Apple to begin production of a bigger 4-inch screen iPhone

16 May 2012

The iPhone 4S

Production on the new Apple iPhone is set to begin next month with a screen that is 4 inches diagonal compared with the 3.5-inch diagonal screen on existing models.

Such a screen size would result in an iPhone that would be similar in size to the existing HTC One X series, the Samsung Galaxy S II and the new Samsung Galaxy S III which comes with a massive 4.8-inch display.

The Wall Street Journal cited the news of the new larger display from suppliers in Asia who will begin manufacturing the new devices next month in time for a September launch.

Apple practically reinvented the smartphone genre with the iPhone in 2007. However, it faces stiff competition from Samsung and players like HTC whose phones feature larger screens.

Battle of the smartphone displays

Samsung recently passed out Nokia as the world’s No 1 phone brand. However, Apple is the company raking in the most revenue, Juniper Research says.

Having knocked Nokia off the top spot as the world’s biggest mobile phone vendor (a position the Finnish company held for 14 years), Samsung is now being established as the world’s leading smartphone manufacturer ahead of Apple.

The mobile analyst firm estimates that, together, Apple and Samsung accounted for nearly 60pc of the 139m smartphones shipped worldwide in the first quarter of 2012, but Samsung topped the iPhone manufacturer with 46.9m units to Apple’s 35.1m.

But the South Korean manufacturer still can’t beat Apple to the revenue top spot. Even as the hype surrounding the iPhone dies down, “Apple’s revenue from its mobile division continues to remain significantly higher than Samsung’s, even when you take into account the latter’s feature phones,” says research analyst Daniel Ashdown.

Apple’s iPhone revenue alone amounted to $22.7bn in Q1, compared to Samsung accruing about $17.0bn from its entire mobile division. This is no surprise, however, considering the range offered by Samsung includes more than just the flagship Galaxy SII, at a price comparable to the iPhone, but also lower-priced units, such as the Galaxy Y.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com