple has postponed the release of the iPhone SE 4, its next affordable iPhone. The latter was supposed to launch in 2024, but it won't until much later. And here's why.

Since the iPhone SE 5G's launch at the beginning of 2022, which was rather underwhelming due to its lack of innovative features and some of its components coming from a previous generation, there have been numerous rumors suggesting an iPhone SE 4 as a possible replacement. One thing was certain: it would gain from an entirely new design with a notch, like high-end iPhones. Whether it was in plans for 2023 or 2024.

iPhone SE 4 (2024): the release of the affordable smartphone is canceled

The issue is that analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who frequently gets things right, claimed that Apple is considering alternatives for its upcoming budget smartphone. Due to historically poor sales of the iPhone 14 and iPhone SE in the current generation, there is every reason to expect that the Cupertino company would delay mass production of the smartphone. However, Apple would have ultimately made an even more dramatic decision.

The supply chain has received orders from Apple that the production and shipment plans for the 2024 iPhone SE 4 have been scrapped rather than postponed, according to Ming-Chi Kuo's analysis on Medium. Therefore, we would not get an iPhone SE 4 in 2024. And a replacement is not currently in plans for the years after that.

The effects of this cancellation may be strongly on Apple's upcoming high-end devices. Apple initially intended to introduce its home modem in 2024. And allow the entry-level iPhone SE 4 be the first to integrate it, claims Kuo. The latter would have been in plans to improve Apple's independence from Qualcomm, one of its primary suppliers. Apple worries that its chip's performance won't be able to match Qualcomm's best modems, though.

In order to prevent complaints about performance. The idea would have been to launch it on the more cheap iPhone SE. Apple may have used the smartphone after receiving it on its iPhone 16 in 2024. But the iPhone SE's cancellation may ultimately indicate that Apple will not give up on Qualcomm yet. The chip expert had been successful in enabling the iPhone 14 Pro to benefit from 5G speeds. Which are 38% faster than those of the previous generation.