Apple pushes iPhone 5se announcement date back one week to March 22nd

The 4-inch iPhone, known now as the iPhone 5se, had been set for March 15th, but a new rumor pegs the date one week later — March 22nd.

According to site UnderKG, “The event, previously known to take place in March 15th, is pushed back a week to March 22nd if our source is correct. Apple allegedly have [sic] sent notifications to leave the schedule available from the 21st to 23rd, making us guess that the event will occur a week after the original known date.” Apple has a tendency of communicating “off days” to its employees, which are the days in which the company will announce new devices.

From what we know, Apple looks to unveil the 4-inch iPhone 5se that should have the majority of what we see in the iPhone 6, including Apple Pay, an A8 processor chip, voice over LTE (or VoLTE), and so on. The iPhone 5se will have Touch ID but will not feature 3D Touch, as recent photos have shown us. Alongside of the iPhone 5se will come the iPad Air 3, featuring an improved camera, Apple Pencil, quad-speaker support, and a Smart Connector keyboard case.

The iPhone 5se is expected to come at the $400-$500 mark, with the device bearing a price tag in similarity to that of the iPhone 5s (which is soon to be 3 years old), but Apple does price its devices on the more expensive side of dollar signs. Apple will offer the iPhone 5se in 16GB and 64GB configurations, which is the same move the company used in the iPhone 6 (when it eliminated 32GB device) to move people to pay an additional $100 for the 64GB model (which always helps Apple’s pocket profits).

The Apple Watch looks to make an appearance at the March 22nd event, with Apple giving the first-generation smartwatch a refresh with the inclusion of a new FaceTime camera and some new watchbands. There’s very little known about this first-gen. refresh, but sources say that consumers shouldn’t expect a second-generation Apple Watch at the March announcement (that’ll arrive in September with the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus).

With Apple’s return to a March announcement date for the iPhone 5se and iPad Air 3, it seems as though Apple is getting back into a six-month announcement/release cycle; the fruit company announced its iPad 3 (the ancestor of the upcoming iPad Air 3) back in March 2012, and the company brought its first-generation Apple Watch to market around February-March last year.

Source