Ok, speculation time. Don't take this thread too seriously as we're talking about things that may or may not happen in a couple years.
I know a few people, my wife included, who are adamant that they will never upgrade to a bigger iPhone. Surely there are others like her out there. But what happens when updates stop coming and there are security issues to deal with? Do you guys think that Apple will always keep around a 4 inch "C" model for those people who prefer size over substance? For instance, the current pricing structure looks like this:
Will the 5S get a plastic body next year when it goes free to become the 5SC? But what about the year after that? Will we have:
But to keep costs low, will the iPhone 6C keep a 4" screen? I know we're talking about 2016 but if we factor things out, iOS 9 will lose support for iPhone 4S in 2015 and iOS X will lose support for iPhone 5 in 2016. Then my wife stops getting updates. Surely there are enough people who want a smaller phone (mainly women in my experience) that want a smaller phone.
Below, as I just mentioned in another thread (where I first started pondering this), is what I think the ideal sizes would be. If the iPhone 7 has a significantly reduced bezel, we could have the following:
I think this would be the ideal product mix for Apple. You satisfy people who want a smaller device while getting a small bump in screen size, you pull in the majority of people who want bigger screens but want to be able to mostly one-hand them, and you target the people who want massive screens but package it so that it's acceptably manageable with some effort, like the 6 Plus. They're also equally spaced apart by 0.8". If given these options, I would definitely get the 5" modelespecially if it had the "iPad Nano" mode that the 6 Plus has. Now this is all assuming you could get the bezel to be very minimal, and I haven't crunched the numbers but I think with reduced bezels you could get them roughly feeling roughly the same as the smaller screened models. The biggest pain would be yet again fragmenting display sizes for developers, but it doesn't seem like Apple is afraid of that anymore given the new layout tools in Xcode that help handle that.
What do you guys think? Again, lots of speculation, but that's the fun of these forums. Also my wife is nervous, lol.
I know a few people, my wife included, who are adamant that they will never upgrade to a bigger iPhone. Surely there are others like her out there. But what happens when updates stop coming and there are security issues to deal with? Do you guys think that Apple will always keep around a 4 inch "C" model for those people who prefer size over substance? For instance, the current pricing structure looks like this:
- iPhone 5C - FREE
- iPhone 5S - $99
- iPhone 6 - $199 and on up to Plus, etc
Will the 5S get a plastic body next year when it goes free to become the 5SC? But what about the year after that? Will we have:
- iPhone 6C (4"?) - Free
- iPhone 6S - $99
- iPhone 7 - $199 and on up to Plus, etc
But to keep costs low, will the iPhone 6C keep a 4" screen? I know we're talking about 2016 but if we factor things out, iOS 9 will lose support for iPhone 4S in 2015 and iOS X will lose support for iPhone 5 in 2016. Then my wife stops getting updates. Surely there are enough people who want a smaller phone (mainly women in my experience) that want a smaller phone.
Below, as I just mentioned in another thread (where I first started pondering this), is what I think the ideal sizes would be. If the iPhone 7 has a significantly reduced bezel, we could have the following:
- iPhone 7 Mini (4.2" roughly same width as 5S, shorter and thinner))
- iPhone 7 (5", roughly same width as iPhone 6, shorter and thinner)
- iPhone 7 Plus (5.8", roughly same width as iPhone 6 Plus, shorter and thinner)
I think this would be the ideal product mix for Apple. You satisfy people who want a smaller device while getting a small bump in screen size, you pull in the majority of people who want bigger screens but want to be able to mostly one-hand them, and you target the people who want massive screens but package it so that it's acceptably manageable with some effort, like the 6 Plus. They're also equally spaced apart by 0.8". If given these options, I would definitely get the 5" modelespecially if it had the "iPad Nano" mode that the 6 Plus has. Now this is all assuming you could get the bezel to be very minimal, and I haven't crunched the numbers but I think with reduced bezels you could get them roughly feeling roughly the same as the smaller screened models. The biggest pain would be yet again fragmenting display sizes for developers, but it doesn't seem like Apple is afraid of that anymore given the new layout tools in Xcode that help handle that.
What do you guys think? Again, lots of speculation, but that's the fun of these forums. Also my wife is nervous, lol.
