Been thinking about this model since Tuesday.
With the current SE now two generations behind, processor-wise, more than ever I think we'll see something on the SE front by March-April of 2022.
What few rumors there are point to only an under-the-hood processor bump and a few minor tweaks. And that's fine. I'd love an A15-equipped SE for $399, you betcha!
We all assume that the all-screen design, whatever size, will work its way down to the SE lineup eventually.
If it doesn't (and I don't think it will) in 2022 (but the SE does get the A15 in the next six months), I can think of two scenarios:
1) As above, just the A15 into the current SE (which is based on the iPhone 8). That seems the most likely, logical, practical, economical, obvious, etc.
but...
2) what if there was some sort of "in-between" model/redesign? The current SE, come springtime, will be two years old. We're also now two cycles into Apple's "straight/flat edge" redesign of the flagship iPhone, with the iPhone 12 and 13. What if Apple, known to zig when we zag (and to often do the "not what anyone expected/predicted"), had a design in mind that used the 12/13 styling (which some - including me - would say is really an updated, modern iPhone 4/5 design), but with the home button of the current SE? In other words, not move to a full-face design just yet, but to, after two years (come spring 2022) a slight redesign to adopt the flat edges of the 12/13 line, but still with a forehead and chin? Basically take a 4.7" iPhone 8/SE 2 and toss it into a blender with an iPhone 12/13.
Out comes a model they've never done before: the iPhone 8 sizing (screen and body) with the iPhone 4/5/12/13 body style?
I wonder if they'd ever throw time and resources at something like that? Or if they'd want to keep the design as is and just update the guts (knowing that it would hold for another two years, in the same way the A13 is still powering the model, 18 months after it was introduced in April 2020?
Something interesting to think about, but it would involve an all-new design/manufacturing. Maybe part of the reason the SE is $399 is that they keep the same body style, based on discontinued (5s, 8) flagship phones, around for a good four years (meaning, other than an under-the-hood bump/tweak in 2022, the iPhone 8 design is with us until 2024).
I have no problem with either above, as I kinda like the home button. I know, someday, Apple will have it removed from every phone in the lineup. And I also, unlike before with the original SE, I just don't see them removing this one from the lineup. I do see them only bothering to update it every couple of years because they don't want it to fall
too far behind.
As much as I love Macs and always wonder about the "what if?" and what future models of this or that Mac would look like, the one product, if given the opportunity by Apple, that I would love to be granted "fly on the wall" insight on/access to would be the iPhone SE, and its future versions. More than any other Apple product - no lie - this model's future/presence interests me the most. It's easy enough to predict/imagine future iMac and various MacBook models coming in the next 2-5 years. But this SE could go so many different ways (remain as is for another few years, take on a de-Cadillac'd iPhone 13 mini design or some hybrid of the current size with 12/13 body style). I would love to get 45 seconds to look at CAD drawings or physical mockups of the iPhone SE's next 1-3 designs/ideas.
Can you believe that...out of all the cool, awesome stuff in their lineup, the one product I'd most love a sneak peak of is their $399 iPhone.
Only because it's the most unpredictable, up-in-the-air offering. I know what the iMac is going to look like in five years. I don't know the colors, if any, but I'm 95% sure it'll look just like it does now. And whatever the 14" and 16" MacBook Pros look like next month, expect those to stick around for at least a decade. But their little iPhone that could...that's where the mystery and guesswork reside.