WSJ: 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch iPhones coming, Apple tipped to produce 70 to 80 million units by year’s end

This story has been around the block a few times. A new report from the Wall Street Journal is citing Apple has requested its manufacturing partners to start producing larger sized smartphone displays, specifically 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch displays. “According to people familiar with the matter,” Apple is expecting them to produce between 70 million and 80 million units by the end of the year.

Until now, the iPhone has had a 3.5-inch or 4-inch display, but larger screens, mainly from Samsung, are what customers have been buying. Apple described the iPhone 5 and 5s to be “easy to use with one hand,” so it’ll interesting to see how they market a larger sized iPhone. The report indicated that both devices will use in-cell touch technology and employ a sapphire crystal display that will make the new iPhone not only thinner and lighter, but considerably more durable.

It’s also rumoured that Foxconn and Pegatron will start mass production of the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 in August, with a release in September, followed by the 5.5-inch iPhone, exclusively built by Foxconn, in October.

A year ago, the WSJ also suggested that Apple would be launching and testing two new iPhones, one of which had a 4.8-inch display.

Apple declined to comment on the report.