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iPhone 7 Triple Release Leak Reveals Exciting Apple Changes

This article is more than 8 years old.

He’s back! A leaked report from KGI Securities’ Ming-Chi Kuo (dubbed “the best Apple analyst on the planet”) reveals Apple is going to dramatically shake things up with the iPhone 7. And given Kuo’s remarkable track record, when he speaks it is worth serious attention…

What are these credentials? Well in the last 18 months alone Kuo broke news of the radical 12-inch MacBook, iPad Pro (including launch), shift to 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch screen sizes with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus and laid out every major feature of the iPhone 6S four months ahead of its launch. And now he says there will be three iPhone 7 sizes in 2016, each serving a different price tier.

How he breaks this down is the introduction of an entry level 4-inch iPhone 7 with metal chassis which sees it break away from the plastic ‘C series’. Next will come the 4.7-inch iPhone 7, but it will be more clearly repositioned as a step down from 5.5-inch iPhone 7 Plus with the latter having improved performance and 50% more RAM (3GB vs 2GB).

iPhone 6S Vs iPhone 6S Plus Review: Should You Upgrade?

Apple finally playing ball with customers who still love the smaller 4-inch form factor will be big news, but it is equally newsworthy that the company finally looks set to admit the ‘Plus’ range is more than just a size increase on the standard iPhone. Apple has already been hinting at this for two generations by selling the standard model with an inferior screen, optics and far worse battery life.

In fact in my iPhone 6S vs iPhone 6S Plus review, I remarked that the Plus was a vastly superior experience to the standard model in almost every way - except portability. I have also been championing Apple to release iPhones in premium ‘Small, Medium and Large’ formats for well over a year.

Then again, while I’m a big fan of this potential new strategy, I can see problems if the additional details Kuo provided also prove correct...

Potential Problems

For starters Kuo says the 4-inch iPhone 7 won’t come with 3D Touch and will use the Apple A9 chipset from the iPhone 6S/6S Plus rather than the A10 chip he states will feature in the 4.7-inch iPhone 7 and 5.5-inch iPhone 7 Plus. Build quality aside, this would keep the 4-inch iPhone 7 as something of a spiritual C Series successor which isn’t what fans of smaller iPhones really want.

This problem is further amplified in the 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch models. While I think every iPhone 6S buyer would concede the iPhone 6S Plus is a superior device, it still sells in higher volumes simply because it is smaller (the $100 price difference plays little role with a long term contract). This shows how polarising large phones remain and to make the 4.7-inch model a more obvious second class citizen could lose some of the prestige from the brand.

Then again Android has long done this. Only Sony with its Xperia Compact range has made any effort to release a premium sub 5-inch phone and the simple fact is bigger phones make it easier for manufacturers to fit in faster components which require greater airflow and more capacious batteries.

So overall how confident should you be in Kuo’s leaked report? I’d say very, given Kuo has even gone so far as to claim Apple’s sales targets for the 4-inch model have already been set as between 20m-30m by the end of the year. Where he does remain silent though, are about the claims of a radical home button-less design for the iPhone 7 made by Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster last month. An iPhone number change traditionally signals a redesign, but how far Apple goes remains to be seen.

Either way, what does appear clear is Apple - despite sucking up all the profits in the smartphone sector - is not content to sit on its laurels. 2016 looks set to be the year Apple shakes things up once again…

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