The 2020 iPhone SE is currently the cheapest iPhone you can buy new from Apple – its retail price currently starts at $399 / £389 / AU$679 – but one source now estimates the price of the iPhone SE 3 due this year to be less than that
Loop Capital Markets analyst John Donovan (via Investor's Business Daily) apparently has his hands on information suggesting that the next iPhone SE could start at just €300, or three-quarters of the price of the current model. If this discount is maintained internationally, the equivalents are around €290 and AU€510.
At this point we only have one source on this, albeit a well-informed and well-placed source, so don't take the €300 figure that close to being confirmed just yet. However, it does suggest that Apple may be feeling the pressure from low-cost Android phones.
(*3*)The price is okAs you can see from our list of the best budget phones, there are plenty of decent Android phones under $399. It may be the buyers of these phones that Apple hopes to target with a cheaper iPhone SE.
There shouldn't be too many changes to the phone in its 2022 incarnation, from what we've heard so far. A faster processor (arguably the Apple A15 Bionic) is pretty much guaranteed, as is the addition of next-gen 5G connectivity.
However, the rear camera unit may not see much improvement, and the external design of the smartphone should be more or less the same. As for when we might see the iPhone SE 3, multiple sources are predicting an Apple launch event in March.
Analysis: Price is a key factor for smartphone buyers
A finished smartphone is the sum of many different decisions made by the manufacturer throughout its development process: how it should be designed, what internal components it will be, what features are needed. In the end, what matters most is the price.
Even the most powerful smartphone on the planet won't attract much interest if it's priced above what everyone can afford, and with the global pandemic and economic uncertainty we're still experiencing, keeping an eye on budgets becomes even more important.
With that in mind, it's perhaps no surprise that Apple is positioning the iPhone SE 3 for 2022 at the lowest price possible. If the design remains largely the same, that should lower production costs, since Apple will already have all the manufacturing processes in place.
Other rumors have also suggested that the next iPhone SE could come at a slightly lower price, though it's always hard to predict the currency variations to consider, and we won't know for sure until the device has been revealed.