While Apple is still a few days away from launching the iPhone 11 models, a new report has claimed that the iPhone SE 2 – a successor to Apple’s budget iPhone SE, will launch in early 2020. With the iPhone SE 2, Apple aims to strongly establish itself in the mid-range segment, currently dominated by Samsung, Oppo, OnePlus and Google.
The iPhone SE 2 is expected to come with a cheaper LCD display (to save costs), instead of OLED like Apple’s flagship line-up. However, it will come with some of the same components as the high-end models – likely the chipset and (some of) the cameras. This means the iPhone SE 2 might come with an A13 processor, which is also coming in the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11R that are expected to be launch on September 10. The iPhone SE 2 is expected to come with a larger screen size than the 4-inch screen in the iPhone SE, sources told the Nikkei Asian Review.
While Apple doesn’t pack much RAM in its devices, as for Apple it has always been its processor that sets the benchmark for performance as well as the threshold for iOS updates. However, it would be nice to see if the iPhone SE 2 also gets a higher RAM. With every major iOS release, Apple also updates the minimum processor required for the upgrade. For instance, the upcoming iOS 13 can only run on the iPhone 6S and iPhone SE or newer. Thus, launching the iPhone SE 2 would make a lot of sense for Apple – especially if it doesn’t want to lose on the low-cost Apple iPhone buyers.
The iPhone's sales were down 17 per cent year-over-year in the second quarter of 2019, Apple announced in its earnings report. Analysts earlier reported that the sky-high prices of the iPhones are the main reason for the falling sales. Recently, Apple reduced the prices of the XS and XR models in a few regions and also announced trade-in programs, to entice consumers to upgrade.
The cheap iPhone SE 2 could boost iPhone sales in the first half of 2020 if the new iPhone models failed to entice consumers in the coming months.