All eyes are currently on the brand-new Apple launch event, which should see the last products that are going to be released this year. While the iPhone 6 isn't going to be among the list of products, by seeing the iPad Air and iPad Mini with Retina Display we'll get a better idea of what Apple's been working on for its iOS devices.
Combined with the information we have from the recently launched iPhone 5s andiOS 7, we should get a better idea of what Apple is planning for its next smartphone, the iPhone 6.
Of everything that we know now, the biggest bit of information is than the iPhone 6 is going to have a larger screen that the iPhone 5S. Although sales of the iPhone are high, the Android competition has all moved to large-screen Full HD models, with the HTC One, Sony Xperia Z and Samsung Galaxy S4, so it makes sense for Apple to compete on screen size.
In this article we're rounding up all of the iPhone 6 rumours. We'll give you all the current information on the release date, price and specs, filtering the information to help work out which rumours sound most likely.
iPHONE 6 RELEASE DATE
Guessing Apple's release dates is a complete and utter nightmare, with practically every prediction wrong. It's clear, given that the iPhone 5S was only released in September, that we're not going to see the iPhone 6 until 2014 now.
Apple usually has products on sale for a year, but the iPhone 6 feels like a different proposition to us. Rather than a replacement for an existing iPhone, it's more of an addition to the line-up. We kind of see it replication what Samsung has with the full-size Galaxy S4 and the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini, with the exception that Apple's small phone, the 5S, is still really powerful.
Tim Cook has hinted at new products coming soon autumn launch in a call with investors. "Our teams are hard at work on some amazing new hardware, software, and services that we can’t wait to introduce this fall and throughout 2014," Cook said. As we know now, the products Cook was talking about are being released on the 22nd October and include the iPad 5 and iPad Mini 2.
That would seem to be it for 2013, so we're going to have to wait until 2014 for the iPhone 6. However, relatively speaking, it seems fair that we can expect the handset soon, particularly as Apple's Canadian arm has apparently already leaked the iPhone 6. If we had to be pushed on a date, we'd say that early next year, between March and May would make sense. This would give Apple enough distance from the iPhone 5S, and give it a chance to take the limelight away from Samsung, which will be looking to release its Galaxy S5 handset around the same time.
iPHONE 6 NAME
One of the biggest questions is, will the iPhone 6 even be called that? We were all caught out when Apple decided not to go with iPad 5 for its new tablet, choosing to go with the iPad Air instead. There's every good reason why Apple might follow a similar strategy with its new iPhone, perhaps even going for iPhone Air.
The reasons for changing the naming strategy will probably depend on when the next iPhone is launched. If, as expected, it's launched early next year, that would mean that the iPhone 6 would only be released around six months after the iPhone 5S. For people that have bought the iPhone 5S, the new model with a higher iteration would immediately look like the newer and better phone; however, it would seem that Apple's plans for the iPhone 6 are to bring out a model with a larger screen that sits alongside, not in front of, the iPhone 5S.
With this rational, it's easy to see Apple deciding to call the new line something like iPhone Air, so that the existing iPhone line with its smaller screen can continue.
With this rational, it's easy to see Apple deciding to call the new line something like iPhone Air, so that the existing iPhone line with its smaller screen can continue.
iPHONE 6 SCREEN
It seems pretty clear at this point that the iPhone 6 is going to have a larger screen than any iPhone released to date. The question that has to be answered is, how big will the screen be? Early rumours suggested that there would be a 4.8in screen, but more recent rumours have suggested that the iPhone 6 could have a 5in screen.
According to Japanese tech publication MacFun, the 5in screen will have a Full HD resolution of 1,920x1,080. From a certain point of view this makes a lot of sense, as there are already a lot of Full HD phones out there. However, we think that the resolution could be wrong, mostly because of the way that Apple works.
Apple has always been very careful in its resolution choices, so that apps look right on all of its devices. So, when Apple first went Retina with the quadrupled the resolution of the iPhone 3GS from 480x320 to the iPhone 4's 960x640. Quadrupling means that the horizontal and vertical resolutions are doubled, which makes scaling of old apps easy. When the company went widescreen, it kept the same horizontal resolution of 640 pixels, so old apps would run properly, but just with black bars at the top and bottom of the screen.
Moving to 1,920x1,080 would mean scaling up the current iPhone's resolution of 1,136x640 by 1.69 times vertically and 1.69 times horizontally. That's not such a clean method of scaling and there could be some issues with getting apps to work properly. As a result, Apple may decide to go for more resolution than it technically needs for a Retina display, quadrupling the current iPhone's resolution to 2,272x1,280 instead.
While Apple has not previously made a large-screen phone, upping the screen size for the iPhone 6 makes a lot of sense. It means it can compete with the large-screen phones from other manufacturers and keep the iPhone 5S as a smaller alternative, giving iPhone users more choice. The latest rumours have suggestedlarger, curved screens in both 4.7 and 5.5in sizes, which would compete with the current crop of Android smartphones and larger phablet handsets.
Tim Cook has said, "Some customers value large screen size, others value other factors such as resolution, colour quality, white balance, brightness, reflectivity, screen longevity, power consumption, portability, compatibility with apps and many things. Our competitors had made some significant trade-offs in many of these areas in order to ship a larger display. We would not ship a larger display iPhone while these trade-offs exist."
What that statement says, to us, is that Apple won't ship a large-screen iPhone until it's managed to iron out all of the trade-offs. A thinner screen, to make a lighter phone, could well be the right way to go, then.
It's no wonder, then, that Apple may also be considering the screen technology that it uses, with a Sharp IGZO (Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide) screen top of the list. This new technology allows for screens that use less power and are considerably thinner. Rumours certainly picked up when the Sharp IGZO technology was demonstrated at CES 2013.
Curved glass is also a possibility. Although it's unlikely Apple would ever opt for something as radical as Samsung's Galaxy Round or the LG G Flex, glass that curves around the edges of an otherwise flat handset would give the iPhone 6 a pebble-like feel that wouldn't dig into your hands like the angular lines of the current generation iPhone. iPhone 11 will be release in november 2019 accourding to rumoured news.
