According to an investor note issued by renowned Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo yesterday, Apple plans no less than five new iPhones for next year.
Four will all have OLED screens, and one will feature an LCD screen. In 2021 the company wants to release its first iPhone with no Lighting port.
Kuo predicts that next year Apple will launch a 6.7-inch OLED iPhone, two 6.1-inch models, plus a 5.4-inch version. Apart from screen sizes, the only difference between them will be camera technology.
Kuo says the top-end 6.7-inch model and the 6.1-inch models will feature time-of-flight 3-D sensing plus triple camera lenses. The cheaper 6.1-inch version and the 5.4-inch model will both come with dual rear cameras.
As far as the design of next year’s models is concerned, Kuo predicts they will look “similar to the iPhone 4”.
The analyst also agrees with earlier reports that a new 4.7-inch iPhone SE 2 will be released before June next year. This device will look very similar to the iPhone 8, and it will feature an LCD screen.
Kuo further predicts that in 2021 Apple will launch a successor to the iPhone SE 2, plus an iPhone without a Lighting charging port.
The latter will only offer wireless charging. It will, therefore not have a single port.
Kuo expects that Apple will start by removing the Lightning port from the top-end model, before later expanding this to the full iPhone range.
The successor to the iPhone SE 2 planned for 2021, which Kuo has dubbed the iPhone SE 2 Plus, for now, is likely to feature an all-screen layout with no Home button. This model, Kuo predicts, will come with either a 5.5-inch or a 6.1-inch screen.
He doesn’t expect the iPhone SE 2 Plus to offer Face ID authentication. Instead, he predicts that the power button on the side of the phone will feature an integrated Touch ID.