Apple will offer a new, cheaper iPhone to reach a larger market

Apple is scheduled to release a new low-cost iPhone model on Wednesday in an effort to increase its share of the mid-range phone market and compete with rivals such as Samsung and China’s Huawei.

The fourth version of the low-cost model, previously called as the iPhone SE, will compete with popular Android smartphones at a time when consumer electronics manufacturers are attempting to add artificial intelligence features into their products.

The current generation iPhone SE, which was released in 2022, is priced at $429, and the latest iteration is expected to be more expensive than the one it replaces. The iPhone 16, released in September, priced at $799.

Late this month, Apple forecasted significant sales growth, signaling that the company will recover from declining iPhone sales as it expands the availability of AI functions in more areas and languages.

Analysts have been skeptical about how big of a sales bump these tools could provide, given Apple’s AI features will be handed out in stages in some places on its latest iPhone 16 and iPhone 15 Pro models.

According to Counterpoint Research, sales of the SE model as a percentage of total iPhone revenue have dropped from 10% since its release in 2016 to under 1% last year.

According to analysts and media, this year’s update will redesign the device, remove the home button, and incorporate the FaceID feature, as well as camera and processing advancements to support AI tasks.

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