Larger iPhone 6 to Have 5.5-Inch WQHD Display, Curved Design

iPhone 6 5.5 Display JDI

Japan Display Inc. (JDI) may have just spilled the beans, as it showed off what might be the larger iPhone 6′s 5.5-inch display, while other recent concepts attest to the phone’s curved design.

Days after the world learned that Apple’s iPhone 6 might come in two sizes (5.5 and 4.7-inch respectively), JDI announced that its new 5.5″ WQHD display with a 1,440 x 2,560p resolution will be used in “leading-edge smartphones.” Since JDI has acted like Apple’s supplier of displays, chances are that the newly announced one will be among iPhone 6′s major selling points.

Paul Semenza, a senior VP at NPD DisplaySearch, stated the following, after learning about JDI’s announcement: “Typically apple wants ‘first dibs’ on the new part, so it’s a little surprising that JDI is announcing this now… We don’t expect to see the iPhone 6 until second half 2014.”

Semenza also talked about the rumored smaller iPhone 6: “There is also a possibility of another spec – a 4.7-inch 1,600 x 900 [display]. As always, Apple runs parallel development programs, to test out which is the best approach or just to try to confuse the rest of the world.”

The world is definitely confused about the directions Apple is going with iPhone 6, especially since the diagram that popped on a Chinese website (pictured below) suggests that the smartphone will come with a 5.9-inch display. With such a size, Apple almost dives into phablet territory, something quite hard to believe, given that the iPhone 5S has a 4-inch display with a sub-HD resolution.

Regardless of the size of the new iPhone 6, I’m curious whether Apple will really adopt a resolution that makes sense, such as the WQHD. Mac displays have had this resolution for a few years now, so maybe it’s time for the iPhone to make the jump, as well.

I wonder if Apple is planning to sell differently sized iPhones as two versions of the same expensive product or if the smaller one will come in a plasticky case, much like the iPhone 5C did. Given how much the 5C ended up costing in some European countries (about as much as a Samsung Galaxy S5 or HTC One M8), I think Apple should definitely stick making what they call “premium smartphones,” with a metal case and all that.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about iPhone 6′s large curved screen and new touch sensors, and the new chip featured by the iPhone 6 and the next iPad.

NPD study finds average display sizes continuing to rise in all areas but laptops and tablets

NPD study finds average display sizes continuing to rise in all areas but laptops and tablets

Not exactly a huge surprise here, but a new study out from NPD DisplaySearch today has confirmed that the trend towards larger screens in continuing at a steady pace in all but a few key areas. The big exception is "mobile PCs," which NPD defines as laptops and tablets for its purposes. That area dropped from a 13.6-inch average in 2010 to 12.1-inch in 2012 (with an ever so slight increase to 12.2-inches projected for 2013), a drop that represents a ten percent decrease overall and is largely attributed to the growth of tablets . All other areas have seen small to significant growth in recent years, with LCD TVs growing 9 percent, mobile phones increasing 38 percent, and portable media players jumping 29 percent. The biggest growth, by far, comes in OLED TVs, which have gone from a mere 15-inch average in 2010 to an average of 55-inches today -- a growth of 267 percent.

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NPD study finds average display sizes continuing to rise in all areas but laptops and tablets originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Oct 2012 15:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NPD: Apple, Samsung control 55 percent of the smartphone market, prepaid sales up 91 percent

NPD

According to NPD DisplaySearch, Apple and Samsung control more than half of the American smartphone market. The second-quarter figures reveal that while contract phone sales are flatter than month-old soda, those for pre-paid handsets have shot up by 91 percent compared to the same quarter last year. The upswing is credited to last year's flagship handsets falling down the price ladder, snaring lower-income customers who were unable to afford to be early adopters. Cornering that element of the market has helped the battling duo increase their sales by 43 percent, leaving the rest of the technology pantheon scraping around for crumbs. Speaking of which, HTC is a distant third, having 15 percent of the market, while Motorola (12 percent) and LG (six percent) round out the top five.

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NPD: Apple, Samsung control 55 percent of the smartphone market, prepaid sales up 91 percent originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Aug 2012 15:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NPD Q1 2012: Apple still king of the mobile computing hill thanks to iPad

NPD Q1 2012: Apple still king of the mobile computing hill thanks to iPad

NPD DisplaySearch is declaring Apple to be the undisputed champion of the mobile PC business for the first quarter of the year. The fruity phone flinger shipped (shipped, not sold) 17.2 million mobile PCs in the time, a figure that contentiously includes the iPad. Second place was taken by HP, which packed off 8.9 million units -- enough to put it at the top of the Laptop-only chart.

It's a familiar story over on the tablets leader-board, too. Cupertino pushed out 13.6 million iPads to maintain first place, while Samsung took the silver medal after packing off 1.6 million of its numerous Galaxy slates. Surprisingly, Amazon only needed to ship 900,000 Kindle Fires to take third, although given that the bookseller never discloses its numbers, we have to take that last number with a dash of disbelief.

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NPD Q1 2012: Apple still king of the mobile computing hill thanks to iPad originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 May 2012 17:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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