The Wall Street Journal kicked off speculation of a smaller iPhone over the weekend. Now Digi Times reports that Apple
The Taiwanese tech tracker is hearing from iPhone component suppliers that claim Apple is considering going with a 4-inch screen when its next iPhone hits the market in a few months.
This may not seem like a major uptick. It's just half an inch measured diagonally from the size of the first four generations of iPhones. However, it will help Apple compete with the wave of Android smartphones that are coming out with touchscreens of 4 inches or slightly larger.
And, yes, it also places Steve Jobs that much closer to eating his words for deeming the wave of 5-inch smartphones and 7-inch tablets as unpopular tweeners.
It's not the only iPhone 5 chatter coming out of Taiwan.
The tw.apple.pro website is reporting that Apple is considering several iPhone 5 prototypes including one with a slide-out keyboard. Before you dismiss this as cyberspace dribble, Apple Insider points out that the same website has broken many Apple rumors that turned out to be true.
A slide-out keyboard would be interesting. One of the iPhone knocks over the years has been the lack of a physical keyboard. It's been a mainstay for Research In Motion's
Roll up all of the chatter and if even one of the nuggets proves correct, we'll be talking about the iPhone's first major form-factor upgrade.
Instead of the one-size-fits-all iPhone where storage capacity and color are the only variables, Apple may finally be spinning the flavor wheel. In a few months we may have the diminutive iPhone nano going mass market, a 4-inch model that will make it more efficient in streaming and browsing websites, and a model with a slide-out keyboard for active writers and texting addicts.
Suddenly that 5-inch Streak that Dell
What would you like to see in the iPhone 5? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.
