Is a new 4 inch iPhone coming 2016?

The rumours regarding a new 4 inch iPhone have been floating around for quite a while and it doesn’t look like they will be going away any time soon.

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has stated that Apple will be releasing a new 4 inch handset which will be based on an upgraded iPhone 5S with a metal shell.  

This new smaller iPhone could be released sooner than we thought with Kuo estimating it will be released early next year. He says the new device is set to be released in the first half of 2016 and will be powered by the A9 processor chip which is the same one used in the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus.

But unlike the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, the 4 inch iPhone wouldn’t have pressure sensitive 3D Touch which will set the two devices apart.

Ming-Chi Kuo believes that there is still a high demand for a smaller smartphone and Apple will upgrade the iPhone 5S product line to meet customer demand.

As always you need to take these rumours with a pinch of salt but Ming-Chi Kuo has had a pretty strong track record that makes his claim particularly convincing. Over the last few years he has correctly predicted the launch of the 4.7inch and 5.5inch iPhones, the iPhone 6S spec, the two sizes of Apple Watch and the 12inch MacBook. His record isn’t perfect but he seems to be right most of the time so it is quite possible we will see a 4inch iPhone quite soon.  

Ming-Chi Kuo hasn’t stopped with his predictions there; he has gone on to the iPhone 7 but only made safe predictions for the next generation iPhone. He has said that Apple will upgrade to an A10 processer chip for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus as well as the Plus device getting 3GBs of RAM compared to the 2GB smaller device.

So we may be in for three new iPhones next year….