Apple tipped to launch four iPhones in 2018, and keep the iPhone X on sale

It's a busy weekend for iPhone rumors, with Asian media outlets reporting several whisperings around Apple's plans for 2018. We could see as many as four new iPhones appear this year, and it now seems likely that the iPhone X will stay on sale too.

Previous reports had suggested Apple was planning to cancel production of the iPhone X once its successors were on the market, but that's not the case according to a report from The Investor. It says the current top-tier phone is going to stay as the smallest and presumably the cheapest of the full-sized iPhones.

The same report says new 5.85-inch and 6.46-inch iPhones are in the works, with OLED screens sourced from a increased number of suppliers. That's all based on "sources" from the supply chain speaking to The Investor, so take it with a pinch of salt for now.

Choose your model

Meanwhile an analyst at DigiTimes weighs in to say four iPhones are in development, three of which will see the light of day: a 5.7 to 5.8-inch LCD model, a 6.0 to 6.1-inch LCD model, and a 6.4 to 6.5-inch OLED model. Obviously everyone can't be right.

That two-LCD and one-OLED approach would match what Apple did last year with the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X. Another model with a 6.0 to 6.1-inch screen is also on the drawing board but is eventually going to be scrapped, DigiTimes says.

The report also claims that a new iPhone SE 2 is going to beat all of these full-sized iPhones to the market, arriving sometime in the spring. It will apparently include a glass back for wireless charging, but not the 3D sensing tech required for Face ID.