34% of Smartphones Sold Last Quarter Had Displays Larger Than 5-inches [STUDY]

The most common story we are hearing in these days is that Apple will be releasing two iPhones: one with a 4.7-inch display and another one with a larger 5.5 inch model. The move doesn’t really echo the company’s previous handset strategy, but it’s not hard to see why it would make sense.

When it comes to iPhone display, we’ve got a new report from a research website called Canalys which says that more than 34% of smartphones sold last quarter had a display larger than 5-inches and they accounted for more than 1/3 of all smartphones sold worldwide…

Here’s a breakdown of smartphone sales by display size:

Here’s an excerpt from Canalys’ report (via MacRumors):

This is still a market segment led by Samsung, but the trend is unmistakably toward larger-screen handsets at the high end of the market. […] Consumers now expect high-end devices to have large displays, and Apple’s absence in this market will clearly not last long. It is notable that 5″ and above displays featured on almost half (47%) of smart phones with an unlocked retail price of US$500 or more. Of the remaining 53% of high-end smart phones, 87% were iPhones. Apple plainly needs a larger-screen smart phone to remain competitive, and it will look to address this in the coming months.

Of course, Apple knows how popular smartphones with larger displays are right now. Internal slides from the company surfaced during the Samsung trial last month showing that they are aware of the trend, and looking for a way to respond to it.