“Apple Inc. and its Asian suppliers are testing larger screens for iPhones and tablets, officials at the company’s suppliers say,” Lorraine Luk reports for The Wall Street Journal. “In recent months, Apple has asked for prototype smartphone screens larger than 4 inches and has also asked for screen designs for a new tablet device measuring slightly less than 13 inches diagonally, they said.”
“The current iPhone 5 has a four-inch screen, while the iPad has a 9.7-inch screen,” Luk reports. “Whether the designs will make their way to market is unclear. The Cupertino, Calif., company routinely tests different designs for its products as it refines them during development. The company also changed its offerings of the iPhone and iPod last year to include larger screens, while adding a variant of the iPad with a smaller display.”
Luk reports, “The new tests come as Apple and its suppliers are also preparing to ramp up production of a new iPad later this month, according to officials at component suppliers. The new version is expected to be the same size and have the same resolution as the existing 9.7-inch model, but with a lighter and thinner display structure, they said… Suppliers have also started mass producing components for the new iPhone last month, said officials at the suppliers… At the same time, Apple has also been working with its manufacturing partners in Asia on a less expensive iPhone that will likely use nonmetal casing, to differentiate itself from the aluminum casing of high-end iPhone 5.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: MaxiPad™.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]