The upcoming modern revamped iPhone SE has had its price leaked via Japanese carriers. Apple’s newest budget phone will reportedly cost less than $500. It’s believed that this price tag has been made possible by Apple switching to its own cellular modem chip: which means it doesn’t have to pay licensing fees to Qualcomm.
Apple has wanted to switch over its devices to its own in-house cellular modems for quite a while. Aside from cost-cuttings this will likely allow Apple to optimize its devices even further like it has done with Apple silicon. The problem is that Apple’s attempts at a modem have continuously faced issues over the years.
Now the company believes that it has developed a viable candidate and plans to debut it with the iPhone SE. Not shipping it with the iPhone 17 lineup means that if there are any unforeseen problems with it they won’t affect users who paid flagship prices. It also gives Apple the chance to offer the iPhone SE at a very lucrative cost.
The only problems I see with Apple’s strategy is that consumers who purchase the new iPhone SE will essentially be Beta testers. If there do turn out to be problems with Apple’s modem then these people will have to deal with them while the company takes notes and figures out solutions.
However if the modem turns out to be a success then we can expect to see it in flagship iPhone models pretty soon. Whether that would mean decreased price tags or not is uncertain for now. The new iPhone SE will likely be one of the best phones worth buying in 2025. I just hope the modem works out fine and we don’t see a disaster instead.
