I was rather hoping that the 8 would do away with both the 4.7" and 5.5" and just do a 5.1 or 5.2. The 8 Plus is just a tad too big (not the screen but the overall device) while the screen on the standard 8 is a tad small for someone with bad eyes. If this rumor is true, there won't be anything smaller than the iPhone X next year, and at iPhone X prices I am simply not interested.
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KGI: Apple to Launch 6.5-Inch 'iPhone X Plus' and Lower-Priced 6.1-Inch Full-Screen LCD Model Next Year
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I was rather hoping that the 8 would do away with both the 4.7" and 5.5" and just do a 5.1 or 5.2. The 8 Plus is just a tad too big (not the screen but the overall device) while the screen on the standard 8 is a tad small for someone with bad eyes. If this rumor is true, there won't be anything smaller than the iPhone X next year, and at iPhone X prices I am simply not interested.
Ok this is long, sorry, but...
With continual refreshes of the MacBook Pro lineup—at least once, sometimes twice a year, for as long as I can remember—Apple demonstrably doesn’t think the Mac is dead. Yes, some can transition to iPad and even prefer it, but an iPad isn’t an option for many. Remember Jobs’s car/truck analogy?
The reality is that laptops make up 80% of the market for Macs. That leaves 20% to be split among iMac, Mac Pro, Mac mini and soon now, iMac Pro. Which means all 4 of these categories are going to be in the neighborhood of 5% market share, plus or minus a few percentage points.
The relatively low volume of the desktops led Apple to neglect them out of proportion to their actual value to the ecosystem. Apple realized they screwed up and is in the process of digging out of the hole they created for themselves.
iMac is in the best shape, it definitely outsells Mac Pro and Mac mini, almost certainly both combined. They’ve been keeping up pretty well and the 5k is a seriously good value. In a few weeks Apple will introduce iMac Pro, which will satisfy some segments of pro users. It looks to be impressive. And expensive, which is expected and not a barrier to (most) buyers who need that horsepower.
On the 2014 Mac mini, they decided to pivot more toward consumers, dropping quad-core when they went to 28W CPUs with the thermal restrictions of the latest form factor, which also saw the removal of the 2nd drive slot and the mini’s Server SKU. (btw to this day Intel doesn’t have a quad-core 28W part, though now there are some lower performing 8x50U 15W ones available.) New minis have been promised but it will be next year, or even early 2019 for some models if Apple decides to wait for certain Intel chips.
Apple also misfired with the 2013 Mac Pro, and have admitted screwing up the thermals and the modularity users want and need. nVidia needs to be an option given the importance of ML. New models should deliver by late next year, though some users will prefer the new iMac pro for their use cases.
Anyway, most of Apple runs on Macs, they understand their necessity. They know there’s absolutely no way the iPad replaces more than the lightest Mac laptop use cases (think 12” MacBook, but even it is much more useful and usable than iPad for a lot of laptop uses.) So iOS isn’t replacing MacOS either. A little patience is needed before Apple will have righted the ship, but they are working on it.
tl,dr: By this time next year, Mac will be stronger than ever, iPad isn’t replacing MacBook Pro and iOS isn’t replacing MacOS.
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A sure sign that the smartphone market is well into maturity. All this tinkering to generate sales leads to artificial limitations and trying to force the up sell. That’s all fine but I’m not interested in phablets. If Apple is only interested in iterating on the phablet side then they’ll start losing sales to the first company that takes a premium smaller phone seriously.
It’s funny, when phablets started coming out it seemed that everyone here used to laugh at them and now they want them even bigger and bigger. Maybe we’ll see a resurgence of small flip phones at some point?
I am still laughing at phablets in the same way that I am still laughing at skinny jeans, but it is now starting to feel like these horrible trends will never end.
I don’t think this is accurate.
1. They need a smaller all screen phone in the lineup. The iPhone X is still to large for some people.
2. The iPhone X is in between the size of the standard iPhone and the plus sized. To make a plus version of the iPhone X with the screen big enough to justify the size increase. The phone itself may be bigger than the current plus versions, and I just don’t see Apple making a phone bigger than the iPhone 8 Plus.
1. They need a smaller all screen phone in the lineup. The iPhone X is still to large for some people.
2. The iPhone X is in between the size of the standard iPhone and the plus sized. To make a plus version of the iPhone X with the screen big enough to justify the size increase. The phone itself may be bigger than the current plus versions, and I just don’t see Apple making a phone bigger than the iPhone 8 Plus.
I know it doesn’t seem like it, but a 7.9” mini with a 4:3 aspect ratio has nearly twice as much screen area as would a 6.5” iPhone with a 19.5:9 screen ratio. The mini display is 30 square inches while a 6.5” Plus would be about 15.75 square inches. (The current 5.8” X is about 12.75 sq. in.)
Beyond just the difference in area, the 4:3 screen ratio is just better (than even 16:9 but especially compared to 19.5:9) when it comes to what users use an iPad for. Also, the mini is important to certain vertical applications.
Apple could refresh the mini at relatively little cost—with little more than an A11 CPU upgrade—and continue to sell it for 3-4 more years, unchanged. It really has no substitute, nor does it really cannibalize other products.
For these 6 reasons: twice the screen area of largest iPhone, best aspect ratio, importance to certain vertical apps, cheap to refresh, long shelf life, and non-infringing demand; I think a mini 5 has a good chance of becoming reality next year.
The only case to be made against is that there just isn’t enough overall demand (even over 3-4 years) to justify a refresh, given that a certain percentage of mini users would go with the $329 iPad, or even the larger, more expensive iPad Pro, if Apple does in fact kill the mini.
But kind of like the SE, the people who like the mini really, really don’t want a bigger tablet, proven by continuing sales of the mini 4 at $399 vs. the larger iPad at $329. Hopefully those sales are high enough to persuade Apple to go ahead with a mini 5. Would love to see it this Spring, alongside an SE II
tl,dr: see paragraph 4 above, “For these 6...”
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So I guess iPhone 8 / 8 Plus will be the last to offer any type of home button even if it's a fake one and current Touch ID. I always found that faux home button first found on the 7 to be pretty weird. It's like BlackBerry Storm weird. Just use a capacitive one.
Isn't the ppi a downgrade for Plus owners with that LCD/TFT one? Battery life and overall smoothness especially in gaming could be great though. I really never paid much attention to ppi after 326.
I never really cared for OLED displays either. Just more hype. LCD is older tech but have better longevity. I always liked iPhone displays the best. The only other one maybe on par with mobile displays with Apple is HTC. This 6.5" iPhone Xs Plus looks to be the premium one again with that higher ppi and likely higher price tag. $1200-$1300 12" MacBook territory.
Man, if the smartphone market crashes or people will stop upgrading as often as Apple expects them to, then Apple is going to be in trouble. One-trick pony. All the eggs in one iPhone basket. It's iPhone or bust. Waiting for the iPhone compact series. It only gets updated every two years and the price will be reasonable. No phone out there is truly worth over $400.
Isn't the ppi a downgrade for Plus owners with that LCD/TFT one? Battery life and overall smoothness especially in gaming could be great though. I really never paid much attention to ppi after 326.
I never really cared for OLED displays either. Just more hype. LCD is older tech but have better longevity. I always liked iPhone displays the best. The only other one maybe on par with mobile displays with Apple is HTC. This 6.5" iPhone Xs Plus looks to be the premium one again with that higher ppi and likely higher price tag. $1200-$1300 12" MacBook territory.
Man, if the smartphone market crashes or people will stop upgrading as often as Apple expects them to, then Apple is going to be in trouble. One-trick pony. All the eggs in one iPhone basket. It's iPhone or bust. Waiting for the iPhone compact series. It only gets updated every two years and the price will be reasonable. No phone out there is truly worth over $400.
I don't believe the OP. My prediction for next year is 3 models. iPhone, iPhone Plus (Both modeled after the X) and an iPhone Classic.
Apple is following the trend of big sized phones. But it should take note that its Apple itself talked about Android fragmentation. The simplicity Apple believed is gone if Apple releases 3 models.
I'd buy that in an instant. I'm still think my 6 is too big, 3+ years later it hasn't grown on me
It’s less weird if you think about needing another LCD model because they can’t go all-OLED next year.
Assuming OLED will still be constrained and/or significantly more expensive next year, with Samsung being the only supplier and Apple wanting 80MM 6.5” displays in addition to approx the same number of 5.8” displays, they’d do only an iPhone 9 Plus.
They drop the smaller, less popular 4.7 regular size but increase the screen size of the more popular, larger size—while it stays close to the same physical size (8mm wider but no taller). Demand for the smaller size can be satisfied by an iPhone 8, or a 2017/2018 X, albeit at lower and higher price points than a new 4.7 would usually sell for at $699.
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You’re glad you’re waiting an entire year to get a phone that may not even be? You do realize this is speculation right.
I should make a $50,000 mouse and keyboard set and sell it to you with the rational that you use it everyday for work.. just like how you use your car?
It's 5.8", which is the same exact size of the iPhone 8 Plus screen. Not sure how you classify the iPhone 8 Plus as a "baby screen".
Consider me in the small phone camp too! I sold my 8-plus yesterday because while it is a fantastic device in every other way, it was too big for me.
I roughly agree with a lot of what you’ve said, with a few exceptions, your feedback appreciated.
1) I think the 2018 X/X Plus will be feature parity, now that the smaller phone is big enough for dual cameras (and they’re less expensive than when Apple used dual cameras to push buyers to the larger, more expensive, higher margin phones).
2) Since features would be the same, I think the price difference would be $100, max $150 between the regular and the Plus. I’m thinking more like $949 for the 2018 X and $1099 for the X Plus but who knows?
3) Not sure the 2017 X will drop $200, even if BOM cost improvements would allow it. More of Apple pricing “based on value”, as Cook says. $849 more likely?
4) I don’t think the 9 Plus can be $649; new Plus models are usually $799, and this will have TrueDepth/FaceID. So I think it starts at $799. (And 8 Plus will be $699 next year, right?) Using an A11 would have little affect on BOM cost, but I could see it as a segmentation strategy to keep from cannibalizing the 2018 X Plus with its A12, for sure.
5) No reason for an SE2 to be more than it’s current $349, just swap the A9 out for an A10. It occupies the lowest price tier, and I could even see Apple cranking out another 30-50MM of the current A9 SE model to sell at $299 - $329 in certain price-critical countries.
Thoughts?
when fashion trends big vs small take hold its another sign of a mature marketA sure sign that the smartphone market is well into maturity. All this tinkering to generate sales leads to artificial limitations and trying to force the up sell. That’s all fine but I’m not interested in phablets. If Apple is only interested in iterating on the phablet side then they’ll start losing sales to the first company that takes a premium smaller phone seriously.
It’s funny, when phablets started coming out it seemed that everyone here used to laugh at them and now they want them even bigger and bigger. Maybe we’ll see a resurgence of small flip phones at some point?
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Dual camera. Bigger battery. Bigger screen. Bigger keyboard. Bigger size class.
