Sharp to begin shipping displays for the next iPhone this month

Following its rather downbeat quarterly earnings disclosed earlier today, Sharp had one bit of bright news for its near future: the company is about to start shipping out a new iPhone display this month. President Takashi Okuda is quoted by Reuters as delivering the information, which fits neatly into the roadmap that has been built up by the last few weeks of speculation. Sharp, along with LG Display and Japan Display, had already been identified as a likely manufacturer for the next-gen iPhone’s display, and the August timing of shipments coincides reasonably well with what we’ve heard from our own sources about a September 12th launch date for Apple’s next flagship phone.

Multiple reports and leaks point to this new display being a 4-inch panel, which will fit into a form factor that looks very much like a vertically stretched iPhone 4 / 4S. The Wall Street Journal has heard from its sources that in-cell technology will also be used to make the display as thin as possible, although that information is not as thoroughly corroborated as everything else we’ve heard about it so far.