Jeffries Describe A Four Inch Non-Retina Display For The "Cheap iPhone"
On the topic of that cheaper iPhone, Misek says that the device “looks close to being greenlit or may already have been” and offers some “likely specs” in order to help bring Apple’s costs down:
“Similar to the iPad mini, we expect a concentrated low-cost iPhone rather than a “cheap” one. Likely specs: polycarbonite case with 4” non-Retina display and no LTE. We believe a new low-cost iPhone would increase Apple’s share, decrease [gross margins], but have little impact on [earnings per share].”
If you take non-Retina at four inches to mean half the iPhone 5’s resolution, that is 568x320. That’s a PPI of 162; the same pixel density as the iPhone 3GS (a device that is four years old).
When I first read Jeffries report, I thought it was ludicrous to say that Apple would sell such a low density screen nowadays. However, I then remembered that Apple released the iPad mini in October, a device that, conveniently, has a display with exactly 162 pixels per inch. So now it doesn’t seem so crazy.