“Apple is expected to launch a new 4-inch smartphone, dubbed the iPhone SE, later this month,” Ashraf Eassa writes for The Motley Fool. “The device is expected to be fairly high end, particularly as it is expected to feature many of the same internals (including applications processor) of the relatively new iPhone 6s.”
“One feature it is expected to be missing, though, is 3D Touch. The exclusion of this feature is likely for a couple of reasons,” Eassa writes. “The first is that the additional components required to add 3D Touch tack on cost and that may simply reduce margins by too much, particularly on a low-cost device. Secondly, Apple likely wants to give customers a reason to ‘buy up’ to the higher-priced iPhone 6s and 6s Plus.”
Eassa writes, “Although I understand Apple’s reasoning, and it probably makes sense from a near-term financial and business perspective, I still believe that Apple should have endowed the SE with 3D Touch.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Would the lack of 3D Touch be a deal-breaker for you? After using 3D Touch with our iPhone 6s Plus units, if we were interested in a 4-inch iPhone, it certainly would be for us.
SEE ALSO:
KGI: Apple to release new 4-inch iPhone in early 2016; A9-powered, but no 3D Touch – November 4, 2015
no, I would still love it – I think the smaller phones are just too small for such a feature. and I don’t even use it much to tell the truth.
i’m more concerned about a dropoff in camera quality between 6s and the new 4-inch model. and battery life.
Apple just wanted “a new 5S” to keep selling at premium price.
Sure, but with much better chips, it’s hardly a 5S. I just like the 4″ size.
You guys make me wonder; will there be people going from iPhone 6s family back to a smaller screen? Probably little to no one…
I think Apple, looking at their numbers, figured out some of their customers who are still on iPhone 5 and lower are holding it because they like the smaller form factor device and are surely ready to trade off some of the top notch features from bigger devices.
I am one of them.
I doubt it, since it’s a pretty expensive move to make, but many prefer the 4″ size, including a few of John Gruber’s friends…
Apparently the 6/6s are easier to drop because of the “smooth” design?
Assuming feature parity I will be going from a 6 to the 4″ model.
They’ve already put a more capable camera technology and UX enhancement on the +.
I wish, like you, that the 4″ phone would have all the killer fonctions but as far as 3D touch come into play on a 4″ screen, it absence would not be a deal breaker… For me! I just don’t want it to be a plastic casing lol!
Should ‘have had’?!?!?! It’s not even available yet!
But let’s be serious. This is about COST. Of course there will be no frills. DUH.
I suspect most of the clientele for this phone won’t ever have used 3D Touch so won’t miss it and most who really fancy it will trade up so I can see the point. My only concern is that Apple seem to under spec almost as a corporate policy. Feels a bit like the accountants that SJ used to so denigrate are getting too much control and influence over the innovators. Becoming Microsoft isn’t a good career move.
Because I care, I regularly point out how Apple is acting like the new Microsoft. I wish more people here were willing to open their eyes and complain about the anti-user trend we’ve seen from Apple under Cook. He’s maximizing profit, not user experience. Just like any other greasy corporation with no soul.
I’d be willing to pay more than I did for my 6s for the same features in a smaller form factor. Thank god the masses don’t appreciate chunkiness like they do size, or else post-Jobs they’d be making the phone as thick as possible to get that crowd. Not blaming them… appealing to the masses has gotten them some massive sales, but where does it end? Just make the iPad Pro a cell phone and be done with it already and get back to the engineering task of packing amazing features into a small hand-held (not hands-held).