As Apple prepares for its Sept. 10 launch event, the tech company is already preparing the next big thing, six inches big to be exact.

The Wall Street Journal reported Apple is testing screen sizes that range from 4.8 inches to six inches. With a mysterious event date less than a week away, Apple likely will not release "phablet" (phone + tablet)-type smartphone this year.

Citing sources close to the matter, the Journal said the fact that the Cupertino, Calif. tech giant is testing larger screens is a sign of an intensifying rivalry with Samsung. The North Korean tech company, and world leader in smartphone sales, just unveiled its latest phablet, a term they coined with the Galaxy Note line.

The Galaxy Note 3 is 5.7 inches and is called a phablet because its size makes it much larger than a typical smartphone, but it still has cell phone capabilities. If Apple is in fact seriously considering making a phablet-sized iPhone, it will be conforming a little more toward Samsung's business model.

Under Steve Jobs, Apple would release one iPhone per year with the same screen size, a slightly tweaked body and various mechanical updates. Since Samsung overtook the smartphone market with a variety of shapes, sizes, prices and models, all with different capabilities, Apple has begun to follow suit.

On Sept. 10, it is widely assumed Apple will unveil its next iPhone, except there will likely be two this time. Reports have swirled over the past few months and various photos have leaked and many speculate Apple will unveil a high-end iPhone and a cheaper plastic one.

The high-end phone, iPhone 5S, as it will presumably be called, also may come in a third color to go along with black and white: champagne-gold. The iPhone 5C, the supposed name of the cheaper version, will also have a color assortment of red, blue, yellow, green, similar to the iPod line.

Nothing is confirmed as of yet, but if the reports do nothing else, they show Apple is willing to replicate its biggest competitors, something its competitors used to do to Apple.