Apple’s next-gen smartphone, likely to be called iPhone 7, will arrive sometime in September this year. Before that, the Cupertino company is gearing up to unveil a 4-inch smartphone called iPhone 5se in March. KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said in a research note that the iPhone 5se will have little impact on sales because the product is not innovative, either in form factor or hardware specs. It is simply an improved version of iPhone 5S, and will cater to the mid-range market.
Analysts forecast weak iPhone 7 sales
Several research firms including Raymond James predict that the iPhone 7 won’t significantly boost the iPhone sales. The smartphone market in the US and China is saturating, and Android phones have been good at customer retention. So, the next-gen iPhone will have to bring radical changes to get existing users to upgrade and Android users to switch to the iPhone.
Apple is indeed working to make some radical changes in the iPhone 7. Recent rumors suggest that the tech giant is going to ditch the 3.5mm headphone jack to free up some space inside the device for more tech as well as reduce the thickness to just 6mm to 6.5mm. That also means users will have to rely on Bluetooth or Lightning port-compatible headphones. It will force a lot of users to upgrade their relatively pricey headphones.
iPhone 7 to be waterproof and dustproof
The iPhone 7 is also expected to be dustproof and waterproof. Last year’s iPhone 6S and 6S Plus feature several seals and gaskets for a certain degree of waterproofing, but Apple did not officially marketed these phones as waterproof. The company is going to make this year’s device fully waterproof and dustproof. It is one of the most anticipated features in the next-gen iPhone. A waterproof and dustproof iPhone could give users enough reason to upgrade.
Among other things, we can expect the iPhone 7 to have a redesigned case, a more powerful A10 processor, a base level storage of 32GB, and an improved camera.
