Apple Will Launch A 4.8-Inch Display Model Along With iPhone 5S?

We are well accustomed at this stage with Apple’s reputation of not actually revealing or getting into detail when it comes to its future product pipeline, which has therefore triggered the perfect context for a series of rumors to be born and for the media to take shots at what the new products Apple shall bring to the market actually are.

As rumors around this whole topic have started to spread more and more and practically start having a life of their own, we present you with a report The China Times has got through Brightwire (the global investment news service). Of course that they could not stay away from such a topic and therefore have launched the idea that the company is actually preparing to release no less than  3 separate iPhone models in this year, which sounds very prolific, doesn’t it? What would these 3 iPhone models be, we all wonder. Well, they state that the first one that Apple would launch is actually the successor of the so famous iPhone 5 – which would now be called the iPhone 5S. Getting on, the second iPhone in question would be one equipped with a 4.8-inch display, whereas a 12-megapixel camera would be the novelty representing the third model of iPhone that is allegedly to be launched by the company this year. So we are all pretty much baffled at the actual possibility of Apple coming up with three different iPhone models in 2013 and I guess we all have to wait and see what the company has in store for us next and salute its decision, when it comes to that.

Let’s take the 4.8-inch iPhone for a more insightful analysis, as I am sure you all are a bit curious about this. What does the report say about this model? Well first of all they claim that this device would automatically become a strong competitor in the arena of the phablet devices, so Apple is supposedly opening a window for having a soldier themselves to fight against the rival phablets. If you have not yet heard of phablets (which can’t quite be the case as they have pretty much been in the public eye recently), then let me update you a little in this area: the term of phablet is generally attributed to any phone that has a screen larger than 5 inches (on the diagonal). So you can’t actually place them in the phone category, because they are much larger, but they don’t even meet the criteria to be a tablet, as they are smaller than them. So they are somewhere in the middle, but they wouldn’t be my first choice, first of all because their size is so weird that it makes it difficult for you to use them as a phone and the experience in this sense isn’t that convenient at all. However, that does not mean that they don’t have their fans, and a huge number of them for that fact. So it seems that there are quite a few people who don’t mind using this device as a phone, as awkward as it may sound – and this has brought a lot of publicity and also popularity among consumers in the last months. Starting from this brief background and speaking of the phablets’ popularity, it actually seems that it has been predicted that no less than 60 million phablets are to be shipped in 2013, which is a huge number if we think about it. It is a big number especially if you make the comparison between the 60 million prediction for 2013 and the actual number for 2012, and when you discover the 136% growth in numbers, then well you get my point. And the predictions do not stop in 2013, and this year shall not be marked as the ending of the phablet era. Apparently different analysts have thought this through, and the specialists at IHS iSuppli for instance made a very interesting prediction: they say that the demand for the phable devices will be even more crazy and that they expect a double digit growth all the way through 2016. We will live and see, right?

But apparently rumors on a bigger phone that Apple was supposed to launch have been encountered in the past as well, when rumors claimed that the company was in the working process on such a device. We have therefore as example in this sense the statements a Japanese blog has brought out – claiming that an iPhone with a 5-inch Retina Display iPhone would be released by Apple in 2013.

Largan Precision is mentioned in the report as the company responsible of building the lenses in the 8-megapixel camera that comes along with the  4.8-inch screen comprised in the new and bigger iPhone rumored to be launched in 2013. Not only is Largan Precision supposed to be the supplier of the lenses for the alleged iPhone 5S, but the Chinese company is also responsible for the camera lenses for the 4.8-inch display iPhone. Or so they say. Moreover, the numbers the company has been contracted to supply are not low, and apparently come up to a supply of 8 million cameras. That’s something!

March is presented by the report as the timeframe of the shipment of components for the iPhone 5S and the 4.8-inch iPhone, as it is then when this process shall start. So it will indeed be before the late-April production. When it comes to the actual release and launch of the before mentioned devices, then the story is different. China Times mentions in this stage a June launching of both the iPhone 5S and the 4.8-inch iPhone, whereas when it comes to the third potential iPhone model, they place its launch prior to the holiday season, which would be very convenient, right.

But the three different models of iPhone will also have another “brother”, and this is actually the already so rumored TV set. This particular report mentions that the TV set is supposedly to be launched also before the end of the year. We are really looking forward to that.

I for sure wouldn’t necessarily take this report for granted, but I must admit it definitely triggers my curiosity big time, and whether a bigger screen iPhone shall or shall not actually be released by the company will surely be a surprise, but the chances are not that high. Although anything is possible at the end of the day.