New Report/Rumor Shines Light on More Details of Larger iPhone 6 Models

[iPhone News]

One thing we can always count on is that rumors will abound regarding any exciting new consumer electronics product. This is especially true for Apple’s products, and doubly true for their iPhone line. That’s precisely what we have for you today. New intel from China reveals more details on the two rumored “larger” iPhone 6 […]

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[ardchoille]

I don't think we'll see larger screens this year. My statement is based on a recent WSJ interview with Tim Cook:

WSJ: People want a bigger screen iPhone. Are you against that?

Cook: What we’ve said is that until the technology is ready, we don’t want to cross that line. That doesn’t say we’ll never do it. We want to give our customers what’s right in all respects – not just the size but in the resolution, in the clarity, in the contrast, in the reliability. There are many different parameters to measure a display and we care about all those, because we know that’s the window to the software.

Let's break this down:

"What we’ve said is that until the technology is ready, we don’t want to cross that line."

I feel that sentence would have been much different if the tech was ready and Apple were planning on a larger screen this year.

"That doesn’t say we’ll never do it."

I feel that sentence wouldn't have been uttered at all if Apple were planning on a larger screen this year. That sentence is saying "don't give up hope, we will likely do this at some point".

"We want to give our customers what’s right in all respects – not just the size but in the resolution, in the clarity, in the contrast, in the reliability."

That sentence is telling me that "we're not quite ready for it yet".

And, finally, how long did it take for us to see the first instance of a larger screen while other manufacturers were already making them? The HTC Evo 4G launched on June of 2010 with a 4.3 inch screen. The iPhone 5 was the first instance of a larger iPhone screen and it wasn't released until September of 2012. I really don't think Apple is going to make another similar change this soon.

Concerning the rumors of a bezel-less screen rumors:

The mockups look great, but I don't think it's possible to have a completely bezel-less screen as seen in some of the mockups, I just don't think it's possible given our current state of display technology. I think the way we make displays needs to change before we can remove all of the space surrounding an LCD display. Even many of our current displays have a small black border with hardware providing support and protecting for the screen. If this were possible I think one of the major manufacturers would have done it by now, given that patent litigation is all the rage these days, if for no other reason than to patent the technology and use that as a weapon in their patent repertoire.

Concerning the mockups of sofware buttons on the sides of the device (the side of the device being an extension of the front screen):

I don't think this will ever happen due to the way we hold our devices. Even if the operating system were programmed to ignore long touches (the user holding the device, ala iPad mini), the user would have to shift their grip to the top and bottom of the phone for a touch on the side of the device to register as a button tap, and that is impractical.