Amid lockdown, Apple likely to launch affordable iPhone SE 2 this week

Amid lockdown, Apple likely to launch affordable iPhone SE 2 this week

FPJ Web DeskUpdated: Tuesday, April 14, 2020, 03:15 PM IST
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While the whole world is grappling with the coronavirus outbreak, tech giant Apple is certainly being busy. Buzz is Apple is likely to launch affordable iPhone 9 (or iPhone SE 2) this week.

According to a report by MacRumours, the claim is based on revelations by Apple analyst, Jeff Pu, who is also an executive director at GF Securities.

Whether the tech giant plans to call it iPhone 9 or revive their SE series by naming is iPhone SE 2 is to be seen. But, is it said that the affordable iPhone will feature an A13 Bionic SoC, 3 GB of RAM and up to 256 GB of storage. Apple's new iPhone could also feature Touch ID (fingerprint scanner) and might the skip retinal scanner (face recognition) feature to save cost.

Owing to current travel restrictions and cargo flight delays due to lockdown in certain parts of the world, there might be a delay in the launch of their high-end, 6.7-inch iPhone 12, claims MacRumors while quoting Pu.

In a research note with Chinese research firm GF Securities, Pu claimed that the current "EVT" or "Engineering Verification Test" stage of iPhone 12 development may have been extended by two weeks to late April for the 5.4-inch model and 6.1-inch models, and to mid-May for the 6.7-inch model. This may result in the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro seeing releases in September, while the iPhone 12 Pro Max may get pushed back until October.

On Friday, Apple and Google unveiled a joint initiative to use smartphones to trace coronavirus contacts to battle the pandemic. The move brings together the largest mobile operating systems in an effort to use smartphone technology to track and potentially contain the global COVID-19 outbreak.

Smartphones powered by Apple software and Google-backed Android operating system would be able to exchange information with a joint "opt in system." The tech giants will collaborate on a "contact tracing" system which can identify people in contact with an infected person and alert users.

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