Apple’s iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are off to monumental sales, but some folks aren’t too keen to jump on the bigger iPhone train, complaining that the new iPhones are too bulky. If you’re one of them, you might be thinking of just buying yourself an iPhone 5s, but there’s a new rumor that might make you want to hold off on picking up a 5s for a bit.
It’s a bit early to be getting solid rumors on the next generation of Apple’s iPhone, but this newest one could have some truth to it. The sleuths over at AppleInsider have come across an investor note from Cowen and Company’s Timothy Arcuri, who’s nailed a couple of iPhone predictions in the past. According to Arcuri, next year will see Apple showing off three iPhones: the iPhone 6s, the iPhone 6s Plus, and the iPhone 6s mini.
Arcuri cites supply chain sources in saying that Apple will introduce a smaller iPhone model in the next year, and that model will supposedly bear the same design language as the current iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus , with curved screen edges. The differentiating factor: the iPhone 6s mini would reportedly be the size of the iPhone 5s, giving lovers of smaller-screened iPhones an updated device for their hands.
Reportedly, the iPhone 5s successor wouldn’t feature the same high-end processors seen in the larger versions of next year’s iPhone. Instead, Arcuri thinks that Apple will do something like what it does with its iPad mini, keeping the “mini” iPhone a generation behind its larger siblings in terms of processor power.
If Apple were to come out with a new iPhone 5s sized device next year, it wouldn’t actually be too much of a disruption to the company’s standard method of operation. Apple may well have kept the iPhone 5s around this year in order to clear out stock, with the intention of introducing a similarly-sized iPhone this year. There’s no telling until Apple CEO Tim Cook takes the stage to introduce next year’s models, or at least until more components start leaking out from Apple’s iPhone supply chain.
So if you’re in the market for an iPhone upgrade but don’t want the added bulk of the iPhone 6 Plus or iPhone 6, you might just want to hold off for a while. Apple may have something in the line of the iPhone 5s debuting in the near future.
[Lead image via ReCode.]