UPDATED 22:03 EDT / FEBRUARY 26 2018

APPS

Report: Apple to release three new iPhones this year, including a giant 6.5″ model

Apple Inc. is set to release three new iPhone models this year, including the largest one ever, according to a report published Monday.

Bloomberg reported that “Apple wants to appeal to the growing number of consumers who crave the multitasking attributes of … phablets while also catering to those looking for a more affordable version of the iPhone X.”

The so-called “largest iPhone ever” is said to be a 6.5-inch “iPhone X Plus,” with the same physical footprint size as iPhone 8 Plus. Like the first iPhone X, it won’t include a home button and will have an edge-to-edge display, sans bezels.

The report claimed that the phone will be offered in a dual-SIM version, meaning that it will be likely aimed at the Asian market. Also, surprisingly for Apple, it may mimic most of the features of the iPhone X in a more “affordable” way.

Gene Munster, a co-founder of Loup Ventures and a longtime Apple watcher, was quoted as saying that “when you have a measurable upgrade in screen size, people go to update their phone in droves. We saw that with the iPhone 6, and we think this is setting up to be a similar step-up in growth.”

Although that sounds reasonable, the iPhone X itself has struggled, particularly in China, once Apple’s great hope for increasing sales. A report in January claimed that Apple was looking to cease iPhone X production midyear because of lackluster sales blamed on Chinese buyers’ dislike of the notch, the location of the front-facing camera on the iPhone X that breaks into its screen. A report later the same month claimed that Apple was planning to cut its production target of the iPhone X in half to 20 million units for a three-month period, also because of lackluster sales but in the U.S. and Europe as well as China.

If the latest report is accurate, the iPhone X Plus will compete directly with Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.’s Note 8, which comes in at 6.3 inches, only slightly bigger than the 6.2-inch Galaxy S9 announced at the Mobile World Conference Sunday.

Whether big is better is not clear when it comes to iPhones, but the theory has worked for Samsung. Despite Apple’s best efforts, the Korean giant remains the largest manufacturer of smartphones in the world, ahead of controversial Chinese manufacturer Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. in second place, with Apple sitting at third.

Photo: NELK/YouTube

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