While we could be a few months away from the iPhone 5 release, the rumour mill has been gaining pace with possible new features that the handset may bring. The upcoming smartphones screen size has been up for debate, and today according to the WSJ the next iPhone will boast a thinner display.

The Wall Street Journal is claiming that the iPhone 5 will sport a thinner display that will result in the whole handset being slimmer than previous models of the handset. It is being claimed that a new company called Japan Display has teamed up with LG and Sharp to develop a new screen technology for the next version of the iPhone.

This new ‘in-cell’ technology doesn’t separate the touch sensors from the LCD itself, which then makes the display thinner. Instead the sensors are integrated into the LCD that makes it unnecessary to have a separate touch screen layer, which is usually about half a millimetre thick.

Besides making the display thinner it also improves the quality of the images displayed on the screen according to DisplaySearch analyst Hiroshi Hayase. This dropping of the extra layer is thought will make getting the supply chain ready for production of the iPhone 5 easier, and could also bring costs down for Apple as the company will no longer have to purchase panels and LCD panels from different suppliers.

Another analyst from DisplaySearch, David Hsieh, originally claimed that Apple would move into in-cell touchscreen technology for the iPhone 5 last April. There are also claims that Wintek that supply Apple components for the Retina Display LCD found on the iPhone 4S, seems to be left out of supplying components for the iPhone 5.

This news comes after we told you earlier that carriers in the European region are stock piling nano-SIMs in readiness for the iPhone 5 when it is released. Do you like the idea of a thinner iPhone?