How so? They release new phones every autumn, with few exceptions. So if you buy an iPhone in the autumn and it’s not the brand new just-announced model, you should expect that you’re going to have a previous-generation phone very quickly.

Apple’s marketing timeline is remarkably consistent with very few exceptions.

They release the SE (2020) in April. So they hit that smaller but latest phone market, and then they are tapping in again only 6 months later with the 12 mini. A lot of people with the SE (2020) will want to upgrade for the speed, camera, even smaller body etc.

The camera was not in fact a direct upgrade, it was the same hardware with improved software post processing. That was the deciding factor for not getting an SE for me, and to wait for this cycle.