“Apple Inc., which is expected to launch its next-generation iPhone later this year, has ordered screens from its Asian suppliers that are bigger than the ones used in iPhones since they debuted in 2007, people familiar with the situation said,” Lorraine Luk and Juro Osawa report for The Wall Street Journal. “Production is set to begin next month for the screens, which measure at least 4 inches diagonally compared with 3.5 inches on the iPhone 4S, the latest phone from Apple, the people said.”
“Until now, Apple has never changed the size of the iPhone’s screen, which has always been 3.5 inches from the first model that debuted in 2007,” Luk and Osawa report. “For the next iPhone, which analysts predict will come out in the fall, Apple is working with multiple screen makers including South Korea’s LG Display Co., Japan’s Sharp Corp. and Japan Display Inc., a new company created last month by three Japanese companies and the government, some of the people said.”
Luk and Osawa report, “‘The smartphone market has become diverse, but the iPhone still sets the agenda,’ with the whole industry watching Apple’s every move, Mizuho Investors Securities analyst Nobuo Kurahashi said. He said that the iPhone’s strength lies in the overall experience including its user interface and applications, and the screen’s size wouldn’t be its defining feature.”
Read more in the full article here.
Rumors, rumors, rumors. How else would analysts and bloggers live?
Probably at most 4″. There are two constraints, one it has to remain a “retina” display; and two, it has to have the same pixel size in order to keep screen fragmentation low. I haven’t run the numbers, but it’s likely that anything larger than 4″ with the same number of pixels would drop below “retina” display levels.
I think the size increase will be driven by the need for a larger battery which will itself be driven by the inclusion of LTE. I won’t mind a 4″ display myself I find the physical size of the interface widgets a bit too small to target in some apps. A slightly larger screen would also give more room for multitouch gestures.
It has to fit inside my pocket. I don’t care if the screen is larger if they keep the same overall dimensions, but if it’s as honking’ huge as these Moto-HTC-Samsung leviathan’s, I don’t want to carry it.
Agreed
Yes, and it is totally possible to to make 4″ 1132×640 16:9 screen without increasing any dimension of the iPhone. Home button would have to be squeezed, though. Additional screen space could be reserved for video/photo viewing, browsing, status information, et cetera.
My iPhone’s size is large enough, thank you very much.
Yeah, I believe Apple is going to fragment their market with an oddball sized screen. NOT
WSJ is usually on the money with the rumors so I starting to really believe the 4 inches screen rumor. A lil more screen real estate for viewing web pages and playing games isn’t bad. I have big hand it’s nice to have more room too…I never heard people complain that 4 inches is too big.
Great next thing about the iPhone 5 is : apples iPhone 5 will now run androids operating system. Why not its pretty much an android with that 4 inch screen!!! 🙁 well ill get a 4s
Suit yourself, loser.
In other news Steve Jobs and Albert Einstein are busy working in Area 51 on the most advanced phone ever-‘The Genius Phone!’ The GeniusPhone is capable of taking the user to any space-time simply by using finger gestures to locate the precise location on the map and entering date and time wanted. The GeniusPhone comes with a 3.5′ screen of idea dimensions. 🙂