Report: 'iPhone 5' To Sport A Thinner Screen

According to a report Tuesday from The Wall Street Journal, people familiar with the matter said both Sharp and Japan Display, a joint venture comprised of three Japanese tech companies, already are ramping up production of LCD displays for the new iPhone's screen. They also said these displays are based on in-cell, a new design process in which the screen's touch sensors are embedded directly within the LCD, eliminating the need for a separate touch-screen layer.

The result is a much thinner screen and one that boasts higher-quality graphics than non-in-cell displays, the report said. It's unclear whether the extra iPhone real estate gained throughout the process means the new device as a whole will be slimmer, or if it will just offer more room for batteries and other components inside.

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The use of in-cell technology also means Apple would no longer need to purchase iPhone touch panels and LCD displays from separate vendors, allowing the Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant to cut costs and shorten its supply chain. The Journal's sources also noted, however, that displays based on in-cell are more difficult and time-consuming to produce than traditional displays, meaning LCD manufacturers may have trouble churning them out fast enough to meet demand.

The design of Apple's upcoming iPhone, presumably called the iPhone 5, has been widely speculated for months, starting with reports of it having a larger, 4-inch screen size compared to the 3.5-inch screens included in earlier iterations. The new gadget is also believed to come in a Unibody case, similar to those used for Apple's MacBook Pro and MacBook Air lines of notebooks, and incorporate Liquidmetal technology.

The next iPhone is also largely believed to run the latest version of Apple's mobile software, iOS 6, which is set to deliver a slew of new features, including turn-by-turn GPS navigation and a setting called "Do Not Disturb" that users can activate to receive messages silently and without the screen lighting up.

iOS 6 will also come with an advanced version of Siri, the personal voice-activated assistant that debuted with the iPhone 4S, which, through tighter integration with websites such as OpenTable, Rotten Tomatoes and Yelp, will be able to provide more detailed responses to inquiries related to restaurants, movies and sports.

PUBLISHED JULY 18, 2012