Credit Where Credit Is Due: Ming-Chi Kuo Nailed It

Sometimes claim chowder comes out tasting good. KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo absolutely nailed both new iPhones all the way back in April:

In line with previous rumors, Kuo believes the new 4.7-inch model will come with a 1334 × 750 Retina display at 326 pixels per inch, while the 5.5-inch will see a 1920 × 1080 screen at 401 PPI. Both devices will have the same aspect ratio to the iPhone 5, meaning apps will not need to be redesigned for the second time in three years.

The iPhone 6 will include a new A8 processor, 1GB of RAM, Touch ID, a narrower bezel by 10 to 20 percent, and the phone to be thinned to 6.5-7.0mm (the current iPhone 5 is 7.6mm thick). He also expects Apple to finally include NFC chips in its smart phones.

So far as I can tell, Kuo was the first person anywhere to say 1334 × 750 for the 4.7-inch display, and the pixel math worked out perfectly. I disregarded his 1920 × 1080 dimensions for the 5.5-inch display because the math shows that such a display doesn’t even come close to working out at either @2× or @3×. What I failed to even consider is what Apple actually did: a 2208 × 1242 virtual display size that is scaled on-the-fly to 1920 × 1080. As I wrote in my review of the new iPhones, though it sounds like a recipe for blurriness, in practice, the pixels on the 6 Plus are so small that everything looks perfect. I haven’t seen any complaints from iPhone 6 Plus owners in the wild, either.

Kuo’s last-minute predictions were pretty close to the mark too, although he thought perhaps Apple would delay the release of the 6 Plus because of its supply constraints.

★ Wednesday, 24 September 2014