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

[cableguy84]

I simply don't believe that you have small hands and can pick up the phone and tap on any icon on a full screen of icons with one hand, without jiggling the phone around awkwardly in your hand.

I still have a 5S that I love, but just bought a new iPod touch for my wife for her car - mainly to use Apple Music.

Have thought for a while that an end point for the iPhone design is to put it in the iPod touch design. (Yes, I know there;s never any end point for design, but as long as there has been the iPod touch it has felt like that was the optimum and preferred design for the phone, but the phone was subject to limitations that prevented that from happening.)

They seem pretty close now, but I still really don't like the lines across the back (yes, I know - a necessary evil) (yes, I know, not literally evil).

So in that sense it might make sense - introduce a 4" phone which is essentially the iPod touch with a phone, and release the new top end ones later in the year in a very similar design, but in the more traditional iPhone colours.

Or something. Who knows.

I never said i use it totally 1 handed all the time, i use 2 hands when necessary and i havent got a problem with it

 

[Rogifan]

I dont think apple watch is successful, not by apples standards.

And iphone sales will bottom out eventually most likely when the chinese and indian markets are saturated

What do you mean "by Apple standards"? That the watch should have iPhone like sales figures?

 

[merkinmuffley]

Weird...

WOW! New colors. I just can't imagine anything more exiting than new colors for the phone. Apple is again riding the foreskin of technology into the future with innovation like this.

 

[braddick]

I'd gladly trade in my 6S for one of these. Navy blue shell with a white face, please!

 

[HarryWild]

A9 and Apple Pay: good. 5s camera: bad.

Outstanding questions: how much RAM? Force touch? Which version of touchID? Pretty sure I know all of these answers, and they won't be good…

I position as "budget" phone and Apple has to make the same profit margin or more, so definitely going be the lowest technology that still run the iOS for the next 3 years. Camera will be the 5S and memory could start at 8GB, max 32GB!

 

[igorsky]

WOW! New colors. I just can't imagine anything more exiting than new colors for the phone. Apple is again riding the foreskin of technology into the future with innovation like this.

Yep...Apple doesn't innovate

 

[kemal]

Make it cheeper by making a slower A9. Narrow memory bus, 1GB, slower flash, etc. That might not make much of a difference in performance / expected performance.

 

[cableguy84]

What do you mean "by Apple standards"? That the watch should have iPhone like sales figures?

I don't think it was ever meant to achieve iphone like figures.

Which is why they should have

What do you mean "by Apple standards"? That the watch should have iPhone like sales figures?

No i dont think it was ever supposed to achieve iphone sales. But they would have sold lots more if it was cheaper and not tethered to iphone

 

[PBRsg]

If it has an A9, don't expect it to be $150-250 less. Maybe $100 less, especially if they skimp on the camera and 3D Touch. It's too bad, however, that those who are willing to pay but need a smaller device can't get the best iPhone out there. Just like 6s users are stuck with worse video than the 6s Plus owners who have great stabilization, even though there is no physical reason they couldn't have added it. 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. Just charge the same as you always did for 4" devices. The market can withstand it—they did before!

Just to be clear, I'm perfectly happy with my 4.7" 6s. But I know many people, especially women who refuse to upgrade because they don't want to use a "big phone", even though to you and me the 6s is not big. As someone who does UX design as a big part of their job, I'm always having to put myself into other people's shoes. 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.

I agree - all three phone sizes should have the same specs, with only the screen and battery sizes being different.

 

[quackers82]

Well in the UK the iPhone 5s is more popular than Apple's biggest competitors flagship phone, i think a 4" iPhone must be in demand.

http://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/mobile_tracker/

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

I would be surprised if the device doesn't have Force Touch.

Lacking Force Touch will just give developers more reason not to bother utilizing Force Touch at all. Which will give customers more reason to not care. Which will mean Force Touch won't be a selling point at all.

If they make it have Force Touch, then developers will care slightly more, which will lead to customers caring slightly more, which might keep people from jumping to Android and might encourage people to jump from Android.

CPU, RAM, and cameras all make more sense as areas to pinch pennies.

 

[doctor-don]

Because 4.7" is way too big. I hate reachability and I never want to have to use it again.

Surely you jest - or you are a little person with little hands and / or little pockets.

Not sure about the source's reliability, but there is a market for a "cheaper" 4" iPhone for sure ...

The buyers in other countries may prefer a smaller phone that fits their hands and their desire to have only a phone that allows them to contact friends and businesses. Smaller is cheaper - usually, and smaller is less likely to be noticed by potential thieves.

Once a person finds that it is much easier to read email and texts on a 4.7" (or larger) phone, he will not want to return to the smaller 4" phone ... unless the phone comes with a magnifier.

 

[macnewbie91]

This is perfect for grown men who want to look like little girls.

The same grown men who drive around in a pink Volkswagen Beetle.

 

[iOSFangirl6001]

My 2 Cents

No matter who the source ( unless it were Apple themselves which is unlikely ) I'm going to file this under I'll believe when I see it

That's all

 

[Michael Scrip]

So why arent all the 4 inch people demanding a 3.5 inch phone, maybe that will be the next thing they will start crying about

If smaller is better... why not a 3" phone?

Or a 2" phone!

 

[cliffster82]

From other reports this sounds like an upgraded 5s. This is a good move in terms of design, size options, keeping the (now classic) 5 look, which I like. I might consider this next time around.

 

[Rogifan]

I don't think it was ever meant to achieve iphone like figures.

Which is why they should have


No i dont think it was ever supposed to achieve iphone sales. But they would have sold lots more if it was cheaper and not tethered to iphone

How do you know how many they sold?

 

[Jsameds]

Pretty much. And these clowns can never be wrong because it's always the next quarter that's going to be bad. It's always the future that's bleak.



I'm going to assume Apple engineers know what they're doing. Also I think it would look stupid if the home button barely fit just to shave a millimeter or two off the bezel (if it's even possible). No doubt Apple is working on integrating the home button into the display.

So you already had an answer yet questioned me on it anyway. Standard Rogifan, always picking pointless arguments.

 

[Max(IT)]

I highly doubt it will be a9. Probably a8 instead.

in 2016 ? I hope in a A9

identical camera specs to the iPhone 5s?! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

what's wrong with iPhone 5S camera ?

So an iPhone 5S with the A9 and Apple Pay...

It would be fine

 

[trip1ex]

3.5" would be better. The iPHone 4S screen was the sweet spot for a smaller phone.

 

[0057252]

4 inch screen, A9 with 2gb ram, touch id, and apple pay? I'm sold. I don't give two sh*ts about force touch. What a useless gimmick.

 

[Michael Scrip]

I dont think apple watch is successful, not by apples standards.

And iphone sales will bottom out eventually most likely when the chinese and indian markets are saturated

Let's be clear... iPhone growth may bottom out.... but iPhone sales will still be huge for the foreseeable future.

Apple will eventually settle into selling 200-250 million iPhones a year.

And with an ASP of around $650... they'll be doing fine.

Most companies can only DREAM of having numbers like that.

 

[oakiegu007]

It would be amazing if this were true, but with up to date tech, not old tech. I despise the bigger is better idea. Sure, its great for media/games, but I don't use it for that. I have large hands, so that isn't the issue, but I find I hold the larger one a different way, whereas with the smaller one, I could squeeze it and access everything without stretching - if that makes sense. With the larger phones, I more use my fingers to prop it up, rather than wrap around it and whether or not its a big stretch, its still a stretch. I'm arthritic in my hands, especially in that lower knuckle where the thumb meets the hand, so some days it is just brutal. The smaller size just felt perfect for my beaten up hands and fit great in my pocket. Also, it felt like an indestructible brick. I've had an apple in my house since the original apple computers, so I do enjoy their products, but the 6/6s was a big miss for me.

 

[DynaFXD]

Yep, brokers looking to get end of year fees from their clients, or should I say victims?.

Or, they could be right. The 6S was the tock in the tick-tock cycle. It had only modest upgrades to the hugely popular 6 models in an already saturated market (short of the developing world). Why would anyone expect it to, or be disappointed if it did not, sell better than the 6?

 

[Popeye206]

Awesome move... the cheaper, yet up to date phones would be great sellers in the growing markets like India... and even in other markets as well and entry level iPhones. A good move if they do this.