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New A9-Based 4-Inch iPhone Expected to Launch Early 2016 With Apple Pay and Colorful Metal Casing

Whatever screen size apple decides to come out with, they need to put those bezels on a diet. The bezels take up too much space. Their devices could actually be smaller if they would just cut down on the bezels.

Also they need to increase the battery life of their smaller phones. One of the reasons I went with a plus for the second year in a row is because of the battery life. The battery life on their smaller devices is disgraceful. I can't imagine how bad the battery life would be on a 4 inch phone.
 
nia820 said:
Whatever screen size apple decides to come out with, they need to put those bezels on a diet. The bezels take up too much space. Their devices could actually be smaller if they would just cut down on the bezels.
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Absolutely. Also noted by others, rearrange earphone, microphone, camera, shrinking area above screen, and maybe eliminate somehow the home button, or integrate into screen...major space savings there...
 
Mac 128 said:
Apple is researching all the time. This is Apple marketing at its best. And that's all that can be said about the current state of affairs at the moment.

Apple made the decision to compete with Android, despite years of ridiculing their "phablet" phones and mini tablets. So now Apple jumps into the market, while at the same time introducing a brand new product designed to be used with the iPhone, which would make having a larger iPhone even easier -- the Watch. Moreover, Apple needs to guarantee they will sell phones to cover the R&D and manufacture startup of the iPhone 6 -- what better way than to force customers to buy them by only offering the new phone and features in one of two new sizes. Guarantees that only diehard smaller phone users will not upgrade, and that alone gives Apple some very important real world data they didn't have before. Then they wait to introduce the smaller form factor as soon as their other major priorities are behind them: Watch, Force Touch, iPad Pro, Apple Pencil, ATV 4. Then upgraded 4" iPhone. In much the same way as the iPad mini 3 wasn't much more than a facelift from the previous generation, and there is no iPad Air 3 this year. Regardless, the rumored phone seems unlikely to be as crippled as the 5C, and the 5S is still holding its own. Only once Apple gets this phone on the market will they know how many current 6 users will drop down to a smaller phone when they upgrade, but I suspect they already have a pretty good idea, as you suggest. Depending on how that plays out in the real world will determine their course of action going forward.

This sweeping generalization that the world has changed and everybody wants to carry a giant screen in their bag, or stuffed somehow in their pants, is a bit of a stretch. The specious reasoning that Android stopped making a premium 4 inch phone seems pretty typical of their behavior ... if Apple isn't doing it, they don't need to do it. They're making a fine living off selling giant phones which they pioneered. Give them time, if Apple doesn't release a 4" phone, Android may just see the same opportunity to differentiate themselves from Apple as they did with Phablets and mini-tablets, and now round watches, and edgeless phones. It's not like Phablets appeared overnight after the original iPhone launched. It took a while, first copying, then throwing every concept they could at the wall, until they found one that stuck.

The pendulum aways swings two ways, and it's only a matter of time before general use patterns change, and Apple catches Android off guard yet again.
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turbineseaplane said:
But how do we know this?

They've never sold a 4" flagship alongside the larger models.

Android comparisons are invalid as a whole ton of people (like me) have no interest in Android no matter what the device as I don't like the OS. (I do re-try android every year or so...and am always left wondering why I bothered)
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No research needed. I will buy two of these, one for me, one to upgrade my wifes 5C when it goes...
 
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turbineseaplane said:
I'll go one step further!

Apple: Put flagship specs in a 4" size and charge me full flagship price!

Money is *not* the issue - I literally just want a top of the line 4" iPhone, at whatever price.
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Agree completely. I DO think Apple is listening.
 
mdridwan47 said:
Kuo has been pretty accurate so looks like it's gonna happen. I just don't understand why. This just complicates stuff. Apple is forgetting what made them great, simplicity.
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you are correct, Kuo usually nails it. What is so complicated about 3 sizes? Quick. How many fingers on your left hand?
 
quackers82 said:
If its at least equal to my iPhone 6 is spec i will sell my 6 and get this. I have big hands, but the iPhone 5 i had before was so much more comfortable to hold. I had a hold of my friends iPhone 5c just a few weeks ago, and i forgot how comfortable the 4" is. I don't need the screen size of the 6.
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Ding ding ding! I have used almost exactly those words to Apple reps during the past year. I think they have their ears tuned to their customers. Recently dealt with a rep over an iMac password issue and he asked if there was any other concerns, and after telling him I want a 4 inch iphone, he said he would pass the word along...
 
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Jsameds said:
Make it smaller and trim the space between the button and the screen, and the button and the base of the phone. That'd trim 5mm off the bottom, and in doing so Apple would also take 5mm off the top too to make it even, so there's a whole centimetre straight off the bat, and then trim a couple of mm off the edges and you're done. Small phone, large screen. 60/40 screen/bezel ratio would be terrible in 2016.
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That would be perfect.
 
Or... maybe sales have slowed because people are waiting for a 4" phone, now that there are rumors?

While I hope this rumor is real (as I'd like an iPhone, but won't buy a 4.7" or 5.5" model), it's not going to send the right message to Apple no matter what we do. If all of us who have wanted a 4" model run out and buy one, Apple will think people wanted a lower-end, lower-priced phone. If we don't buy one, because we wanted a full-featured model, Apple will conclude there is no longer a market for a phone-sized-phone anymore. :(
 
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macduke said:
The size of our hands should not dictate which features we are allowed to use. Apple should be ashamed for denying features based on accessibility, which they usually champion for. Especially if the 4" size is seriously limited. Users with smaller hands (including many more women than men) should not be discriminated against in this way.
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Wow, that's the key! We need to somehow start a big discrimination accusation against Apple. A phone for the rest of us campaign or something like that. :)

macduke said:
It just plain sucks for people who used small phones for years and now have to stretch and balance and try not to drop their phone just because big phones are currently trendy. Reachability helps to a certain extent—but it doesn't make it easier to hold and it doesn't make it suddenly fit back inside girl jeans.
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Hmm, maybe I need to make a cardboard mockup (the phones in the stores are always tethered), but I'm a 6'1" male. I guess I'm not overly robust, but it doesn't fit well in my hand (at least not for one-handed use), and I'm pretty sure it would stick out of my pocket, even if it was OK in width (to fit my pocket).

Or, maybe it's that I'm old enough to remember bag phones and huge cell phones... and how happy I was when I got my first truly-small flip phone back in the early 2000s... and how I'd like to not take a backwards step.
 
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Apple already has the case for it in the iTouch! All Apple has to do is make the thickness 1/8" thicker to match the runtime of the 5.5" iPhone! Cost Apple almost nothing to do a flagship 4" premium iPhone!

Will Apple do this? Probably not. Budget iPhone is coming I think - 4"!
 
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If I can just get iPhone 6 specs/features in the 4" factor I'm golden.

No need to have PS4 level graphics in my phone anyhow. The newest phones are overpowered at this point (for my uses for sure at least)
 
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turbineseaplane said:
If I can just get iPhone 6 specs/features in the 4" factor I'm golden.

No need to have PS4 level graphics in my phone anyhow. The newest phones are overpowered at this point (for my uses for sure at least)
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I agree in regard to CPU/GPU power (though no where near PS4), either would be enough. But, it's stuff like RAM, touch ID, camera, and such that I'm worried about. I want a 4" version of the latest and greatest.
 
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SteveW928 said:
I agree in regard to CPU/GPU power (though no where near PS4), either would be enough. But, it's stuff like RAM, touch ID, camera, and such that I'm worried about. I want a 4" version of the latest and greatest.
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Latest and greatest is just not likely.

I think an iPhone 6 (essentially), but in a 4" form factor is what's coming.

For me that will work great.

Side note: if they end up canning the headphone adapter, I'll be buying a 2nd backup new 4" phone also. Apple just continues to move away from my interests on some of this stuff. I guess I'm getting old. Oh well.
 
turbineseaplane said:
Latest and greatest is just not likely.

I think an iPhone 6 (essentially), but in a 4" form factor is what's coming.

For me that will work great.

Side note: if they end up canning the headphone adapter, I'll be buying a 2nd backup new 4" phone also. Apple just continues to move away from my interests on some of this stuff. I guess I'm getting old. Oh well.
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The issue with that would be only 1 GB RAM. That would *drastically* shorten time to obsolescence. But, yea, it might be our only option.

If they do really drop the headphone jack, we'll officially know it's over for Apple. Sheesh!
 
SteveW928 said:
The issue with that would be only 1 GB RAM. That would *drastically* shorten time to obsolescence. But, yea, it might be our only option.

If they do really drop the headphone jack, we'll officially know it's over for Apple. Sheesh!
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Good point on the RAM. Fingers crossed
 
koyoot said:
You do understand that with updated 5S Apple may make it that way, you are describing it, and every year they may show 3 sizes of iPhones with the same, or similar specs but different screen sizes and price points?
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You do understand that "similar" and "same" are not interchangeable. They have never had two iPhones (or iPads) of different screen sizes with the same specs. I don't think they have had iMacs with duplicate specs except for screen size.
 
CmdrLaForge said:
This would be a great phone with 32 GB and A9 and 2GB RAM. It they sell this for let's say 700€ instead of 850€ for the 6S with 64 GB would be very interesting.
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I don't care as much about the pricing, as I do the feature-parity. IMO, it must have at least 32 GB storage (hopefully available in different sizes) and 2GB of RAM. It should have an A9 (why not?). It should have NFC and Touch ID. It should have an equal camera to the 6s.

And again, there's no reason not to have this stuff. The only reason would be to create a 'lower end' model... which I'm not opposed to, so long as they also have a 4" full-featured model... which should have been part of the lineup for the last couple of years.
 
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