All signs suggest the iPhone SE 3 will land soon, with the likely date being March 8, when Apple is holding its first event of the year, and now a new iPhone SE 3 leak again points to a March announcement, as well as including some additional details.
The source of this latest leak is Ming-Chi Kuo, a respected analyst who is very often right about Apple information. In a tweet, he claimed that the iPhone SE 3 will enter mass production in March – which would work for a March announcement, though could also suggest it might not hit stores until April.
There are seemingly a lot of units to produce too, with Kuo claiming that Apple plans to ship around 25 to 30 million iPhone SE 3 units this year alone. That suggests Apple expects this to be even more popular than the iPhone SE (2020), which shipped 24.2 million units in the year of its launch according to Omdia (via WCCFTech).
Some predictions for the coming new iPhone SE:1. Mass production in Mar’22.2. Estimated shipments of 25-30 mn units in 2022.3. Storage: 64/128/256GB.4. A15 & 5G support (mmW & Sub-6 GHz).5. Casing: white, black, and red.6. Similar form factor design to current SE.March 4, 2022
So why the increased popularity? Well, the main changes in this model look to be the addition of 5G and a fast new A15 Bionic chipset (which you’ll also find in the iPhone 13 range).
Those are both big upgrades, and both ones that we’ve heard about before, but it’s likely that 5G could be the real sales driver, as this would probably be by far the cheapest iPhone with 5G.
Incidentally, Kuo states that the iPhone SE 3 will support both mmWave and Sub-6Ghz 5G, meaning that it will be able to connect to more 5G networks and bands than if it only supported one or the other – though whether everywhere in the world will get a version with support for both is unclear.
Finally, Kuo suggests that little else will be changing, with the SE 3 having the same design as the current model, and coming in the same storage capacities (64GB, 128GB and 256GB). Even the colors might be the same, with the phone apparently coming in white, black and red shades.
Analysis: a big seller, but likely not Apple’s biggest of the year
As big a seller as the iPhone SE 3 might be, it’s likely to be dwarfed by at least one other iPhone based on past form.
In the year that Apple shipped 24.2 million iPhone SE (2020) units for example, it also shipped 64.8 iPhone 11 units. Now, that phone had the advantage of being on sale for the whole year, rather than launching during it, but on the flip side many people who wanted it would have bought it the previous year when it launched.
Despite that, it shipped well over twice as many units as the iPhone SE (2020), so we’d expect it will be a similar story with one or more of the iPhone 13 models.
The iPhone 14 range may prove more popular still, given rumors of a redesign for the Pro models, but with them probably not landing until September, they’re unlikely to outsell Apple’s budget phone this year.
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