There's One Very Good Reason The Next iPhone Might Be Bigger AND Cheaper
Lots of people think Apple has to make a bigger iPhone, to compete with Samsung's Galaxy Note and Galaxy SIII, which have big screens and have sold millions of units.
So that's two phones everyone thinks Apple is going to make.
But what if it's actually just one?
Splat-F's Dan Frommer speculates:
The cost-size curve isn’t straight in computer hardware, because miniaturization is also a cost factor.
- There is a point where making a MacBook bigger costs more, and a point where making an iPad smaller costs less. The 15-inch MacBook Pro costs more than the 13-inch, and the iPad mini costs less than the big iPad.
- But there is also a point where making an iPhone smaller costs more — in component efficiency, battery life, R&D, different materials, etc. That’s one reason why the iPhone 5 costs (very roughly) about the same to build as an iPad mini, which is much larger.
You might assume that a bigger iPhone would be a more powerful one; that the iPhone+ (or whatever it’s called) would be an “iPhone Pro” of sorts. Maybe so. But maybe it’s also cheaper than a smaller iPhone, because weight, size, and efficiency aren’t the primary design goals. For example, the battery could be bigger. Or maybe it could contain older, cheaper, more-plentiful, less-efficient components.