We hope you didn’t fancy a phone with a small screen made by Apple, because there isn’t one anymore. Not from this week, anyway.
With the announcement of the iPhone XR, XS, and XS Max, Apple now has three new iPhones to go with the other two generations it is keeping in the market, the two iPhone 8 models (regular and Plus) and the two iPhone 7 models (regular and Plus).
That brings the total number of current iPhones to seven, even if three won’t be available until next week, but as of this week, two more can’t be found at Apple stores.
We’re not surprised by the removal of the iPhone X, as that was always going to likely be replaced with the announcement of two iPhone X flagship varieties, but one other as slightly less expected.
Specifically, the iPhone SE is no longer a phone you can find, with that SE’s 4 inch design discontinued and gone.
It’s hard to feel surprised by this step, mind you, The last update the iPhone SE received was over two years ago, and while Apple could have made the decision to keep it around, mind you.
The last update the iPhone SE received was over two years ago, and while Apple could have made the decision to keep it around, it’s an old look for phones for Apple, not to mention a model with a 3.5mm headset jack, something Apple doesn’t include on its phones anymore.
As of right now, the smallest iPhones are the 4.7 inch iPhone 7 and 4.7 inch iPhone 8, older models that are still very good, but retain the design direction Apple is going for on the back, complete with that home button up front.
What this says about the future of the small phone isn’t entirely clear across the industry, but our guess is that the answer isn’t good. Most phones sized below the 5 inch mark tend to be focused on budget buyers, with high-end phones just not seeing high-end tech under small screens. Now that Apple has actually killed off its small-screen phone, we can’t imagine you’ll see many around, except for maybe one or two manufacturers looking to fill the gap and simultaneously a niche.
