Can Apple Inc. (AAPL) Afford to Wait On a Larger iPhone?

Published on March 2, 2013 at 1:29 pm by The Motley Fool in News

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The South Korean conglomerate was at risk of losing its title as the Phablet King when Huawei unveiled its 6.1-inch Ascend Mate, topping the 5.5-inch Galaxy Note 2. Fortunately, Samsung’s title is now safe, even as the Galaxy Note 8.0 brushes up on the edge of what the human body can do, to say nothing of how absurd it looks holding up an 8-inch tablet to your face to make phone calls.

Using the Galaxy Note 8.0 as a phone. Source: Android Central.

While I would never expect Apple to add phone capabilities to the iPad Mini (which is still slightly smaller than the Note 8.0), there is a growing addressable market for those wanting larger devices. If you look at sales data, though, there doesn’t seem to be any imminent threat, contrary to investor perception at this stage.

In the fourth quarter, the iPhone 4S outsold the Galaxy S III by 2 million units worldwide. The Galaxy S III is more of a mainstream device with its 4.8-inch display, and the device launched in Q2 2012. If you look at the figures for Q2 2012 through Q4 2012, the 3.5-inch smartphone still outsold the larger rival flagship.

Device	Display Size	Launched	Q2 2012-Q4 2012 Units Total
iPhone 4S	3.5-inch	October 2011	53 million
Galaxy S III	4.8-inch	May 2012	38.8 million

Source: Strategy Analytics.

The point is that while the sooner, the better for a larger iPhone launch, Apple still may be able to afford to wait until 2014 to deliver a higher-quality device since its current lineup is still meeting the needs of the broader mainstream market just fine.

The article Can Apple Afford to Wait On a Larger iPhone? originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Evan Niu.

Fool contributor Evan Niu, CFA, owns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool recommends Apple and Intel. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple, China Mobile, and Intel.