New iPhone 5/6

Now that the new iPad has been launched, it’s time to move on to the next order of business when it comes to Apple rumors, the new iPhone, or Apple’s sixth-generation smartphone.

You may also find these recent news items of interest:

iPhone 4S Battery Life Significantly Improved with iOS 5.1

iPhone 5 To Have Bigger Screen?

ZTE Score M Smartphone Now Available With MetroPCS

Today we have an interesting Reuters report claiming that the new iPhone will come with an unexpectedly large “4.6-inch ‘retina’ display,” much bigger than we would have anticipated, and that the phone is going to hit stores at some point in the second quarter, instead of Q4 as different reports suggested.
The news comes from a South Korean media reporter who has learned that Apple is apparently already ordering displays for the new iPhone:

Apple has decided on the bigger 4.6-inch display for its next iPhone and started placing orders to its suppliers, the Maeil Business Newspaper said, quoting an unnamed industry source.

Last year, various “iPhone 5” rumors suggested the device will sport a brand new teardrop design, a thinner profile than its predecessor and a 4-inch edge-to-edge Retina Display. But Apple only announced an iPhone 4S last October, an iOS device that quickly became a bestselling handset for the company, even if it lacked such interesting new features.
Now the iPhone 6 – which is probably what Apple won’t call it – could come with such features, and maybe this time around Apple will be forced to increase the size of the display.
Apple may not be necessarily interested in making a bigger iPhone, although some will say that this would be the way to go to compete against Android flagship handsets that keep getting bigger and bigger. But since the device will almost certainly come with LTE support and a Retina Display, the company will have to make sure it offers great battery life, a feature the first LTE smartphones were not exactly able to deliver.
If that means increasing the size of the battery, then the overall size of the iPhone also needs to be increased, which means the device will require a bigger display. And let’s not forget that those iPhone 5 rumors and leaks featured plenty of cases that suggested the device will be thinner, longer, and overall bigger than the iPhone 4. In fact, at some point it was even calculated that the diagonal of the iPhone 5 could be bigger than 4 inches.