Rumours on the cancellation of the iPhone SE range have been quashed it seems - by the analyst that set the ball rolling in the first place,Renowned mobile industry expert, Ming-Chi Kuo, has reversed his initial claims that Apple has ditched plans for a fourth-gen SE and now says that it's back on. In fact, in a series of tweets, he added that the iPhone SE 4 will be the most fully-featured model yet.Not only is it likely to be the first iPhone to feature Apple's brand new, in-house 5G baseband chip (as hinted at by Qualcomm during MWC), he also suggested it'll sport an OLED display and a similar design aesthetic to the standard iPhone 14. This will be quite a leap forward for the series, considering last year's iPhone SE model retained the Touch ID home button and chinstrap.

Kuo doesn't believe it'll be released this year though, with a 2024 debut a more reasonable assumption. It'll start in production in the first half of next year, he tweeted.

The analyst also speculated that Apple's own 5G chip will only operate under the 6GHz band - the one used in the new iPhone SE, anyway. That means it won't support the fastest speeds that are being developed and utilised by networks employing higher bandwidths. However, that will still ensure the phone will offer similar data speeds as its equally 5G-enabled predecessor.

The analyst also suggested that iPad and Apple Watch models could follow the new SE in adopting the baseband chip soon after, although it may not yet be suitable for use in the iPhone 16 range to be released at the end of next year. Apple will need to include support for mmWave and, likely, satellite communications by then to remain competitive, it is claimed.