The iPhone 5se and iPad Air 3 announcement date set for March 15th, go on sale March 18th

The iPhone 5se has been shown in videos and reported on countless times, but there seems to be a go-ahead mentality with Apple. The Cupertino, California tech giant is pushing forward with the iPhone 5se, with an announcement date set for March 15th according to sources familiar with the company’s plans. The devices themselves will have no pre-order period, with the iPhone 5se and the iPad Air 3 headed for the market on March 18th, just three days after their announcement.

The iPhone 5se is seen as an interesting device, with many saying that it was designed for emerging markets. At the same time, however, new research shows that Apple is bringing back a 4-inch iPhone for the explicit purpose of getting current customers on older, non-Touch ID devices to upgrade and become a part of the company’s new Touch ID/Apple Pay program. Some customers, over 25%, in fact, are still waiting to upgrade their devices from the 4-inch iPhone 5s that is now two years old. We can see that the new iPhone 5se, then, contrary to earlier rumors stating that its budget-friendliness would exclude a Touch ID fingerprint sensor, will feature the Touch ID fingerprint sensor. The new iPhone 5se will feature Apple’s A9 processor chip and M9 motion coprocessor for fitness, traveling, and gaming.

The iPad Air 3 will make an appearance here for the first time, with rumors about new Smart accessories for the larger tablet. Outside of this, and the fact that the new tablet will receive the A9X chip, there may be an LED flash on the back camera, and that Apple looks to keep the screen size at 9.7 inches, there’s very little else we know (unless you count iOS 9.x as part of the surprise).

Apple’s new announcement in March takes the company back to its strategy of 4 years ago, where Apple unveiled the iPad 3 (the iPad 3 is now an ancestor of the iPad Air line) in March as well (2012). The company had since gone on to unveil new products in September (iPhone) and October (iPad), but Apple broke this trend last year when it announced its new products all on the same day in September. Perhaps the company intends to bring back the March product announcements where it can sustain a 6-month delay between product announcements instead of cramming it all into one announcement or back-to-back announcements within 30 days’ time.

At any rate, the iPhone 5se seems to be the real deal, but stay tuned. We’ll let you know when we find out more.

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