14 DAY TRIAL // Remember the iPhone frenzy around 2010, when that iPhone 4 prototype got leaked? The iPhone was all the rage back then and every analyst with as little as one source in the Far East had something to say about Apple’s plans for the future.
There were a lot of rumors that Apple would make a television set, while others even believed the Cupertino giant was looking for partners in the automotive industry. As it turned out, at least one of those rumors materialized (CarPlay), while the other isn’t too far-fetched either.
There were also talks about Apple rolling out a cheaper iPhone, something that didn’t happen exactly when the analysts predicted, but eventually materialized into the iPhone 5c in 2013. The device was by no accounts cheap, but it was cheaper than the flagship, metal-encased iPhone 5s.
However, along with the original rumors of a cheap iPhone, some analysts threw in something that today sounds incredibly ridiculous: a smaller screen.
The "iPhone Mini"
Remember, 2010 was a time when 3.5-inch screens were de-facto. We’d just come out of the dumbphone era for only two or three years, so it was too soon to envision phablets. Even tablets made very little sense back then. Moreover, a 4-inch iPhone would have cost a fortune to make at that time, and Apple didn’t have the necessary graphical power and battery to make it happen. At least not in a Retina resolution.
Nevertheless, several high-profile analysts at the time were beating the drum that Apple simply had to flood the market with a smaller “iPhone Mini” to compete with the army of devices sold by rivals like Samsung. Almost every prominent analyst that you could quote in a news story had predicted such a move, one way or another. Most agreed that Apple could only achieve this by introducing a device even smaller than the iPhone 4.
In 2013, Strategy Analytics analyst Neil Mawston wrote in a research note to investors, “We believe Apple will have to launch an 'iPhone Mini' at some point over the next three years to address the hundreds of millions of prepaid users worldwide that cannot afford the current iPhone.”
“The iPhone 5 is growing fast and profitably right now, so there is limited incentive for Apple to launch a profit-squeezing 'iPhone Mini' this year. We expect the 'iPhone Mini' to be more likely next year, in 2014, when Apple's penetration of the global postpaid smartphone market will be nearing saturation and Apple will be forced to discover fresh growth streams elsewhere,” added Mawson.
In 2014, Apple launched its biggest iPhone yet and one of the largest smartphones to ever hit the market. That’s how off track investment banks can be with their predictions.
Now, it can finally happen
Although the iPhone Mini is a laughable prospect right about now, it’s only so because of the circumstances. Think about it. It made enough sense back in 2010 for every analyst to consider it. Sure, Mawson was a bit off the rails with his 2013 prediction, but Apple still hadn’t shown any incentive to release a phablet.
However, now that Apple is selling not one but two iPhones that go well beyond four inches, the iPhone Mini rumor can again be ignited. In fact, there is already talk of such a device being planned for release.
This time it’s not smaller than 3.5 inches. This time it’s smaller than 4.7 inches. More precisely, there’s talk about a 4-inch iPhone being released next year. Even more precisely, it is being said that Apple is simply revising the iPhone 5 / 5c for customers who can’t cope with the size of the iPhone 6 and want to operate their smartphone mostly with one hand. So here’s to the next round of iPhone Mini rumors as we head into 2015.
