TOPEKA: Apple Is Going To Release The iPhone 5S In ‘At Least’ Two Screen Sizes (AAPL)

The early rumors on this year’s iPhone have been pretty dull.

For the most part, all we’ve heard is that Apple is working on an iPhone 5S which will be just like the iPhone 5, except with a bump in performance.

It will be the same pattern we’ve seen from Apple. The iPhone 3G led to the iPhone 3GS. The iPhone 4 was the predecessor to the iPhone 4S. And this year, the iPhone 5S will follow the iPhone 5.

However, today, Brian White at Topeka Capital is injecting some life into the iPhone rumor mill. He says Apple could release a new iPhone with multiple screen sizes this year.

“After our meeting with a tech-supply chain company, we walked away with the view that Apple will release the iPhone 5S in at least two screen sizes this summer and possibly three,” says White. He’s on the seventh day of a tour of technology suppliers in China and Taiwan.

Apple has been criticized for not making the iPhone’s screen bigger. It made it taller last year, expanding the screen to 4-inches, up from 3.5-inches, but it’s not enough. Compared to Samsung and HTC which make phones with 5-inch, and 4.7-inch screens, the iPhone feels pretty tiny.

For some people, that’s great. For other people, it would be nice to have a big iPhone.

“Essentially, we believe Apple is coming around to the fact that one size per iPhone release does not work for everyone and offering consumers an option has the potential to expand the Company’s market share,” writes White.

Apple’s policy of only releasing one iPhone size at a time doesn’t really make sense. It has two iPad sizes. It makes MacBooks in three different sizes. Doing the same with the iPhone wouldn’t go against its DNA.

There is a risk of fragmentation for developers, but we assume Apple is smart enough to figure out how to deal with that.

All that said, we’re skeptical about this report because it’s the first we’ve heard, and it’s fairly light on specific details. We’ll see if anyone else follows this report, or if there are any other leaks from the supply chain.