If Apple changes everything about the iPhone SE, will people still think it’s special?

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

In defense of the iPhone SE

In no other job is it a good sign when people start telling you off. But that’s online journalism for you, a field in which aggressive emails are a sign that one of your articles has taken off. (Such emails don’t even necessarily mean your opinion was controversial since people very rarely write in to strenuously agree. It just means a lot of people read it.)

This week I used our Different Think column to express an opinion that I thought would be relatively uncontroversial: that Apple should let the iPhone SE die. I reasoned that the SE made sense when the all-screen iPhone design was fairly new and older designs offered an acceptable compromise, but that the window had long since closed, and the device no longer represents good value.

It turns out–and this is always a surprise to me–not everyone agrees. A series of (actually very polite and articulate) emails from fans of the SE highlighted its size, price, and lack of Face ID as points in its favor, and expressed dismay at the idea of its being discontinued. Another reader, meanwhile, detected an ulterior motive that Apple might have for keeping the SE around: as an entry-level drug to hook tech beginners and former Android users before they buy into the Apple ecosystem as a whole.

If only Apple could depend on 100 million more customers this loyal to the iPhone SE! But sadly, I suspect my correspondents are in the minority… and the numbers of SE supporters may dwindle further when the fourth-gen SE is unveiled next year. It’s expected to be based on the iPhone 14 chassis, and that means at least two and probably all three of those advantages will disappear: it won’t be as small or anywhere near as cheap as the iPhone SE from 2022, and is likely to have Face ID too. (Although Apple could put Touch ID in the power button, as it does on the entry-level iPad.) Even the SE’s most loyal fans may find it’s no longer the phone they’re looking for.

Still, it’s a good sign for Apple that even its least glamorous handset can still inspire this much passion; I’d be surprised if many readers would write in to defend a budget Samsung phone based on a four-year-old design.

Thanks for the emails, everyone. Except for that one guy. He was just rude.

IDG

Trending: Top stories of the week

Today’s kids love the iPhone because they’re afraid not to.

Apple’s machines are learning more intelligently than Bard and Bing, reckons Dan Moren.

Apple’s 2021 Mac Pro GPU is still faster than a new AMD graphics card.

Mobile World Congress was held this week, and there was a flurry of interesting stories that Apple fans need to know about.

We round up 5 truly ‘Ultra’ features coming to the iPhone 15 Pro Max.

The rumor mill

Does the mysterious Studio Display firmware mean a new Mac Pro is imminent?

Apple has a team working on projects more secret than the next iPhone.

The iPhone 15 Pro might finally show off the long-rumored ‘sunset’ shade.

The iPhone 15’s USB-C port might be as locked down as Lightning.

More ‘Ted Lasso,’ a 15-inch MacBook Air, and more: Here’s everything we expect (and hope) Apple to release this month.

Podcast of the week

It may be cold in the U.S. and the U.K., but that’s not stopping the iPhone rumors from heating up! We have a flurry of iPhone speculation and we talk about it all on this episode of the Macworld Podcast.

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

And with that, we’re done for this week. If you’d like to get regular roundups, sign up for our newsletters. You can also follow us on Twitter or on Facebook for discussion of breaking Apple news stories. See you next Saturday, enjoy the rest of your weekend, and stay Appley.