The iPhone SE is obsolete, and so is the last hope for a ‘normal’ iPhone

In “Wow, I feel old” news last week, Apple officially moved the original iPhone SE from the vintage list to the obsolete list. This is not just a nominal change; While vintage products can still access a limited range of repair services, obsolete products are left out completely. At the age of nine (and regulation seven years after it was withdrawn from sale), the SE was declared a suspended antique.

As I mentioned in our report, this is a delicate moment for those who are still using the SE 2016 and who probably won’t be able to do so for long; official replacement parts will no longer be available, and unofficial parts can be a bit of a lottery. Maybe it’s time to consider an upgrade. And the good news is that after nine years of technological development, however slow, whatever you buy next will look like a Rolls-Royce.

Still, the original SE was a good idea and a more than decent smartphone, and it remains a source of dissatisfaction for me because it only led to three things: a great successor, a bad successor, and a feeling of bitter regret. Earlier this year, the third and seemingly final SE was killed off in favor of the iPhone 16e, a poorly designed product that’s not exactly a disaster but certainly doesn’t do the things that made us love the 2016 and 2020 iterations of the SE.

The SE’s glory days coincided with two shifts in smartphone design: industry-wide, from small to large handsets and screens; and at Apple Park, from the Home button to the Home indicator. In either case, SE offered consumers a way to cling to the past while saving money. The iPhone And the SE – small, cheap, quite powerful and with the assurance of a panic button in case of emergency – suddenly took on the role of anti-future candidate. It was the iPhone X’s job to lead the way, but it was the OS’s job to round up the laggards.

Yet despite hitting rock bottom with the peerless second model, Apple never really seemed to understand the appeal of the SE. Otherwise, how do you explain the fumbled third generation?

The winning formula contained three factors: fairly fast performance; a small and somewhat older and smaller chassis design; and a low price. It was a carefully calibrated balancing act. But for the 3rd generation SE, Apple raised the price, upgraded the processor to the point where it was faster than $1,000 Android phones, and left the physical design intact, so it went from “charmingly old-fashioned” to “extremely outdated.” Maybe Apple never understood the formula. Or maybe he just didn’t want to get good at selling low-margin phones.

Perhaps the glory days of the OS were only possible because the smartphone industry was going through a few specific design evolutions: evolutions that, for a while, a significant proportion of customers would actively prefer to avoid. An attractive and successful OS today would not, in my opinion, have a Home button. But I think there are niches where Apple could find room for a fourth SE and appeal to customers who don’t think the iPhone 16e is for them.

One is size. I don’t think the small phone market is gone, but smartphone makers are catering less than ever to that demographic. Apple would point the finger at the seemingly unsuccessful iPhone 12 and 13 mini, but those were high-end phones. Apple hasn’t taken a hit yet, cheap iPhone. Then again, maybe he doesn’t want to.

Another one, which will likely become relevant at Apple Park next year, is foldables. If Apple does indeed enter the foldable phone market, expect larger changes in supply and demand. But the demand for a “normal” phone won’t go away, and we’ll be left with another slot for an older design, ready to accommodate the 4th generation iPhone SE. As long as Apple remembers that the economical price is just as much a part of the SE’s appeal as its retro design.

But while waiting for the iPhone Fold, here’s another idea for an anti-future iPhone. Just like big-screen smartphones were everywhere in 2017, AI is everywhere in 2025. How about a guaranteed iPhone without Apple Intelligence? I know I’d pay $429 to never see another Genmoji. Do with it what you want, Tim.

Foundry

Welcome to our weekly Apple Breakfast column, which includes all the Apple news you missed last week in one handy summary. We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it pairs really well with a Monday morning cup of coffee or tea, but it’s cool if you also want to read it during lunch or dinner hours.

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