Nokia is reportedly looking to produce smartphones with 6-inch displays or larger, according to industry sources.
The Finnish smartphone manufacturer is looking to cash in on the supersized smartphone action already offered by Samsung and Huawei.
According to industry sources speaking to Taiwanese site Digitimes, Nokia is supposedly in discussions to make larger handsets and release them over the next 12-months.
The Nokia Lumia 920 is currently the biggest screensize offered by the company, which has a 4.5-inch IPS display.
The company could potentially benefit from such a large-screen device, especially as it has yet to produce any kind of tablet.
Nokia has filed a tablet-orientated patents in America, but hasn’t brought any to market yet. Nokia’s design chief Marko Ahtisaari said he spends a third of his time developing tablets, but no further plans have been officially announced.
The company could be opting to make a large screen smartphone instead of a tablet, if the sources are correct.
So called “phablet” devices are becoming more prevalent on the smartphone market, especially with the availability of the LG Optimus G Pro, ZTE Grand Memo, Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 and Galaxy Note 2.
However, the fairly dubious DigiTimes sources also say that Huawei is considering producing a 6.5-inch smartphone that will out-screen even its 6.1-inch monster, the Huawei Ascend Mate.
The sources added that due to Nokia and Huawei’s discussions, other handset manufacturers are “likely to follow” suit and produce their own 6-inch phones, but fail to mention any brand names.
Market observers say the lines between tablets and smartphones will become blurred, as handsets with larger screen sizes will be able to compete with 7-inch tablets like the iPad mini or Google Nexus 7.
Next, read our iPad mini vs Google Nexus 7 review.
