The iPhone SE is obsolete, and so is the last hope for a ‘normal’ iPhone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 to the obsolete list. That’s not just a nominal change; while vintage products can still access a limited range of repair services, obsolete ones are completely left out in the cold. At the ripe old age of nine (and the regulation seven years after it was dropped from sale), the SE has been declared an antique on borrowed time.

As I discussed in our news coverage, this is a tricky moment for those who still use the 2016 SE and likely won’t be able to for much longer; official replacement parts won’t be available anymore, and non-official ones can be a bit of a lottery. It might be time to consider an upgrade. And the good news is that, after nine years of even quite slow tech development, whatever you buy next is going to feel 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 that it led to only three things: one excellent successor, one bad successor, and a sense of bitter regret. Earlier this year, the third and apparently final SE was killed off in favor of the iPhone 16e, a misconceived product that isn’t exactly a disaster but certainly doesn’t do the things that made us love the 2016 and 2020 iterations of the SE.

The glory days of the SE coincided with two changes in smartphone design: on an industry-wide level, from small to large handsets and displays; and at Apple Park, from the Home button to the Home indicator. In both cases, the SE offered consumers a way to hang onto the past while saving money. The iPhone X came out a year after the first SE, and instantly signalled a brave new world of Apple handsets… but like most brave new worlds, not everyone liked it. And the SE–small, cheap, decently powerful, and blessed with the reassurance of a press-in-case-of-emergency button–suddenly had a role as the anti-future candidate. It was the iPhone X’s job to lead the way, but it was the SE’s job to gather up the stragglers.

Yet despite hitting paydirt with the peerless second model, Apple never quite seemed to understand the attraction 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-gen SE, Apple jacked up the price, upgraded the processor to the extent that it was faster than $1,000 Android phones, and left the physical design untouched, so it moved from “charmingly old-fashioned” to “wildly outdated.” Maybe Apple never understood the formula. Or maybe it just didn’t want to get good at selling low-margin phones.

Perhaps the SE’s glory days were only possible because the smartphone industry was going through a couple of specific design evolutions: ones that, for a time, a significant proportion of customers would actively prefer to avoid. An appealing and successful SE today wouldn’t, in my opinion, have a Home button. But I think there are niches where Apple could find space 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 market for small phones has vanished, yet smartphone makers cater to this demographic less than ever. Apple would point to the apparently unsuccessful iPhone 12 and 13 mini, but they were premium phones. Apple hasn’t taken another swing at a small, cheap iPhone. Again, perhaps it doesn’t want to.

Another, which will probably become relevant at Apple Park next year, is foldables. If Apple does indeed enter the folding phone market, expect wider shifts in both supply and demand. But the demand for a “normal” phone won’t vanish, and we’ll find ourselves with another niche for older-fashioned design, ready for the 4th-gen iPhone SE to slide in and clean up. Just as long as Apple remembers that the budget price tag is just as much a part of the SE’s appeal as its retro design.

But while we wait for the iPhone Fold, here’s one more idea for an anti-future iPhone. Just as big-screen smartphones were everywhere in 2017, AI is omnipresent in 2025. How about an iPhone that’s guaranteed Apple Intelligence-free? I know I’d pay $429 to never see another Genmoji. Do with that what you will, Tim.

Welcome to our weekly Apple Breakfast column, which includes all the Apple news you missed last week in a handy bite-sized roundup. We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it goes great with a Monday morning cup of coffee or tea, but it’s cool if you want to give it a read during lunch or dinner hours too.

Trending: Top stories

The iMac is dying a slow death and Apple doesn’t care.

RAM prices are out of control. Should Apple users be worried?

Mahmoud Itani used all of Photoshop’s new AI features on his Mac. Here are the wild results.

Apple’s new AI leader has one job: Save the entire industry.

QuickTime turns 34! Yes, Apple’s big bet on ‘multimedia’ still matters.

Filipe Esposito reveals three iPhone 17 Pro features that continue to surprise him every day.

The home office Apple device Filipe Esposito can’t live without is the one you’d least expect.

Podcast of the week

We’re starting to hear more reports about Apple’s upcoming folding iPhone. We dissect all the rumors in the latest episode of the Macworld Podcast.

You can catch every episode on YouTube, Spotify, Soundcloud, the Podcasts app, or our own site.

Reviews corner

The rumor mill

Hidden image suggests ChatGPT app might get Apple Health integration.

Video of the week