Apple's new bigger and rounder iPhone screens could come as soon as its next iPhone 6 Model United Press International reported Monday.
"Screen size is one of the things where Apple has to catch up to the Android camp," Dennis Chan, an analyst at Yuanta Financial Holding Co. in Taipei, Taiwan told Bloomberg. "Innovation in components has been a key for Apple since the first iPhone came out."
It was previously thought Apple would only make the phone with a bigger and indestructible sapphire screen, and wait to create new phones with more circular edges, but it seems directions have changed.
The iPhone 6, due out in the second fiscal quarter of 2014 is expected to have a 4.8 inch display, 0.8 larger than its current iPhone 5 models. These include the 5C, and 5S, and are selling well Know Your Mobile reported.
There is a lot of buzz about the device because it is anticipated to be the first iPhone with a screen the size of an android.
"We think the 85 million iPhones eligible for an upgrade when the iPhone 6 launches (we think Apple is targeting Sep 2014) could be boosted by another 5-10 million from people who skipped the 5S/5C cycle," analyst Peter Misek of Jefferies told Know Your Mobile.
The iPhone 6 screen is also expected to be plant manufactured from the industrial or gem-like material created from artificial crystal, at a cost more than the glass on phone's made today CNET reported. "Sapphire is much more expensive than Gorilla Glass, heavier, and has other shortcomings; however, it is widely viewed as more difficult to scratch," Brian White, an analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald told PC Magazine.
GT Advanced Technologies recently announced plans to build a manufacturing plant in Mesa, Ariz. that will produce a minimum 700 jobs in its first year of existence, and 1,300 construction jobs, along with others.
According to PC Magazine, Apple is giving GT Advanced Technologies a $578 million pre-payment, which GT will then reimburse the company for throughout a five year period beginning in 2015.
