Apple Moving Forward With Production of iPhone SE 2 With Release For Spring 2020

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NEWS: 11.04.19- In what feels like an eternity compared to the annual upgrade cycle of the flagship iPhone lineup, the successor to the iPhone SE may finally see the light of day four years after its original inception with the iPhone SE 2 if a new rumor circling around the Apple news circuit bears any weight and is an accurate prediction of the Cupertino, California-based tech company’s plans for a follow up to its surprise hit 4-inch smartphone.

The smaller handset among the larger offerings from Apple in recent years — which began with the iPhone 6 in 2014 especially with the Plus model — the latter classified as a phablet (a combination of the words phone and tablet) saw a backwards trend with the release of the iPhone SE. Owners of the previous generation iPhone 5 and 5S who had been holding out for such a device that personally preferred the 4-inch form factor of yesteryear quickly scooped up the smartphone as soon as it came out as well as those on a budget as one of its selling points was exactly that: a low cost version that was substantially cheaper than its bigger counterparts. However, the expected updates to the iPhone SE in the year that followed which never surfaced and then its official discontinuation last year appeared to nip it in the bud (so to speak).

The iPhone SE seen here in its four available colors of gold, silver, rose gold, and space gray. (Photo: Courtesy of Apple)

Last Monday, it was revealed by MacRumors — an Apple news and rumor website — that the iPhone SE 2 is scheduled to go into mass production in January 2020 and will launch at the end of March according to the latest information from reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

The renowned analyst currently works for TF International Securities ( a financial services group in the Asia Pacific region), and is an individual who is very popular within the Apple news and rumor circuit for his annual forecast based on intelligence gathered from his contacts inside the tech giant’s Asian supply chain.

MacRumors reported that the timing basically tallies with Kuo’s previous reports on the so called iPhone SE 2 in which he predicted a Q1 2020 Release for the device. On the timing of the production and release dates of the iPhone SE 2, it was also pointed out by MacRumors that relying on historical patterns in Apple’s product release schedule to predict future launches is not without risk but March traditionally has been the launch month of Apple’s more affordable iPhone.

Technical specifications predicted for the iPhone SE 2 are as follows:

  • starts at $399
  • features a Home button
  • no 3D Touch functionality
  • 4.7-inch display
  • A13 processor (currently in the iPhone 11)
  • 3GB RAM
  • 64GB and 128GB storage capacities
  • available in space gray, silver, and “(PRODUCT) RED™”

Other features predicted by Kuo for the iPhone SE 2 is that the device is expected to look like the iPhone 8 released in 2017 and will stick with Touch ID — as opposed to Face ID — along with a single lens rear camera. The new smartphone is also expected to use a liquid crystal polymer (LCP) antenna design in order to facilitate transmission efficiency.

After all of this news, however, there are a couple of caveats as reported by MacRumors. First is in regard to the device’s name which has been speculated to be called possibly the iPhone 8S or iPhone 9. Second is the, biggest, factor in that the larger 4.7-inch display will mean that the new smartphone will not be as portable as the original iPhone SE (which, as the Apple news and rumor website suggested, will disappoint fans of that model).

Back in February, the Apple news and rumor website outlined the new products that, at the time of publication, possibly were to come from Apple this year which were derived from an internal research note published by Kuo himself. On its own site, MacRumors wrote in a biography about the analyst that Kuo is well regarded among the community due to a very good track record at predicting Apple products.

Despite not having any information about the timeframe of release dates, that track record is evident with the predictions correctly made by Kuo of many of the products Apple released earlier this year — albeit a few misses on specific details in regard to the specifications — most recently foreseeing the unveiling of three iPhone models with the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max, the seventh generation iPad, and the Apple Watch Series 5, all of which were showcased at the September media event at Apple Park in Cupertino, California.

Prior to this newest revelation of the iPhone SE 2 going into production, in what since has appeared to be an erroneous report by a blogger from India, Nitin Agrawal, publisher of the blog PC Tablet, reported back in April that an iPHone XE was in the making for Q3 2019 and wrote that their source which was closely associated with Foxconn’s manufacturing facility in India had confirmed the iPhone SE 2 was actually iPhone XE.

Though unconfirmed and not proven to be a fact, it could be speculated that the information acquired by Agrawal may well could have been in reference to the iPhone 11 based on the discovery made by the team at iFixIt — a San Luis Obispo, California-based company which provides do-it-yourself repair guides, manuals, and tool kits for sale for self fixes — after an exclusive teardown of the device revealed that the newest smartphone from Apple shared its internal DNA with last year’s iPhone XR. This would be in similar fashion to the marketing of the iPhone SE, using the previous generation model with improved specs and being the budget friendly offering in the company’s trio of models offered.

Announced in March 2016, Apple dubbed the iPhone SE “the most powerful 4-inch phone ever.” The compact device packed the internal components of the then year old iPhone 6S from 2015 and in a feat of innovation, scaled it down to fit into the smaller form factor of the then three year old design of the iPhone 5S from 2013 (which was itself the same enclosure, sans Touch ID, as the iPhone 5 from the year prior in 2012). The iPhone SE initially did not do well during its release) but was a surprise hit for Apple during sales of the device in the latter half of 2016.

The iPhone SE would receive a minor refresh the following year after its release when in March 2017, Apple bumped up the storage capacities of the device, doubling it from 16 and 64GB to 32 and 128GB respectively.

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