Naming the ‘iPhone SE 2’ | Hacker News Reader

Naming the ‘iPhone SE 2’

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I think they should go with iPhone SE/30.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_SE/30

II -> IIx

SE -> SEx

...naming it the SE/30 was blatantly because they couldn't be consistent and add an x.

What's the point if it doesn't have an SE form factor? The price is alright I guess but by that time you can probably get a nice refurbished 8 for the same price.

Product leadership once again missing the point. They should just call it an 8C, really.

The point of the SE line is so Apple can bleed out older supply lines, not make a smaller phone.

The point of the SE was to bring down the price of a device with a more recent SOC.

They did this by creating a new device based on combining a discontinued body and screen with a recent motherboard.

A refurbished 8 would not have the A13 SOC and 3 Gigs of RAM that Ming-Chi Kuo reports the new iteration of the SE will have.

They did this for the original by reusing the already paid off manufacturing equipment from the iPhone 5s line and updating the motherboard and camera.

Eventually, that iPhone 5s manufacturing equipment wears out.

> The point of the SE was to bring down the price of a device with a more recent SOC.

This was the original press release: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2016/03/21Apple-Introduces-iP...

It's all about the 4" display

Yes, it had a 4 inch display because it was an updated version of the iPhone 5s, as the copy you linked to points out.

>iPhone SE takes a beloved iPhone design and reinvents it

The newer iPhone SE will also take an existing design and update the motherboard and SOC.

If Ming-Chi Kuo's report is as accurate as it usually is, we're looking at a $400 device with an iPhone 8 body and iPhone 11 guts.

You're looking at it from an entirely Apple-internal standpoint. "What makes this phone easy for us to make? What purpose does it serve for the company?"

On the other hand, hrktb is looking at it from a consumer & marketing standpoint. "What is the unique selling point of this phone? Why should I buy this phone over a different iPhone?"

The selling point was, and remains, the 4" screen. People's hands haven't grown in size in the past 4 years. They still want a 4" phone, because it's still a very sensible size.

The selling point is bang for the buck.

For $400 you get a device with an exceptionally high performance SOC that should get five years of of software and security updates.

I understand the iPhone 8 body report, but think Apple's attempt would be misguided if it's intended as a SE successor.

To put it in perspective, the iPhone SE was announced in 2016, after the iPhone 6 (and ends up being the same generation as the 6S). The 4" is in the title because the new generation were all bigger screens.

They didn't take any random existing design, but the "beloved" 5S, and the cost wasn't that different from a iPhone 6 for instance, which would boast better performance in almost any metrics (short of battery life perhaps). Just to point out the SE resonated with a very specific niche.

The SE had much better battery life than the 6s.

It's going to be a real letdown if it's iPhone 8 size; we're so lacking in high-end (or even midrange) phones in a small form factor now. There's nothing on Android either - even Sony's Xperia Compact line is now much bigger than an SE.

You could fit a 5" screen on the SE form factor if it was edge-to-edge like the iPhone X, or you could keep the old SE 4" screen, make that edge-to-edge, and make the phone itself even smaller.

Illustrated: https://i.imgur.com/OKZiWrN.png

> You could fit a 5" screen on the SE form factor if it was edge-to-edge like the iPhone X, or you could keep the old SE 4" screen, make that edge-to-edge, and make the phone itself even smaller.

Both of these would be really nice, but I doubt either of them is going to happen.

There's the Palm phone running Android with a 3.3" screen

https://palm.com/pages/product

Wow, I'd love to see an iDevice with those dimentions!

I would love that SEX (heh) or XS form factor – but look how much of the iPhone X is battery [0]. If you shrink it by half there's no battery left – unless the phone is much thicker than the 8 or X. So, how much less battery life would you accept, or how much less functionality?

[0] https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/2oa2QHEoq4Ke16su.h...

That's a very fair point. Although you could probably make it 5mm thicker and it'd still fit a lot better in a pocket than any other modern smartphone.

Oh, the form factor! I’m still on the original SE, because I just love it! Hope it lasts.

I don't even get what made iPhone 8 more powerful than a hypothetical 7S. Seems like that was another naming skip that Apple snuck in alongside the X.

No matter what they call it, it will still be orders of magnitude less confusing than the camera lineups of Canon, Nikon, and Sony.

e.g.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Nikon_DSLR_camer...

"iPhone 11 Max Pro SEA Sports, It's a Phone" - jackfilms - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnnK6CIzPzU&feature=youtu.be...

yup on “iphone 9” naming [0]. it just makes a lot of sense based on its positioning as the iphone 8 successor (rather than SE 2).

apple really doesn’t want to walk itself back on pricing, so this is its strategy to maintain premium market position while acquiescing to all of us who’ve so far balked at paying $1k+ for a phone. premium brands often end up going downmarket in search of revenue growth as the premium segment saturates. it doesn’t always go well (brand deterioration—>loss of pricing power) but apple has been relatively successful in other product categories (e.g., laptops).

[0] said as much here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21244783

Does SE stand for Stingy Edition? "Special" Edition? any ideas?

Special Edition, Phil Schiller said so in an interview.

I thought it stood for "Small Edition"

Why would they name a new phone with a number that sounds 2 generations old? At least 8 and 10 were released together.

It would make to call it iPhone 11 Lite or something alone those lines (iPhone 11T?)

Because Apple has already established a tradition of continuing older generation as their butget lines. People buy new old iPhones all the time. So why not make up new new old iPhones? Apparently "this used to be top of the line just n years ago" is part of the appeal and a made up former latest iPhone (like from an alternative history where nine was not skipped) comes much closer to that than a dedicated lesser version of the current generation. And if they get the processing guts of the current generation, just not the novelty gimmicks, they will actually be better than a real former flagship.

As an Android user I have nothing but envy for the (occasional) availability of internally updated older chassis. If I had the choice I would probably be writing this on a fourth reissue Moto Defy...

I don’t see how it could be a 9 because camera-wise it will be a downgrade from the 8 right? Surely for 400 you don’t get a zoom lens. Will it have night mode? I suspect not.

iPhone 9 is a terrible name.

It is not part of the standard line-up, so why would you recommend naming it as if it was released 2 years ago?

Anyone here know where I can get a new, original SE these days? I want to have a backup when this one breaks.

It should be named IPhone 6ssss

Personally, I'd vote for iPhone SEX.

iPhone 11 Air

iPhone 9X

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