Apple develops larger, curved iPhone 6 screens

(UPI) -- If you've ever been frustrated when your iPhone doesn't feel your touch, there might be a solution.

Apple leaked Monday the development of a new iPhone with larger, curved screens, more sensitive to touch. The phone is to be released in the second half of next year.

The shift in iPhone technology competes with the rising popularity of Samsung and Android smartphones. One analyst told Bloomberg the size of the iPhone's screen has to compete with Android's screens. Current iPhone screens range between 4.7 and 5.5 inches, and might grow to be closer to Samsung Galaxy's 5.7 inch screen.

But the screen size won't be the only thing changing. The new iPhone screens will also be curved and responsive to more types of pressure, as sensor and screen technologies develop.

This might be the shift away from the traditional LCD, liquid crystal display, toward organic light emitting diodide, or OLED, technology. A company producing OLED components nearly tripled revenues for the quarter, with its stock surging 25 percent.

OLED screens are thinner because they don't require a backlight, like LCD screens do. Samsung and LG have already been using OLED technologies, with Samsung "racing ahead." Meanwhile, Apple CEO Tim Cook has held off.

Earlier this year, Cook described OLED screens as "awful" with terrible color saturation. In 2010, Steve Jobs also denounced the resolution of OLED screens.

But LG, an Apple provider, has begun using the technology, so Apple has begun to embrace the technology as well.

But Apple still lags behind competitors. Samsung released a curved-screen Galaxy phone last month and has announced bendable and foldable smartphone screens in the 2014-2015 time frame.

This summer, one market research firm announced that Android sales were nearly 70 percent of the global market smartphone sales. But the same firm announced that Apple sales, with nearly 40 percent of all U.S. smartphone sales, would "spike."

Apple's most recent iPhone releases have seen higher sales for the 5s, a more advanced smartphone, than for the 5c, which had a lower price point. Production for the iPhone 5c has since been reduced.