Apple testing larger screen sizes for iPhone, iPad

Apple has been known to not shake things up too much when it comes to its pre-existing devices. However, according to the Wall Street Journal, the company seems to be asking its hardware suppliers for different screen sizes. The Cupertino-based company’s Asian suppliers have stated that it has been asking for displays that are bigger than 4-inches. The company has also been asking for 13-inch displays.

For the sake of comparison, Apple just switched display sizes on its ever-popular iPhone last year with the iPhone 5’s 4-inch display. The company also launched the 7.9-inch iPad mini and the latest version of the 9.7-inch iPad late last year. Knowing Apple’s contempt for device fragmentation, it is unlikely that the iPhone 5S or 6 will have a bigger display. The company is known to routinely test different designs for its products during development, though.

Apple made quite a big deal about the iPhone 5’s bigger-than-previous-iPhones’ display

However, if Apple, by some miracle, does announce a new (bigger) display size for its mobile devices, it will undoubtedly be as a response to Samsung. The Korean company is the only real competition that Apple has in the smartphone and tablet space, and this can be attributed to the large number of products that Samsung launches for a wide variety of needs, ranging from lower-end devices with 3.5-inch displays to the gigantic 6.3-inch Galaxy Mega and the 10.1-inch Galaxy Tab.

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Apple is expected to unveil the next iPhone later this year alongside an inexpensive version of the iPhone with a plastic body instead of the iPhone 5’s premium-feel aluminium design. The new devices are expected to run on the recently-unveiled iOS 7.