Analyst: new 4-inch iPhone will support Apple Pay, could be priced under $500

Apple is reportedly planning to release a new 4-inch iPhone next year. We already heard quite many things about this alleged upcoming iPhone, and now KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has more to share on what we should expect from it.

Reportedly, the new 4-inch iPhone should enter production in the first quarter of 2016, so it might be released well ahead of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus - both of which will likely be available starting September next year. Ming-Chi Kuo says that Apple may want to sell the 4-inch iPhone for prices between $400 and $500 - just as previously rumored (we assume that $400 will be the price for a 16 GB model).

The upcoming compact iPhone should be made out of metal, while being powered by an Apple A9 chipset (we also heard that it would use the older A8 chipset, but that may not be the case after all). The new handset should also feature NFC in order to support Apple Pay, and a camera setup similar to that on the iPhone 5s: 8 MP rear camera, plus 1.2 MP front-facing camera.

Apple could ship 20 million new 4-inch iPhones by the end of 2016, making them available in at least two or three color versions. The name of the new device is currently unknown - it might be iPhone 6c, though that may not make too much sense if the device is made out of metal, not plastic (like the iPhone 5c).

Not long ago, designer Martin Hajek created a 4-inch Apple iPhone concept to let us see what it would look like next to the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus:


via: MacRumors