Ming-Chi Kuo says Apple has canceled the iPhone SE 4 release plan, and Qualcomm is the biggest winner

IT House News on January 7, Guo Minghao analyst said in the latest Medium blog post that Apple has canceled its plan to launch the fourth-generation iPhone SE in 2024. In December last year, Mr. Guo said that Apple has canceled or postponed the release of iPhone SE 4, and now he believes that Apple has clearly canceled the release plan of the phone.

Mr. Guo said in his blog post that Apple originally planned to introduce the first 5G chip module developed by itself on the iPhone SE 4, but in the end the plan was shelved by Apple. Mr. Guo believes that the iPhone 16 series launched by Apple in 2024 will continue to rely on Qualcomm’s new 5G products.

IT Home learned that Mr. Guo said that Apple plans to test the 5G chip in the iPhone SE, and then promote it to the iPhone 16 models to ensure a smooth transition. In the blog post wrote:

Qualcomm is the biggest winner in Apple’s cancellation of the 2024 iPhone SE 4. It is expected that Qualcomm will still be the exclusive supplier of baseband chips for the new iPhone 16 series in 2H24 (vs. the market consensus is that Qualcomm will lose orders for iPhone baseband chips starting in 2024). 1. According to the instructions received from Apple by the supply chain, Apple will cancel the production and shipment plan of the 2024 iPhone SE 4 instead of delaying it. 2. Concerned that the performance of its own baseband chip may not be as good as Qualcomm, Apple originally planned to launch its own baseband chip in 2024 and let the low-end iPhone SE 4 adopt it first, and decide whether to let the iPhone 16 adopt it depending on the development status of iPhone SE 4 own baseband chip. However, after the cancellation of iPhone SE 4, the chances of Qualcomm remaining the exclusive supplier of baseband chips for the new 2H24 iPhone 16 series have increased significantly, which is better than market expectations that Qualcomm will lose iPhone orders starting in 2024. 3. Qualcomm will continue to dominate the global high-end mobile phone RF chip market at least in 2023 and 2024, and its profits will be significantly better than competitors. Due to the strong competitive advantage of the product mix, it is expected to reduce the negative impact of the company facing the economic recession and return to strong growth first when the economy recovers.