“A day before the announcement of the new iPhones, analytics company Localytics has provided a picture of the iPhone market today,” Ben Lovejoy reports for 9to5Mac. “It shows that the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus between them account for a full 40% of all iPhones in use, with the iPhone 5s trailing behind at 23.7%.”
“The same data also backs our report that the iPhone 5c is being discontinued, showing that it accounts for just 8.5% of active iPhones, putting it below the iPhone 4S,” Lovejoy reports. “The poor showing of the 5c casts further doubt onto its rumored replacement, the 6c.”
“While sources confirm that Apple has been working on a new 4-inch device, we’re not expecting to see it tomorrow. Some rumors suggested Apple was planning a later launch, in November, while KGI’s Ming-Chi Kuo has said we probably won’t see it until next year,” Lovejoy reports. “Given the apparent lack of interest in the 5c, you have to wonder whether launching a 6c makes sense at all – this year or next.”
Read more and check out the concept images of an “iPhone 6c” depicted as simply a smaller version of the 6S in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote back in July:
If they’re going to make a 4-inch iPhone, it should be on par (as much as possible) with the flagship iPhones – same processor, same amount of RAM, same storage options, very similar camera capabilities, etc. In other words, a high-margin premium device designed specifically for premium customers who are looking for a world-class 4-inch smartphone. Still:
“In general, the only people who still think they want a 4-inch iPhone are those who do not yet own a 4.7-inch iPhone 6 or 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus. After iPhone 5s and 5c go the way of the dodo, the 4.7-inch display should, and likely will, be Apple’s smallest iPhone display going forward.” — MacDailyNews Take, December 5, 2014
That said, there certainly are times now, with Apple Watches on our wrists, where we’d appreciate a smaller iPhone that we could just tuck away in a pocket and forget — at least while Watch is so dependent on iPhone. But, watch OS 2, coming soon, will begin to lessen the dependence, so whatever desire we had developed over the past months months for a small iPhone to support Apple Watch has diminished since watchOS 2 was unveiled. It’s likely Apple is thinking this way, too. Even with Apple Watch and watch OS 1.0, we almost always want a larger iPhone* for the times when we actually use the iPhone anyway. So, we’re back to thinking the 4.7-inch display is the smallest iPhone Apple should make.
*The one major exception would be toting around an iPhone on a run for GPS mapping, but, even then, the iPhone 6 is plenty small and light enough to suffice.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]