New iPhone or iPod to have 4.5 inch screen

The front side of an alleged 4.5-inch iOS device with the elongated home button is about to come.

One would assume case vendors would stop making oversized iPhone cases now that we have a pretty clear picture of the iPhone 4-like design of the iPhone 4S. Not Hard Candy Cases, a mobile accessories company which decided to ramp up manufacturing for a range of cases seemingly designed for a mystery iOS device with a 4.44-inch display. According to Cult of Mac editor Leander Kahney who profiled the company, they claimed to have “received identical data about the device from three sources”. Per their info, this device “is significantly bigger than the iPhone 4, but the case tapers, making it feel a lot thinner”.

The design also calls for a large, lozenge-shaped home button that they say could lend itself well to the new Assistant feature believed to stem from Apple’s acquisition of Siri, an artificial intelligence company. From the mouth of Hard Candy CEO Tim Hickman, the design also includes the teardrop-shaped form factor:

The mystery device is wider, taller and thinner than the iPhone 4. It has a tapered design which makes it feel very slim. It has a much larger screen than anyone is expecting — 4.44-inches diagonal. The Home button is lozenge-shaped. The mystery device is 4.83-inches tall, 2.63-inches wide, and .28-inches thick. It is thicker at the top than the bottom. Other external details are similar to the iPhone 4, except the Mute button has been moved to the other side.
Hickman believes it could represent a new iPod touch…

The back side of an alleged 4.5-inch iOS device is posted below.

The iPod touch essentially being an App Store gaming machine without the phone part, a bigger screen would equal to a more enjoyable gaming experience than the current 3.5-inch display. Of course, the most likely outcome is that Hard Candy Cases is looking for some free press at a cost of making 50,000 bogus cases or their sources could simply be wrong. After all, there are a million of cases out there of all shapes and sizes, all claiming to have been tailor-made to the design of Apple’s upcoming iPhone.