“KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo (via MacRumors) recently said that Apple is expected to launch two new iPhones next year with advanced organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays,” Ashraf Eassa writes for The Motley Fool. “The first is expected to have an OLED display that measures 5.85-inches along the diagonal, just as this year’s iPhone X does. The second is expected to have a much larger 6.46-inch OLED display.”
“Given continued customer preference for larger-screen displays, as such displays are commonly viewed as more immersive, it makes perfect sense for Apple to add such a product to the lineup,” Eassa writes. “What I found particularly interesting, though, was Kuo’s claim that the ‘major hardware difference in the two OLED models is size.’ If this is true, then Apple is making a mistake.”
“For as long as Apple has been selling regular-sized iPhones and their Plus counterparts, the Plus phones have had a few extra features that the regular-sized iPhones didn’t have,” Eassa writes. “There’s another angle Apple could go with if it chooses to: ProMotion on the iPhone X Plus… High refresh rate displays chew up more power than lower-refresh rate ones, all else being equal, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this feature came to the iPhone X Plus next year since the iPhone X Plus should have an even larger battery than the next-generation iPhone X and would, therefore, be able to handle the increased power draw of a faster display.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: ‘Twas readily discernible differentiation, and not just in screen size, but in camera hardware and features that has sold and continues to sell many Plus model iPhones. ProMotion – especially and naturally coupled with Apple Pencil support – would be a strong reason to choose iPhone X Plus, iPhone X Pro*, or whatever they name it.
*”Pro” means Apple Pencil support already, so it makes sense to use “Pro” for any iPhone with Apple Pencil support, too.
Everything that Apple has done has been claimed to be a big mistake by one analyst or another.
It’s amazing just how many big mistakes one immensely successful company can get away with.
lol. I am willing to bet that a lot of other companies wish they had made similar mistakes!
irrational apple haters (pundits) are all over the tech and wall street communities, they believe their self righteous personal opinions are immovable facts, hence proliferation of fake news
My guess is that the size of the phone screen was the biggest differentiator for the iPhone plus models. The other features are nice to haves but hardly a good enough reason to buy a larger phone.
I always chose the Plus model for the camera. I never felt comfortable with the size of the phone (it was fine, just not comfortable). I bought the X this year because it’s smaller and still has the better camera options.
I agree. My only other wish would be for square edges like the 4 and 5 series iPhones. THEY WERE SO MUCH EASIER TO HOLD – especially while taking pictures.
Apple MIGHT be making a big mistake…
Why is it that everything Apple does or intends to do is seen as a big mistake? How does a company having a market cap of nearly $900B always seen as making big mistakes? What makes some of these rather ordinary bloggers or analysts think they are much smarter than the people who run Apple? That’s such damned arrogance. There are so many other companies these critics could attack for making mistakes in their business models but instead, they have to keep targeting Apple for making these supposed mistakes. I realize Apple isn’t as perfect as Amazon is said to be but Apple, relatively speaking, isn’t doing all that poorly in terms of profitability. In terms of growth they’re not doing as well as any of the FANG stocks but if Apple were to use that repatriated cash for acquisitions, they could probably grow revenue as well as any FANG stock.
It’s really difficult to tell if a change in strategy can make a huge difference of being good and very good unless you can run both scenarios. A critic can always say in hindsight that one strategy could have been better than another but there’s no way to prove that. I would still think Apple certainly weighs out its options before making any strategic move and they should be able to recognize which gives the best results for them. Apple isn’t infallible but they should know better than any blogger or analyst.
Totally disagree. As a consumer I want the same exact features in both with size being the difference, if that’s possible.
Also a smaller all screen model where the body and screen size are the same as the iPhone 6/7/8 screen area, would be killer! Maybe the rumored SE2 will be like that.
Consumers want the exact same iPhone in a variety of sizes.
However, if the larger iPhones have additional/better features, Apple can bump consumers up to the much higher margin devices.
That’s the dilemma in the most simplest of terms. What Apple looks at is in reality much more complex. It’s going to look at each size segment, usage behavior, and elasticity. All of that, is going to be worked in with design and engineering.
Further complicating the issue is availability of components. Something simple that may seem obvious to add across the different sizes due to the size of the component and power consumption may prove to be impossible due to limited availability of the component restricting it to just the high end (higher margin, largest model).
Another factor here has to do with marketing and branding. The smaller iPhones must still feel like premium phones. If Apple is too aggressive in model differentiation, the smaller iPhones will seem inferior enough to turn people away from getting an iPhone altogether (since the larger ones will be too expensive).
It’s easy to arm chair CEO, but these decisions are much more complex than may people realize.
I was long frustrated that I couldn’t get the best features in the more pocketable size in recent iPhones.
Sounds like what Google did with their Pixel phones this year. Pretty much identical in features with only the screen size as the main differentiation. Want to bet a “follower” label will stick if Apple decides to do the same?