Kuo: “iPhone SE 2” will have 3GB RAM, 64GB and 128GB storage options, but won't have 3D Touch, and will be priced from $399
Apple is planning on releasing an iPhone SE 2 in the first quarter of 2020 and starting at a $399 price point, according to the latest research report from reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the second layer of detail on a call Ming-Chi Kuo had already made days earlier, when he flagged an iPhone 8-like design running the A13 chip for a Q1 2020 launch. The new report fills in the commercial skeleton: 3GB of RAM, 64GB/128GB tiers, no 3D Touch, and a $399 entry price.
What makes the note worth tracking is how closely it landed — Apple's eventual April 2020 announcement kept the $399 floor and both storage tiers, adding only a 256GB option on top. The SE line Kuo sketched here became a repeatable product, with a successor already on his roadmap by late 2021.
First-order effects
- Buyers get Apple's then-current A13 processor in a $399 device — flagship silicon at mid-market pricing, with cost held down by reusing the iPhone 8 form factor and dropping 3D Touch.
Second-order effects
- A current-generation Apple chip at $399 forces Android vendors in the midrange to compete on value rather than price alone, since their differentiation at that tier has historically been hardware-per-dollar.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — and Kuo's own follow-up pointing to an iPhone SE with 5G in H1 2022 suggests it does — the SE becomes a fixed-cadence budget line inside Apple's lineup, pulling upgrade cycles from the low end rather than the premium segment.
The trend: Apple is institutionalizing a low-cost SE cadence that carries flagship chips downward, turning the budget tier into a recurring part of its iPhone roadmap rather than a one-off experiment.