The 4th-gen iPhone SE was widely expected to launch at a dedicated press event in spring 2025, but the latest report claims it will be here quite a bit earlier than that.

In an article for Bloomberg published Thursday, the respected leaker-analyst Mark Gurman predicted that the next version of Apple’s budget smartphone would be unveiled “in the coming days” before clarifying that the company expects this to happen “as early as next week.” In a follow-up report in his Power On newsletter, he specifically said the new phone is coming “this week.” That means some time between today and February 14, as opposed to the March or early April timing that a spring event normally means.

These claims are largely based on the usual anonymous sources “with knowledge of the matter,” but Gurman tends to be right more often than he’s wrong. And he does offer the corroborating evidence that stocks of the 3rd-gen iPhone SE appear to be dwindling, at least in his neck of the woods; U.S. retail employees have been turning away potential SE customers, he reports, while online buyers face shipping delays until March. This sort of thing is frequently indicative that Apple has started winding up production ahead of a new launch.

(I’m based in the U.K. and stocks here, by contrast, seem to be holding up. I tried ordering each model and in every case was offered delivery the very next day, and most were available for pickup from a local retail store the same day. Make of this what you will.)

If the iPhone SE 4 is coming early, that wouldn’t be a total surprise. The 3rd-gen model may still be available in the U.S. and the U.K., but it had to be withdrawn from sale across the EU at the start of this year because it doesn’t comply with new regulations mandating USB-C ports on smartphones. The same fate befell the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus, leaving Apple with no remotely budget-focused smartphones across a major market for more than a month now… almost as if it didn’t have years to prepare. Once you add in the fact that Apple needs a cheap device with Apple Intelligence, it becomes clear that the sooner the new SE arrives, the better.

To keep up with all the latest news and rumors, check out our regularly updated iPhone SE 4 superguide.

Update February 9: Mark Gurman now says the phone will be announced this week.