In the same churn of the rumor mill that says Apple is working on a smaller, “iPhone mini,” there’s also a report out there that suggests the company is planning on making its next smartphone a big bigger than previous ones.
The iPhone 4 has a 3.5-inch display, which is just fine for most phone things, but it’s looking a bit inadequate compared to the other smartphones du jour, like HTC’s Evo 4G and the newly announced Kyocera Echo.
As such, according to industry publication DigiTimes, says Apple is changing its game plan and ordering 4-inch displays for the next version of the iPhone.
The two concurrent rumors may suggest that Apple is actually planning on expanding its library – maybe there will be multiple versions of the next iPhone, other than just offering different hard drives.
The same report from DigiTimes, which is known for being extremely well in touch with manufacturers overseas, says the new iPhone will have an A5 chip, which would be a substantial upgrade from the previous line of iPhones.
The A5 is reported to be a multi-core chip, offering an exponentially greater set of performance tools for the device, and making it capable – in theory – of playing games that would rival the graphical fidelity of the PS3 or Xbox 360.
Of course, this is Apple we’re talking about. Everything is going to be tight-lipped for a while so it’s unknown how much of this stuff can be taken seriously.
But what we do know is Apple will need to start stepping up its game because even though the iPhone remains the top-selling phone in the US, it’s not really gaining market share at this point. Meanwhile, even though there’s no single Android phone that could easily topple the iPhone, the Android platform itself has leapfrogged iOS, the software that powers iPhones and iPads.
