4½", 5" screen iPhones expected in second half of year, smaller one further along in development, to feature metal casing, plastic casing scrapped
Apple iPhones to Come Out With Bigger Screens — Facing competition from rivals offering smartphones with bigger screens …
Context & Ripple Effects
This report extends an arc the Journal itself has been tracking since at least May 2012, when it first reported Apple moving toward larger iPhone screens; by September 2013 the company was said to be testing panels as big as six inches, and Bloomberg reported last November that 4.7- and 5.5-inch models were in development for a late-2014 release.
First-order effects
- The rumored second-half lineup — with the 4.5-inch model described as further along than the 5-inch one, and plastic casing dropped in favor of metal — would put Apple's two flagship sizes directly against the large-display Android flagships from Samsung and other rivals that forced the rethink.
- Component suppliers geared toward the current screen size face a retooling cycle, while case-makers and accessory vendors building around existing iPhone dimensions see their addressable product line reset mid-year.
Second-order effects
- If both sizes ship together, Apple's supply chain must qualify two new form factors at once, raising the stakes on yields and giving display makers leverage in pricing negotiations ahead of the holiday build.
- Rivals that staked their differentiation on screen size lose that edge at the top of the market, pushing competition toward what sits on the screen rather than its diagonal.
Third-order effects
- A confirmed shift would mark the end of the small-screen orthodoxy Steve Jobs defended — Apple conceding that hardware dimensions follow market demand rather than lead it, a pattern that tends to recur whenever platform owners chase rivals' categories.
- Larger screens also raise the value of the software layer above them — one-handed modes, split views, and app redesigns — shifting developer effort toward layouts optimized for big displays across the whole ecosystem.
The trend: Smartphone design is consolidating around large displays as table stakes, with even Apple — the last holdout on screen size — aligning its flagship lineup with where rivals already are.