Apple's upcoming iPhones will carry the same design as iPhone X

Apple is reportedly gearing up to introduce three new iPhones in 2018. While we have been hearing a lot about this in the past few weeks, one of the upcoming iPhone will be more popular than the others, a top analyst with Taiwanese business group KGI Securities has said.

According to Ming-Chi Kuo, the most famous analyst with KGI Securities when it comes to Apple, the Cupertino-headquartered giant will aim to sell 100 million units of "a 6.1-inch iPhone it's planning to release this year".

"The 6.1-inch LCD iPhone will apparently resemble the iPhone X with a similar full-screen design, but at a more accessible price for customers. The analyst expects this new iPhone to be priced to replace iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, as cheap as $699," 9to5Mac reported late on Wednesday.

"The replacement for iPhone X is believed to consist of a three-SKU 2018 iPhone lineup. A new iPhone X style device with improved internals, a larger 'iPhone X Plus' with a 6.5-inch OLED display and the 6.1-inch LCD model," the report added.

All three devices are expected to feature "Face ID" feature and lose the home button in favor of iPhone X's gestural navigation. The 6.1-inch iPhone device will not get a dual camera nor 3D Touch, according to a previous KGI report.

Interestingly, other features expected to come to the iPhones are Gigabit LTE connectivity and dual SIM standby. However, we are not sure if Apple will incorporate Intel's new modems that will facilitate with this functionality,

Meanwhile, Kuo also expects iPhone X to ship a total of 62 million units in its lifetime, adding the company will cease production of this particular model mid-year.
"We expect iPhone X will go to the end of life (EOL) around mid-2018 and that total life cycle shipments will be around 62 million units, lower than our previous forecast of 80 million units," the analyst had stated earlier.

"iPhone X would hurt product brand value and lineup of 2H18 new models if it continues to sell at a lower price after 2018 new models launch," Kuo added.

Apple iPhone X Specifications

He has also stated that the Cupertino-based giant will not sell iPhone X at a lower price as it will hurt its other products in the lower-priced premium segment. Kuo has estimated that Apple will ship about 18 million iPhone X units in the January-March quarter in 2018.

Inputs from IANS