The iPhone…in Color?

Topeka Capital analyst Brian White has said the next iPhone upgrade may come as early as the middle of this year, with Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) going polychromatic with its bestselling smartphone.

White wrote in a note to investors on Wednesday that his checks within the industry had suggested that Apple was likely to offer multiple colors and screen sizes for the “iPhone 5s”, which will make an earlier-than-expected debut in the May-June timeframe. The phone will possibly come in eight new colors: pink, yellow, blue, green, purple, silver, red, and slate. In addition, all colors will have multiple screen-size options.

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As White points out, Apple has never offered multiple screen sizes for a single iPhone model. However, “[w]e believe this is about to change with the next iPhone offering different screen sizes that we believe will allow Apple to better bifurcate the market and expand its reach,” the analyst wrote, according to Barron’s. “This eventually opens up the possibility for a lower-priced iPhone (i.e., iPhone mini) with a smaller screen size that could allow Apple to further penetrate markets such as China and open up opportunities in India.”

This would also help Apple unveil a screen size larger than the recently updated four-inch screen on the iPhone 5 and come closer to those offered by the smartphones of its Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android rivals. White added that the color options may also eventually come to the iPad.

The availability of new colors in the iPod touch lineup was Apple’s “testing ground” for doing the same for other mobile devices, which will become “even more popular” with this change, White added. The analyst reiterated a Buy rating on Apple shares along with his highly bullish price target of $1,111.

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