Apple is to release its newest iPhone in September, with higher resolution and bigger screens, a report said Friday, its latest salvo in the smartphone wars where it has lost global market share to rivals such as Samsung.

The new handset, expected to be called the iPhone 6, is to come in two versions with a 4.7- or 5.5-inch screen, both bigger than the current four-inch panel, the respected Nikkei business daily said, without citing sources.

Apple is ordering its higher-resolution liquid crystal display screens from Japanese electronics giant Sharp, Japan Display and South Korea's LG Display, it added.

Apple released the iPhone 5 in September 2012 and newer versions in the series last year.

A Japan-based spokesman for Apple could not be immediately reached for comment on the Nikkei report, which was widely picked up by a string of technology news websites.
The Nikkei story comes after Taiwan's Commercial Times said this month that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. had started producing chips for the next iPhone.