Buying a Plus-sized iPhone doesn’t just get you a bigger screen, but also a better phone with more RAM and a greater camera. And there’s a good reason for that.
These things attract a greater number of buyers to Apple’s larger handsets, increasing its profits and the average selling price of the iPhone. And that’s why the iPhone Plus will always be better than its smaller siblings.
In addition to a larger display with a sharper resolution, iPhone 6 Plus, Apple’s first Plus-sized iPhone, offered optical image stabilization for better photos — particularly in low light. The iPhone 6s Plus featured the same, plus 2GB of RAM — twice as much as iPhone 6s.
But iPhone 7 Plus is the best 5.5-inch iPhone to date. It also boasts a 1080p display just like its predecessors, plus a new iSight camera with dual lenses for 2x optical zoom and that super-swanky portrait mode. It also has much better battery life than iPhone 7.
These additional features help attract iPhone fans to the larger, more expensive option, and every year, they become more popular. According to Cowen & Co., iPhone 7 Plus accounts for around 40 percent of the 58.5 million total iPhone 7 units Apple sold last quarter.
That’s a 17-point jump from the 23 percent who chose an iPhone 6s Plus over an iPhone 6s during the same quarter in 2015. According to UBS, this has increased the average selling price of an iPhone last quarter to $693, up from $691 a year ago.
It might be a slight increase, but it translates to a 2 percent rise in revenue for Apple during the December quarter, and it’s significant at a time when demand for the iPhone has been “softer-than-expected,” according to analysts.
Tim Arcuri, an analyst with Cowen, told The Wall Street Journal that his estimates show Apple sold 24 million iPhone 7 Plus devices last quarter — a 55 percent increase from the 15.5 million iPhone 6s Plus handsets it sold during the same three-month period last year.
Plus-model iPhones have been particularly popular in China, a market where Apple has been very keen to increase sales. More than half of consumers who purchased an Apple smartphone there last quarter chose an iPhone 7 Plus — up from 40 percent last year.
Plus sales also rose to 47 percent in the U.S. during the same period, up from about 35 percent in 2015.
This trend should continue if Apple keeps making the iPhone Plus a better option than its smaller sibling going forward. That’s why the 4.7-inch iPhone will never be quite as good as the larger, more expensive option.
Killian Bell is a freelance writer based in the U.K. He has an interest in all things tech and also covers Android over at CultofAndroid.com. You can follow him on Twitter via @killianbell.
7 responses to “Why bigger iPhones will always be better than their smaller siblings”
The 6s has the same 2gb as the 6s plus
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Click bait as usual. For the lazy and bored, the bigger phone will be popular. But for those of us who actually use the damn thing, smaller is better because we are not fumbling around with two hands to operate it, and it will fit anywhere. Personally love the 4″ size because it feels so good in hand. Looking forward to seeing the new iPhone 8 design in three sizes: athletically fit, full figured, and fat as hell.
I have really big hands and can operate my 7 plus with one hand quite well
I don’t fumble around with mine, I got those smart screen protectors as well as use the one handed mode feature. I wear prescription glasses and the extra real estate on the screen is great since I can make the icons larger with larger text.
I disagree.
I hate my iPhone 6 and love my 4S.
Big screens don’t bring me anything of value. The phones are bulkier, they don’t fit outdoor jacket rain pockets anymore, and they’re not nice to handle (even if I don’t have small hands).
Also, for us oldsters, a bigger phone is always more readable. I have to switch glasses to my 3X magnifying glasses to use my (work) iPhone 5, where I can read the screen of my (personal) Nexus 6 without switching glasses.