Apple announces popular iPhone model owned by millions is now considered obsolete

Apple giveth and Apple taketh away, with the tech giant announcing that one of its major models is being put out to pasture less than 10 years after it was released.

It seems like an age ago that Steve Jobs stood on stage and revealed the first iPhone, but as we gear up for the all-star 20th anniversary in 2027, it technically was.

Despite skeptics who doubted that the iPhone could stand up to the likes of Nokia, the bold decision to reinvent with a largely buttonless phone has set the precedent for how modern mobile phones look and work.

We've come a long way since the original iPhone, and although those rumors of a foldable iPhone are yet to come to pass, we can barely keep up with how many new models are released.

In 2025, the iPhone 17 range included the standard phone, the Pro, the Pro Max, and the iPhone 17 Air.

With this, it's no surprise that Apple renders some products as vintage. Vintage models are those that have stopped being on sale for more than five years but less than seven, but after that, it's a short hop to the scrapheap.

An iPhone becomes obsolete when Apple stops selling it for more than seven years, and in its latest update, the tech giant has confirmed the original iPhone SE is now obsolete.

With the OG iPhone SE now officially obsolete, it is no longer available for repairs, battery replacements, or other services offered by Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers worldwide.

The ever-growing list of obsolete products includes the likes of the iBook, the fan-favorite iPod Nano, and the iPhone X.

Supposed to offer a budget alternative to the standard iPhone, the SE's release in 2016 came with plenty of hype. With many customers apparently preferring smaller screens, Apple branded it as "the most powerful four-inch phone ever." Coming in at $399 for the 16GB model and $499 for the 64GB, it was an instant hit.

Apple came under fire when it removed the SE from sale without a successor in 2018, but as the first was so popular, a second generation of SE was finally released in 2020.

Sadly, the SE has sung its last song. Even though it's not as if your phone is suddenly going to stop working, be warned that the help won't be there to fix your SE if something goes wrong.

It's not just the SE that's stepping through the technological pearly gates, with 2nd-gen iPad Pros and more niche products like the Nike and Hermès Apple Watch Series 4, and the Beats Pill 2.0 also moving into the afterlife.

The legacy of the SE lives on as the second and third generation models manage to avoid the obsolete list (for now), but with the 16e effectively replacing the SE in February 2025, this little slugger's time in the spotlight might be well and truly over.