KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who is largely regarded as the best Apple analyst around, says that Apple isn’t planning on releasing a follow-up to the iPhone SE in 2017.
The news is somewhat surprising — the iPhone SE was a hit when it was first released by Apple. According to Kuo, however, there are two reasons to not release another iPhone SE — to increase profit margins on the original iPhone SE as its parts get cheaper in price, and to reduce the risk that the new device cannibalizes sales of the iPhone 7.
Those reasons do make sense. Apple has always been a little more interested in profit share than in market share, and while the decision to ditch the iPhone SE may end up impacting raw unit sales figures, Apple will ultimately make more money, Kuo says. In fact, he argues that iPhone shipments may fall a hefty 10 percent during the second quarter of 2017, from 40.4 million units during the second quarter of 2016 to 35 million units in the corresponding quarter in 2017.
Some will be disappointed at Apple’s decision. The company could have easily upgraded the device to include 3D Touch, and could have even gotten rid of the headphone jack to make room for a haptic feedback motor.
Kuo is a very reliable Apple rumors source, but it’s possible that he’s wrong this time.
