The Cupertino-based tech giant Apple is set to unveil the 4-inch iPhone SE today, March 21. While the company might utilize the event to update consumers and analysts concerning its next products, the introduction of the smaller iPhone may be more about the company closing off a loop left open when it dropped smaller phones.
The iPhone SE will apparently pack iPhone 6s guts, but iPhone 5 girth. There were speculations that the smartphone would be called iPhone 6C or 5SE, but an agreement has now been reached about Apple's next handset to be called the iPhone SE.
The upcoming smartphone will sport a 4-inch display, be more pocketable than the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 series phones, and more beautiful for consumers who have been pissed off by the bigger screens the company has been unveiling. The smartphone will reportedly sport the latest Apple's in-house A9 processor and M9 motion co-processor, besides having a Touch ID sensor for security and Apple Pay.
Apart from the size of the device, the biggest difference between iPhone SE and the iPhone 6 and 6s series will be in terms of pricing and 3D Touch. The smartphone will not support the pressure sensitive system for touch input.
Meanwhile, Apple's iPhone sales growth has been slowing down, but this year, the company anticipates its first year-over-year decline if its next products will not save the year. Approximately 20 percent of iPhone users are still using the iPhone 4s phones or even older ones, based on data compiled by Fiksu in fall 2015. Introducing the iPhone SE may be to appeal to those who cannot stomach the idea of upgrading to a 5.5-inch or even a 4.7-inch iPhone.
Speaking via USA Today, analyst Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray said that he also believes the 4-inch phone and its updated hardware could appeal to the 20 percent of iPhone users relying on the legacy hardware, but it may not be easy to sell.
According to Business Insider, the analysts said, "The reality is that whether the device is real or not doesn't matter. We would not expect Apple to sell significantly more iPhone 6C devices than the typical low-end model (currently the 5S) and would also not expect margins to be significantly different."
Meanwhile, watch the footage below for more details on iPhone SE: