According to reports, Apple Inc plans to use a larger screen on the next-generation iPhone and has begun to place orders for the new displays from suppliers in South Korea and Japan.

The new iPhone screens will measure 4 inches from corner to corner, that would represent a roughly 30 percent increase in viewing area, assuming Apple kept other dimensions proportional. Apple has used a 3.5-inch screen since introducing the iPhone in year 2007.

Early production of the new screens has begun at three suppliers: Korea's LG Display Co Ltd, Sharp Corp and Japan Display Inc, a Japanese government-brokered merger combining the screen production of three companies.

It is likely all three of the screen suppliers will get production orders from Apple, which could begin as soon as in June. That would allow the new iPhone to go into production as soon as August.

Apple's decision to equip the next iPhone with a larger screen represents part of a competitive response to Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.

Samsung unveiled its top-of-the line Galaxy smart-phone with a 4.8-inch touch-screen and a faster processor earlier this month.

Samsung, which became the world's largest cell phone maker this year, sold 45 million smart-phones in the first quarter, and sales of the Galaxy phones outstripped the iPhone..

A report in March by a South Korea business newspaper said Apple would use a "retina" display on the next iPhone, the same technology in its latest iPad that enhance image quality.