It’s a phone that would have been released in 2024. In my opinion, in 2024+ there really won’t be many people willing to buy a phone released in March 2022, despite this being the lower segment for Apple and this type of buyer places less value on the last of the last.
It also costs money to make something new again (although an SE is a lot of recycled stuff), but the current SE certainly sells a lot of sold products from a commercial point of view.
All right, all right. And I’m having a hard time estimating how much extra money and resources are involved that could also be used differently (for other gadgets ). But on the other hand, the iPhone SE buyer in 2024 (and possibly 2025) will buy a phone that doesn’t matter what, if it actually packs 2 years of the latest hardware and 2 years of extra software support is offered, a phone which will become obsolete 0 to 2 years* sooner if it is resold neatly to less demanding users, and that is of course a shame.
*This obviously depends on various factors. For both models, if they are bought in 2024, it could mean that they fail in 2027 or simply end up in a drawer. But in general it can be assumed that a new iPhone SE 4 in 2024 would offer another 2 years of extra support (and it’s also slightly faster and cheaper, so it’ll be in use longer).
Still, it’s a good thing that phones are so fast these days, including models in this segment, that they keep running (very) well for years.
