The "iPhone Mini" rumors have been in the air for years now, and now that the rumor has been inactive, there are some people who are bringing it up again. One of them is KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who believes that Apple may be able to come up with that 4" phone.
He predicts the following specifications for the 4 inches "iPhone Mini": a metal casing (since the 5c failed to outsell the 5s); Apple A9 chipset (so it can handle iOS 9 or the next updates); and the absence of 3D Touch technology (so as to differentiate the bigger and more expensive iPhones).
Kuo thinks that the company will entrust the manufacturing to Foxconn sometime within next year's first and second quarter. It was also mentioned that Apple will differentiate their "iPhone 7" variety of sizes by giving the "iPhone 7 Plus" more RAM.
But then again, this is what the analyst thinks as Apple's next best move. But whether the company will really take this step that Kuo deems to be a genius one, it remains unknown. Looking at all the rival options like Android, there really isn't any flagship phone with a 4 inches size, even Sony's "Z Compact" is at the 4.6 inch size.
More "iPhone 7" rumors
Apart from a rather small "iPhone 7" variant, rumor has it that the next iPhone will be powered by Intel chips. It was said that a deal was made and thousands of Intel employees may actually be already working on the chips that will power the next generation(s) of iPhone. Opinions have already surfaced regarding how the two companies' partnership may turn out. Most people agree that Apple's interest is mostly focused on Intel's LTE modems. The said LTE modem is the 7360 LTE modem chip that was said to be showing up in new devices by 2016. So the most probable scenario is that the "iPhone 7" will come with this Intel LTE modem and maybe another chip for other markets.