Apple plans to release a mid-range 4.7-inch iPhone next year, according to a fresh batch of ‘leaks’.
The latest leak stemmed from the, not always accurate, Economic Daily News on Tuesday. The report suggested a Taiwanese source familiar with the matter confirmed Apple is working on a updated version of the iPhone 8 it plans to release at some point in 2020.
Details about the phone were thin on the ground outside of the fact it will have a small 4.7-inch LCD display, single lens rear camera, 128GB of storage and run using an A13 CPU. It’ll also apparently have a reasonable, by Apple standards, $649 (roughly £500) price tag. This would make it one of the cheaper iPhones in Apple’s line-up.
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Putting aside the ludicrously premium iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, which retail for close to £1000, even the basic iPhone XR will set you back £750. The lowest end iPhone 8 still retails £599 on the Apple Store.
The iPhone 7 would be the only cheaper option, with the basic model selling for £449 at the time of publishing – though it’s likely Apple will discontinue the iPhone 7 range next year.
We’d take the leak with a serious pinch of salt given the source, but Apple making a smaller mid-range iPhone would make sense. The company has suffered from slowing iPhone sales over the last year as buyers have started waiting longer before upgrading to new phones. We’re still amazed how many first gen Google Pixels and iPhone SEs we see on the tube each morning.
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The mid-range market is listed by most analyst houses as a growth area over the next few years, so Apple definitely won’t want to miss out and not have a phone targeting it. A separate, but also not entirely trustworthy, ‘leak’ about Apple working on a similar sound iPhone SE2 also hit the news earlier this week lending further credence to the report.
The company’s decision to move manufacturing from China to India earlier this week could also be a big hint about Apple’s small iPhone plans. India is a huge market, but most people buy affordable or mid-range, not flagship, handsets.
Excited about the prospect of a mid-range iPhone hitting the market next year? Let us know on Twitter @TrustedReviews
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
