iPhone 5: LG starts production of new screens

Flat-screen maker LG Display has started mass production of a new and thinner display, widely speculated to be for use in Apple's next iPhone, and the display's production schedule remains in line with customers' product release plans, LG's chief executive said.

'We just began mass production and we don't expect any disruption in supplies,' Han Sang-beom, chief executive of LG Display, a panel supplier for Apple products, told reporters late on Wednesday.

His comments were embargoed until early Thursday morning. Apple is planning a major product launch on September 12, stoking speculation that the world's most valuable technology company will announce the sale of its redesigned iPhone.

Apple is equipping the next iPhone with a larger screen after Samsung Electronics unveiled its latest Galaxy smartphone with a 4.8-inch touch-screen.

Sources have told Reuters that the panels for the new iPhone will be 4 inches corner to corner -- 30 percent bigger than current iPhones.

The iPhone screens will also be thinner than previous versions with the use of so-called in-cell panels. The new technology embeds touch sensors into the liquid crystal display, eliminating the touchscreen layer found in current iPhones.

Japan's Sharp also said earlier this month it would start shipping screens destined for a new iPhone in August.