A supply chain visit by Brian White of Cantor Fitzgerlad in China and Taiwan saw indications that Apple's 5-inch screen iPhone is underway for 2014.

"Given today's meeting, we are confident that a larger iPhone (approximately five inches) will become a reality in 2014," White told AppleInsider.

White had echoed observation by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities in September about Apple coming up with larger screen display of 4.5 to 5 inches by 2014. Kuo noted however that the rumoured 5 inch screen will be the largest size for Apple's future iPhone models as Apple upholds its "unwavering principle of one-hand use."

Apple had already increased its current iPhone 5 models to 4-inch screen from 3.5 inches and Apple's CEO Tim Cook hinted back in August that the company will no longer make models bigger than the 4 inches.

Cook said that those competitors creating large screen size smartphones were sacrificing important factors such as the color, reproduction, power consumption, longevity and a multitude of other factors.

However, he also said that the company is willing to welcome the idea under one condition.

"We would not ship a larger display iPhone while these trade-offs exist," Cook said during the conference call back in April.

Interestingly, as the "phablets", were in demand - with Samsung Galaxy Note III (5.7 inch display) and Galaxy Mega (6.3-inch display) ahead of the game - the Apple 4-inch iPhones are still ahead of the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One mini models in terms of sales.

In as much as Samsung pioneered the launch of these mini models, sales of Samsung had been weak as compared to iPhone sales of its 4-inch screen models, DIGITIMES reported.

Analysts said that the poor sales of these mini models resulted from different midrange smartphones available from no other than Samsung itself.

As for the HTC One mini, an insider source revealed that the company was compelled to slash the price of the HTC One mini in Taiwan just within two months after its launch in the region.

As Galaxy S4 mini and HTC One mini performed weak in the market, Sony Mobile was quick to change the direction of its marketing strategy for its upcoming Xperia Z1 f release by year-end of 2013.