It would be the first iPhone with a 5G baseband chip developed by Apple. Ming-Chi Kuo predicts the market launch for 2024. The iPhone SE 4 is said to come with an OLED display.
For his good contacts in the AppleAnalyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who is well-known in the supply chain, is now assuming that Apple will participate in a new version of the iPhone SE is working. At the beginning of the year, the analyst gave a clear rejection of a new generation of the entry-level model.
However, Kuo now wants to know that the development of the iPhone SE 4 is on schedule. In addition, the device is said to be the first smartphone from Apple to be equipped with a self-developed 5G baseband chip.
Apple chip also dispenses with millimeter wave
The rumor that Apple is working on its own baseband chips is not new. Among other things, the takeover of the division for 5G modem chips speaks for this Intel for a billion dollars in 2019. However, it was already assumed for 2023 that Apple would no longer purchase its modem chips from Qualcomm and would instead manufacture them itself.
Kuo’s latest statements now suggest that Apple has solved at least some of its problems with manufacturing its own baseband chips. However, Kuo reckons the iPhone SE’s baseband chip will only support the sub-6 frequencies for 5G, which are used by most wireless carriers around the world.
For the iPhone 15 series, however, Apple is said to be sticking with baseband chips from Qualcomm. Kuo also says there is no evidence that the iPhone 16 series, which will be released in 2024, will use an in-house 5G chip that will support emergency calls via satellite and millimeter wave for 5G.
iPhone SE 4 comes with OLED display
Instead, according to Kuo, the in-house 5G chips could not only be used in the iPhone SE 4 in the coming year, but also in a new Apple Watch and a new one iPad be installed. The prerequisite for this, however, is the start of production of the new 5G chips in the first half of 2024.
For the other features of the iPhone SE 4, Kuo relies on an OLED display instead of an LCD panel. With the regular iPhones, Apple already made this change in 2017 with the iPhone X.