The iPhone 6 continues to be a hot topic among fans of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s products, although we don’t know when it will even come out. However, most agree that it could have a bigger screen than Apple’s previous smartphones, and Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Brian White thinks he’s got some ideas about that bigger iPhone—simply from attending CES 2014.
iPhone 6 could be one of three sizes
White said his research at the Consumer Electronics Show this week has provided “further details” on the bigger iPhone, which he started talking about a little over a year ago. Most analysts agree that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) must deliver a larger iPhone this year, and recently, there was a report that there would be not one, but three different iPhone sizes this year.
White himself said that in October, they were expecting “up to three iPhone screen sizes” this year, but now, they expect two different sizes: a 4.7-inch and a 5.5-inch model. Both of those sizes would be larger than Apple’s current offerings. Technically, if Apple does follow its usual pattern of keeping an older model in production when launching new iPhones, then it would have three different screen sizes to choose from, with the iPhone 6 possibly being one of them—if Apple keeps the same numbering system.
Apple could stagger iPhone launches
The analyst also said that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) might stagger the launches of the two new iPhones this year. We’ve heard this idea before, although White said this “notion” was “another incremental data point” they uncovered this week at CES. He called the idea “interesting” because he thinks there’s urgency for Apple in launching a bigger iPhone because the company needs to play catch-up with the trend. In particular, he highlighted the trend of larger phones in the Asian market, especially China.
White suggests that perhaps Apple will launch the 4.7-inch model (maybe the iPhone 6?) earlier in the year and then launch the 5.5-inch iPhone later in the year because it’s more of a phablet and “would be worth of its own launch” later in the year.
