Later this year, Apple will pull back the curtain on the iPhone 13 series of smartphones (or the iPhone 12s, depending on who you ask). Based on the dozens of rumors and reports that have been circulating in recent months, the iPhone 13 will feature a few notable changes — smaller notches, 120Hz displays, and bigger batteries — but Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has also claimed that “engineers consider the next iPhones another “S” version of the device, the nomenclature typically given to new iPhones with minor upgrades.”
In all likelihood, we’re less than three months away from finding out exactly what Apple has in store for 2021, but as the year marches on, it continues to look like 2022 will be a truly momentous year for the iPhone, with some of the most significant upgrades that we’ve seen from Apple since the iPhone X. But in addition to the iPhone 14, we can also expect another iPhone model next year.
In a recent investor report seen by 9to5Mac, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo repeated his prediction that the next iPhone SE will make its debut in the first half of next year. He initially made a similar claim in March, before Apple had announced the April 20th ‘Spring Loaded’ event, and is now doubling down on his prediction. The second-generation iPhone SE launched in April of 2020.
Kuo believes that while the 2022 iPhone SE will feature a similar design to that of the 4.7-inch 2020 iPhone SE, the new cheap model will also gain support for 5G networks and will be equipped with an upgraded processor. The second-gen iPhone SE had the same A13 Bionic processor as the iPhone 11, which had been released just seven months prior, so maybe the A15 chip that powers the iPhone 13 lineup will follow the same trajectory and make its way into the third-gen iPhone SE.
With its $399 price tag, the iPhone SE easily flew to the top of the sales charts, becoming one of the best-selling phones of 2020 (according to Omdia)– coming in just ahead of the iPhone 12 and a few tens of millions of units behind the iPhone 11. If Apple can keep the price that low while adding 5G, the iPhone SE could quickly become the best-selling 5G phone on the planet.
