Apple's forthcoming sixth-generation iPhone, launching in Fall 2012, is expected to have a bigger and even sharper Retina Display, according to sources who have spoken with South Korean news media reporting on Thursday.
The Cupertino, California-based technology giant has apparently decided that its sixth-generation iPhone should have a bigger display than all five of its predecessors, which currently feature 3.5-inch panels with pixels resolutions at 480 x 320 (iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS) and 960 x 640 (iPhone 4, iPhone 4S), respectively. Some of the company's East Asia suppliers are now hinting that Apple's manufacturing teams have placed orders for 4.6-inch displays with LG and Samsung, claiming that the sixth-generation iPhone and iPod touch could very well feature pixel resolutions beyond Apple's conventional 960 x 640 iPhone Retina Display.
The sources are also sure to point out that Samsung currently uses 4.3-inch OLED displays for its flagship Galaxy S II smartphone (480 x 800 resolution), but the pixel-per-inch density is not as high as Apple's 960 x 640 Retina Display.
Nevertheless, if the company decides to upgrade its iPhone and iPod touch displays, we can't help but point out that iOS software engineers and millions of developers must now prepare to scale the operating system and applications for five (5) different resolutions - the first three iPhones and iPod touches (480 x 320), the Retina-based iPhones and iPod touch (960 x 640), the first two iPads (1024 x 768), the third-generation iPad (2048 x 1536) and the impending sixth-generation iPhone and iPod touch (purported 4.6-inch resolution unknown).