4-inch iPhone 6c tipped for release in mid-2016

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Is the 4-inch iPhone coming or not?
Is the 4-inch iPhone 6c ever coming? Hopefully so.
Photo: ModMyI

A 4-inch iPhone 6c is rapidly becoming the iPhone equivalent to the Sasquatch — something much discussed, but never actually witnessed.

However, according to China’s IHS Technology Research Director Kevin Wang, we should keep faith because this mythical device is really on the way — and will be with customers by the middle of next year.

Wang made the comments on China’s popular Weibo network, although he didn’t add any further details.

What are the chances that it will prove true? I’d say that we’re almost certain to receive a 4-inch iPhone at some point, given the regularity of reports we’ve heard about a return to the 4-inch iPhone form factor. As for his precise forecast, though? I’d be very surprised — if not simply because releasing a new iPhone months before the unveiling of the iPhone 7 would cause marketplace confusion.

This wouldn’t be the first time analysts have guessed wrong. At first we were told a smaller, 4-inch iPhone 6c would arrive just two months after the launch of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus — something which hasn’t happened. Wang himself claimed back in August that the iPhone 6c would be released by the end of 2015.

The most reliable analyst in all of this is the consistently-accurate KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Kuo has echoed the mid-2016 release (hence mentioning Wang’s report here, and not just writing it off as a totally unfounded rumor), and also claims the handset will boast an A9 processor, metal casing, but sadly no 3D Touch technology.

He additionally thinks Apple will ship 20-30 million units of the smaller handset through the end of 2016.

Would you be on board for a 4-inch iPhone 6c? I certainly think it would be a good idea, although I would personally prefer if this wasn’t a crippled version of current-gen tech, but rather a smaller version of the iPhone 6s (or 7) that other customers enjoy.

Apple already showed with the iPhone 5c that it’s not too keen on making a cheap iPhone, so hopefully the rumors about a lack of 3D Touch — the most praised feature of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus — turns out not to be the case. Leave your comments below.

Via: GforGames

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