We haven’t heard many details about the iPhone SE 3 except that it will arrive early next year with 5G support, but that hasn’t stopped analysts at JP Morgan from making one hell of a prediction about its success.
If the brokerage is right, the iPhone SE could get more than a billion “non-premium Android users” to swap sides.
“Apple’s trade-in program for non-iPhones is admittedly not as attractive as the iPhone trade-in values, it could nonetheless lead to an average starting price range of $269 to $399 for the 5G iPhone SE, which is still very competitive,” analyst Samik Chatterjee said, according to Reuters.
Feeling bullish about Apple’s upcoming handset, JP Morgan adjusted its fiscal 2022 iPhone SE sales predictions to 30 million units and overall iPhone shipments to 250 million units, up 10 million from a year earlier.
The current iPhone SE starts at $399, making it the least expensive iOS device Apple still sells ahead of the $499 iPhone 11. Splurging on the latest models means spending $799 on the iPhone 13.
Factor in a trade-in as JP Morgan suggests and the iPhone SE 3 could sneak its way into the budget phone category, an area Android phone makers like Samsung, Motorola, and Huawei have quietly battled over for the past several years.
In a separate note, JP Morgan says customer demand for 5G models will remain strong and will be a priority for supply. What wasn’t discussed is whether Apple will be able to keep up with this projected demand given the complications caused by the ongoing chip shortage. Apple has fared better than others but eventually succumbed to multi-month-long delays for many of its products, including iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watches.
Apple doesn’t disclose product info until its launch events, but noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, as well as Macotakara, a Japanese Apple blog, claims the iPhone SE 3 will have a 4.7-inch LCD display, 5G support, and unnamed upgraded processor.
The folks at JP Morgan are better at making predictions about this stuff than I am, but part of me thinks the iPhone SE’s small screen size could deter Android users from jumping ship. I noticed recently when helping someone purchase a sub-$250 phone that almost every Android option had a 6-inch-or-larger display. Some customers might be wanting to downsize, but what happened to the iPhone 12 mini suggests we think bigger is always better.
