Apple Inc. iPhone 2014 Rumours: Curved Glass Screen and Enhanced Sensors
Apple Inc (AAPL:US) is rumoured to be designing two new iPhone models including bigger screens with curved glass and enhanced sensors, a source told Bloomberg.com.
The rumoured devices are set for launching in the second half of 2014, the source said. The curved glass screens will be designed with its curvature bended downward towards its edges. The enhanced sensors will allow users to navigate the apps through heavy or light tappings on the screen.
According to the unnamed source, the curved glass screens will be 4.7 inches to 5.5 inches and will be Apple Inc.'s largest generation of the iPhone to date.
The source told Bloomberg that Apple had no specific and completed plans yet about specs and features of these two new iPhones for 2014. But if plans are pushed through, these two iPhones will be Apple's answer to Samsung's Galaxy Note 3 which was launched in September and the Samsung Galaxy Round with a curved screen launched in October.
"Screen size is one of the things where Apple has to catch up to the Android camp. Innovation in components has been a key for Apple since the first iPhone came out," Dennis Chan, an analyst at Yuanta Financial Holding Co. in Taipei said.
Meantime, Natalie Kerris, a spokeswoman for Apple declined to comment. However, recent news surrounding Apple might imply that these rumoured curved glass screen and enhanced sensors might be actually underway.
Apple Inc. has a history of testing and developing new components and getting new suppliers to obtain new technologies when creating devices for future launching.
Apple had just announced its plan of opening a new plant in Arizona. The Arizona plant is aimed to exclusively make new components for Apple's future devices. Apple will pay in advance $578 million for furnaces for sapphire components said Merrimack, New Hampshire-based GT Advanced Technologies. Apple Inc. is willing to pay the amount to have an exclusive right to the sapphire components, Merrimack told Bloomberg.
Although the rumour about curved glass screen and enhanced sensors was only out for the first time through Bloomberg, industry analysts had been reporting about larger iPhone screen displays.
In October, Japanese magazine Mac Fan reported that Apple's next iPhone models may be designed to have a 1,920-by-1,080-pixel 5-inch display packing in 440 pixels per inch.
Brian White Cantor of Fitzgerald was also singing the same tune. "Our meeting with a tech supply chain vendor highlighted a bigger iPhone is in the works, and our contact expects a launch in the 2Q:14/3Q:14 time frame."