In a recent report, Mark Gurman claimed that Apple would be calling its 4-inch iPhone revision an iPhone SE. Now KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims that Apple would be pricing its 4-inch iPhone model between $400 to $500. He also talks about the specs of the device.
Ming-Chi Kuo of the KGI securities, who has a good track record when it comes to predicting Apple’s unreleased products, has issued a new note to investors in which he claims that Apple’s upcoming 4-inch iPhone model – the successor of iPhone 5s, will feature a 12MP camera on the back. The camera specs are not in line with the previous reports that claimed the new device to carry an 8MP camera sensor.
The analyst also claims that this upcoming smaller variant of iPhone will either be called iPhone 5SE or just the iPhone SE. The device will sport the specs similar to the current iPhone 6s including Apple’s A9 chip and Apple Pay support, claims the analyst. Kuo believes that Apple will be pricing the device somewhere between $400 to $500 and it will be available in two storage options: 16GB and 64GB flash memory.
He further notes that this new 4-inch iPhone SE will increase Apple’s 4-inch smartphones’ shipment by more than 31% year over year. He estimates a total of around 37 million units to be shipped in the year 2016. He believes that the 50% cut in the price of iPhone 5s will help the company in increasing the total shipments as well. However, he notes that this price cut will also impact the sales of the upcoming iPhone SE, which the analyst has now lowered from 18-20 million to only 12 million units in 2016.
The handset in question is rumored to carry a form factor similar to the iPhone 5s with slightly curved edges as seen on iPhone 6. The phone is also rumored to get ac WiFi standard support, Bluetooth 4.2, Live Photos, and a 1,642mAh battery.
There is one mention in Kuo’s note to investors which seems highly unlikely. Kuo predicts that Apple will be launching two different variants of iPhone 7 Plus, one with single camera lens setup and the other with dual camera lens setup. This seems highly unlikely because this will make Apple’s iPhone lineup very complicated, which company might not want to do. The rumor that Apple will be naming its 4-inch device as iPhone SE to keep things simple and not complicate the names with existing iPhone 5S by calling it iPhone 5SE.